Reception 2024 - 2025

Welcome back!  We hope you have all had a wonderful Easter break and are ready and raring to go for our last term together in Reception.  Our topic for this term is 'All Aboard' and we have lots of lovely books and exciting activities planned for you.  Our Summer term topic web (in the Files to Download section) will give you more information about our learning.  

Welcome aboard and let's set sail on our new adventure!

Mrs Adams, Mrs Barnett & the Reception Team.

Routines, Reminders & Messages

Book Bag and Reading Diary - Your child will be given their book bag and reading folder on their first day.  The folder contains their reading diary and, from Week 2, their 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 bring home two books per week 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 all of 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 them in class. Books are changed on Mondays - we have very limited supplies of books 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 lovely books for you to share with your child at home, they are not expected to read these for themselves but are wonderful as a bedtime story or snuggling 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 to be chosen by another child.

P.E. - We continue to have P.E. on Thursdays for the Spring term. Children should come to school in their PE kits (House t-shirts, school or plain black/navy tracksuits and pumps or velcro trainers.

Home Learning will be sent home every Friday.  Please ensure it is completed and returned by the following Wednesday, when we will collect in the home learning books. 

Tapestry - we use this to share highlights of your child's learning.  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. As always, please let us know if you have any problems.

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: Monday 21st April 2025

Phonics:

This week we will learn the new Phase 3 graphemes ure and er.  We will focus on linking the phoneme (sound) to the grapheme, forming letters correctly and blending/segmenting skills. 

We will also recap our Phase 3 tricky words.  Tricky words are words that cannot be sounded out and blended - we just have to learn what they look like!

Phase 2 Graphemes - s  a  t  p  i  n  m  d  g  o  c  k  ck  e  u  r  h  b  f  l  ff  ll  ss

Phase 3 Graphemes - j  v  w  x  y  z  zz  qu  ch  sh  th  ng  ai  ee  igh  oa  oo  ar  or  ur  ow  oi  ear  air  ure  er

Phase 2 Tricky Words - I  no  go  to  the  into

Phase 3 Tricky Words - he  she  we  me  be  was  my  you  they  all  are  her

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.

Literacy:

This week we will be using a starter to write simple sentences and planning our own sentences about our Easter Holidays.

We will also continue to focus on writing our names and the graphemes we have learned in Phonics.  We are blending sounds we have learned to read simple words, captions and sentences. 

This term we are focusing on beginning to write short sentences with greater independence.  We are learning to start with a capital letter, put a finger space between each word and finish with a full stop.

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:

This week we are exploring 3-D shapes.  We will be naming them, identifying their properties and finding 2D shapes within them

   Personal, Social & Emotional Development:

This week we are learning to understand we all have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways

   Understanding the World

We will be learning about Spring and observing seasonal change in our school environment.  We will also explore why Spring is associated with new life.  In Computing we will begin to learn about data handling through loose parts play

  Physical Development:

This week we will be working with our PE coaches to begin to learn some cricket skills.

    Expressive Arts & Design:

We will be using our designs to help us sew a leaf themed bookmark this week

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