Reception 2024 - 2025

Welcome to Reception.   Our Autumn Term topic is 'All About Me' and  we have lots of lovely learning activities planned for you.  See our topic web in the 'Files to Download' section at the bottom of this page.

We know that the first few weeks at school can be a bit of a scary time for you and your grown-ups!  If you have any worries then please come and talk to us - mornings at the door can be a bit busy but we have more time at the end of the day and you can always e-mail the office if you would like a phone call or a meeting.

Parents / Carers - We have started to put a few bits on Tapestry for you to see.  If your child attended Rode Heath Pre-School your existing logins are still valid.  Please check you can still access Tapestry and let us know if you have any problems.

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 - From Monday 9th September your child will bring home one 'Phonics' picture  book each week.  Once we have covered our first group of sounds s a t p i n m d they 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 have P.E. on Thursdays this 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, starting on 13th September.  Please ensure it is completed and returned by the following Wednesday, when we will collect in the home learning books. We do not send any home learning to be completed over the holidays.

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 16th September 2024

Phonics:

We are learning the Phase 2 graphemes (letters) t and p this week, focusing on the phonemes (sounds) as well as recognising and forming the letters correctly.

We will also learn our first tricky word I.  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 2 Tricky Words - I  no  go  to  the  into

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:

We are focusing on writing our names and the letters we have learned in Phonics

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 focusing on matching, sorting and comparing objects and pictures.

   Personal, Social & Emotional Development:

Our focus for this week is identifying different feelings and the words that describe them.

   Understanding the World

This week we are exploring our different families and discussing who lives at home with us.

  Physical Development:

We will be focusing on developing our skills to run safely whilst remining balanced

    Expressive Arts & Design:

We will continue to work on mark-making with different media, junk modelling and, in music, body sounds.

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