New to School

Welcome to Reception.

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In our Reception unit, our aim is for all children to become independent, motivated and resilient learners. We strive for every child to be a confident learner who loves and enjoys learning new things. We do this by building in our values of excellence, ambition, kindness and courage which are underpinned by our three school rules of Ready to learn, Respect and Responsibility.

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Curriculum

We follow the Early Years curriculum which is play based learning and is a mixture of child-initiated and adult-led experiences. There are 7 different areas in the Early Years curriculum. There are three prime areas which are:

• Personal, social and emotional development - making good relationship, managing emotions and following school rules

• Communication and language - increasing vocabulary and communicating with peers and adults

• Physical development - develop fine and gross motor skills

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Once these areas are becoming embedded we move onto the specific areas:

• Literacy - reading, writing and comprehension

• Mathematics - use of number and embedding number sense for reasoning

• Understanding the world - learning about people, communities and the wider world

• Expressive arts and design - expressing themselves creatively through role-play, art and construction

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Characteristics of effective learning.

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Alongside the early years curriculum, we support children’s development through the characteristics of effective learning. They are:

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Playing and exploring where we support the children to “have a go”, using the environment and resources to discover more about the world around them.

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Active learning where children are motivated to become independent learners, building up resilience to keep going even when they face a challenge.

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Creating and thinking critically where we provide opportunities for children to be problem solvers and enabling them to make links in their learning to support them in their play and exploration.

Our Environment

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At Paston Ridings, our resourceful environment has a connecting outside area which offers plenty of opportunities for children to explore and learn in all areas of learning whilst prompting exciting, stimulating and enriching experiences for all children.

​Learning

Shared Daily Activities

• Phonics

• Maths

• Literacy and curriculum sessions relating to our whole school ‘big question’.

 

Importance of fostering a love of reading

Every child deserves success right from the start. We know that the sooner children learn to read, the greater their success at school. This is why we put reading at the heart of what we do.

We teach reading through:

• Little Wandle – daily phonics lessons

• Reading Practice sessions 3 times a week

• Sharing texts in all areas of learning

At home you can…

• Practise letter sounds

• Share a book together

• Encourage children to make predictions, look at pictures and talk about what they see, hear and read

Observations and assessment

• Baseline is carried out in September

• Tapestry online learning journal documents the week’s learning and knowledge

• EYFS profile at the end of the year

• Children’s learning journals which include all their achievements

Tapestry is an online journal recording all the learning and fun of children’s early years education. To access your child’s learning journey please click the below link:

 

Parent/school Relationship

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We strongly believe that parents have an invaluable contribution towards their own child’s learning. We like to develop and foster good relationships with our parents to ensure that children achieve their very best and reach their full potential. We value parents’ views and understand that they are ultimately their child’s first educators. We welcome parents openly into our unit and encourage participation throughout the year.

 

How can you support your child?

• Home-school agreement

• Reading with your child through using our platform ‘Learning with Parents’

• Completing homework

• Accessing and contributing to Tapestry at home

• Attending parent meeting and appointments

• Attending parent workshops e.g. weekly ‘early morning reading’ session where parents are invited to come and share a story with their children in the classroom.

 

What do I need to remember to bring in?

 

Every day
Remember to put your child’s reading books into their book bag, ensuring there has been a comment left on their online reading journal via ‘Reading with Parents’.

Water bottles.

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Clothing provided for all weathers (sun hat, scream - summer; Hat, gloves, coat - Winter)

PE kit- We have PE twice a week. Please ensure every item of your child’s clothing is labelled with their name.