Reception 2026 - 2027

Welcome to Reception! We are reslly looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday 2nd September to begin our learning adventure together.  Doors open at 8.45am and we will collect you from the Key Stage 1 playground.  We finish at 3.15pm and will let you out from the Pre-School door.  Our first few weeks are spent getting to know each other and our classroom, getting to grips with daily routines and finding our way around school.  We will then start on our first topic of the year 'All About Me' and the topic web will be available in the Files to Download section at the bootom of this page. Our Reception Class page is updated every week, so please check in regularly to keep up to date with messages, news and information about our learning.

We know the first few weeks can be a bit daunting (for grown-ups too!). Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any quesries, concerns or worries - we want your child to be happy,settled and have a fantastic year in Reception and we are really keen to work with you to make sure that happens.  

Routines, Reminders & Messages

Book Bag and Reading Diary - Your child will be given a book bag and reading folder on their first day.  The folder contains their reading diary and phonics reading books.  Please look through the diary and complete the permissions pages as soon as possible (we can't put any lovely photos on our webpage until we have your consent).  

Please record in the diary each time you read with your child.  We will make a note of when we have read in school too.  You can use the diary to pass notes to us but please remember that they are not checked daily.  If your message is urgent or very important then please telephone or email the school office instead.

Phonics Reading Books - Your child will initially bring home one  book per week, Our first books have no words to build confidence in talking and discussing what is happening in the pictures.  Later on this half term we will send home two books, that match the sounds learned in phonics lessons. It is important for the children to re-read the books - at least 3 times at home - to help them become more fluent, begin to recognise words and to feel successful as a reader. We encourage the children to read once to sound out and blend the words, a second time to remember and begin to read a little more confidently and a third time to help their understanding of the book and be able to talk about it. 

Please ensure all books and the reading diary are kept in your child's folder in their book bag and brought in to school every day, as we also read these books in class. Books are changed on Mondays - we have very limited supplies so please ensure they are in school and availiable to be passed on to the next child.

'Reading for Pleasure' books -  Your child will choose a Reading for Pleasure book during their first week.  These are books for you to share with your child at home. Your child is not expected to read these for themselves but they are wonderful as a bedtime story or snuggled up on the sofa to read together. These books are also changed on Mondays and again we have a limited supply, so would appreciate your support in ensuring they are returned on time to be available for another child.

P.E. -  Our PE day for this term will be finalised during our first week and will be posted here. Children should come to school in their PE kits (House t-shirts, school or plain black/navy shorts or tracksuit) and velcro pumps or trainers - no laces please!

Home Learning is sent home on Fridays from Week 2.  This will be a mixture of activities in Home Learning books, online or via Tapestry. Please ensure it is completed and,books are returned by the following Wednesday, when we collect them in. 

Tapestry - we use this to share highlights of your child's learning, send messages and set some home learning tasks.  If your child attended our Pre-School then your existing login details are still valid.  If you are new to Rode Heath then you should have received an email with instructions on how to get started (check your junk folder if you don't receive an email). As always, please let us know if you have any problems.

School Spider - Please ensure that you have downloaded the School Spider App. We use this for communicating general school messages and information such as head bumps and changes to arrangements for clubs.

Ensuring that our children are happy, safe and secure in school is very important to us.  We follow our Hearts and Minds curriculum to ensure children's personal, social and emotional development is central to our practice.  More information about our Hearts and Minds curriculum and the weekly Hearts and Mind planning can be found using this link: Hearts and Minds. 

To find year group expectations for Maths, please click here, scroll down and click on the overview. 

For year group expectations for English, please click here, scroll down and click on the overview. 

The expectations for Science and the Foundation subjects can be found by selecting the relevant heading from here.

Our Learning Journey: Wednesday 2nd September 2026 

There is no home learning this week. Enjoy your new reading books at home - maybe you can post a picture on Tapestry for us.

Phonics

This week we are settling in and will be working with the children to find out what they already know, ready to start our Phase 2 phonics learning next week.

Pure Sounds - We teach the children to use 'pure' sounds (the sounds that letters make in words)  Click on the pictures below to hear the 'pure' sounds for Phase 2 and Phase 3 phonics.

Phase 2 Graphemes - 

Phase 2 Tricky Words - 

Literacy:

This week we will be focusing on writing our names for our big display, holding our pencils effectively and forming the letters correctly.

Letter Formation - We work very hard on developing a good pencil grip and forming our letters correctly in Reception. This is important because it reduces strain on the hand muscles and prepares children for joining letters and writing at greater length in Years 1 and 2. The pictures below show the correct formation for each letter and the rhymes we use to support the children to recall them.

  Maths:

   Personal, Social & Emotional Development:

   Understanding the World

  Physical Development:

We will be focusing on exploring our new environment and outdoor equipment this week.

    Expressive Arts & Design:

This week we will be creating our first self-portraits for our class display.

Engineering:

Don't forget to visit our Think Like an Engineer website regularly to see what we're all busy doing: 

https://thinklikeanengineerproject.com

Our door is always open, please contact us for help at any time. 

At busy times, please telephone to leave a message or email and we will respond as soon as we can.

If you are worried about how to keep your child safe online, please follow the following link:.

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/keeping-your-under-five-safe-online