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Welcome to Reception

In our class we strive to establish an Early Years environment which provides for all its pupils, a happy and secure environment in which to learn and be cared for. It is a place where every child is recognised as an individual and is helped to understand that they have great value for being themselves!

The Early Years curriculum

In our classroom we consider ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning’ which promote positive attitudes to learning, an enthusiasm for knowledge and the confidence to become successful learners. 
Characteristics of Effective Learning

  • Playing and Exploring
  • Active Learning
  • Creating and Thinking Critically
Children will explore, discover and investigate using a range of open ended resources, following their own interests and accessing adult led learning time. We believe that children learn best when they are engaged in real, hand on, exciting experiences. 

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is how the Government and Early Years professional describe the time in your child’s life between birth and 5 years. EYFS follows its own curriculum divided into seven areas. These areas are made up of prime areas and specific areas. Each area of learning has a set of related expectations for typical development through the Early Years.

The prime areas are:

  • Personal, social and emotional development (self-regulation;managing self; building relationships)
  • Communication and language (listening, attention and understanding; speaking)
  • Physical development (gross motor skills;fine motor skills)

The specific areas are:

  • Literacy (comprehension; word reading; writing)
  • Mathematics (number; numerical patterns)
  • Understanding the world (past and present;people, culture and communities; the natural world)
  • Expressive arts and design (creating with materials;being imaginative and creative)

Here are some useful links to explain more…
What to expect in the Early Years
Development Matters
Statutory Framework

Our Learning

Hey Ewe!

The children worked really hard and were a fantastic choir in this year's Nativity. Here is a video of them performing their favourite song!

Hanukah

As part of our learning around celebrations the children in Reception learnt how to play the game ‘Dreidal’ when they were learning about the Jewish festival of Hanukah. To play the game the children were each given 10 counters. Each player takes it in turn to spin the driedal, winning or losing counters. The winner is the player who wins all the tokens. The children also enjoyed creating Menorah's using different media.

Owl Babies

The children really enjoyed exploring the story 'Owl Babies' It is about three owlets that wake up one night to find their mother gone, worry about her absence, but are then are so happy when she inevitably returns from her night flight. The children created fantastic representations of an owl using a dabbing technique with paint. They also added a beak, wings and legs using orange card.

Circles and Triangles

In Reception have been learning that circles have one curved side and triangles have 3 straight sides. We have been looking for these in everyday objects in the classroom and around school. We even made our own using objects we found.
Are the sides straight or curved?
Can you see another shape like this?
How many can you count?

Diwali

In Reception we have really enjoyed learning about Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. As a class we acted out the story of 'Rama and Sita' and enjoyed being actors. We learnt that Diya lamps were a really important part of the festival and we made our very own out of salt dough and with different media. We also thought about Mendhi and Rangoli patterns and created our own using sequins and glitter.

Pattern

The children have been copying, creating and making their own simple repeating patterns. We have explored patterns in a range of contexts including shapes, colours, sizes, actions and sounds.

We Are All Artists

In Reception we have been learning about the artist Kandinsky. We looked at some of his famous pieces of Art and discussed the colours, patterns, shapes and lines. As a class we thought carefully about how some of the paintings made us feel using vocabulary such as calm, worried and excited. We discovered that we could all see different things in his artwork and that this type of Art doesn’t have to be perfect, so it was great for us to have a go at! Our main focus was on Kandinsky’s piece called 'Squares with Concentric Circles' We practised at first on paper with different drawing tools and then moved onto circle plates with paint. Finally we created our own masterpieces by creating closed circles with continuous lines on different sized pieces of squared paper. We thought about the colours we used, the size of circles but most importantly we enjoyed being Artists.

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