Welcome to Reception

The Reception Team

RB             RC

                               Miss Brunt            Mrs Carby - Monday to Thursday

                                       Miss Burton - Friday 

The teaching assistants will swap between both classes each half term.

Mrs Alizadeh        Ms Brennan

General Reminders

Water Bottles, Wellies, Book Bags and PE kits
Please could you ensure that your child brings a named water bottle to school every day.

We also ask that you bring in a pair of wellies, which will be kept in school, from your child's first week so they can access our outdoor learning environment. 

To help your child carry important letters and shared/guided reading books, they need to bring a St Peter's school book bag to school each day and not a backpack. We have limited space in our cloakrooms but each child has a designated tray for their book bag.

PE lessons kits must be kept in school on your child's peg. 

Important Dates:
Please note dates may change so keep a check on this webpage. 

Tuesday 29th April - Return to school

Monday 5th May - Bank  Holiday - School closed 

Friday 9th May - Own clothes day bring something blue for the Reception hamper

Friday 9th May - Infant Magic Show - 3.15-4.30 - £5 a ticket

Wednesday 14th May - Reception eye test

Friday 23rd May - Break up for half term 

Monday 3rd June - Return to school 

Thursday 5th June - Infant class photographs 

Friday 20th June - Non-uniform day - donate chocolate or a bottle for Summer Fayre tombola 

Thursday 26th June - West Midlands Safari Park trip 

Friday 27th June - Summer Fayre 

Thursday 3rd July - Lego workshop 

Monday 14th July - Reception and KS1 Sports Day 

Friday 18th July - Break up for summer 

Our topic for this term is:

Minibeasts

Religious Education 

In Reception at St Peter's we follow the Jack in the Box scheme which has been developed by Early Years Specialists. Our worship sessions follow a familiar, repeated pattern with fun songs set to well-known tunes and a variety of learning strategies guaranteed to engage our children in the Bible stories.

Children travel with Jack to meet the Big Bible Heroes of the Old Testament and then on to learn all about Jesus and his love for the world, and the adventures of his friends and followers. 

This term the stories we will be learning about are

The Holy Spirit comes

The Fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control

Phonics

This year we are starting a new scheme to teach phonics at St Peter's. Supersonic Phonic Friend's was created by Phonics’ expert Anna Lucas and designed by artist Fiona Cameron. This programme is a fully systematic, synthetic phonic approach ranging from the simple to the complex spellings of the alphabetic code. Supported by their Supersonic Phonic friends, this approach will ensure children develop confidence and apply each skill to their own reading and writing.

We have completed the Firm Foundations stage where the children have secured a strong sound processing system which is critical to enjoyment and success in children’s later reading and writing skills. We have also completed Basics 2 where the children have learnt at least one spelling for 18 of the 44 sounds of the English language. Most children can hear up to 3 sounds in words, recognise spellings and read and write simple CVC words with the 18 spellings for sounds. Most children are able to read decodable texts with the Basics 2 spellings and make phonetically plausible attempts in their emerging stages of spelling in their writing journey.

The children have also completed Basics 3 and know the spellings for the further 26 of the 44 sounds of the English language. Children have used their auditory processing and memory skills from Firm Foundations in Basics  1 and their Basics 2 skills to continue to recognise spellings for the sound with Sam, segment and build with Seb and Bill, read and blend with Rex and Ben and write with Ron. They have learnt the early concepts of Choose to Use with Suze for some further multiple spellings for sounds and an introduction to Switch it with Mitch for alternative pronunciations of spellings for sounds. They have also learnt their tricky words with Tess and read nonsense words with Nan.

We will now spend the summer term ensuring the children are secure with all of the previous learning from Basics 2 and 3. We will recap any sounds the children are finding hard to remember and we will continue to learn new tricky words.

Literacy

Firstly, this term we will be writing a recount from our farm trip. As a class we will discuss what we remember and use photographs to order our day. The children will then write sentences to recount the day using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. Ensuring the children understand why we use this punctuation. 

Then we will focus on a mixture of fiction and non- fiction books by introducing the children to books about different types of insects. In small groups the children will be able to look closely at non-fiction books to find out and listen to interesting facts about different Minibeasts. This will help inform the children when they come to write their own sentences about a particular insect. 

The children will have the chance to recap what they have learnt about fiction and non-fiction books and to start to use these books appropriately. Through the use of our spine books and favourite classics, the children will have the opportunity to listen to and respond to questions about fiction books about insects. We strive to immerse the children fantastic books with rich vocabulary so that they can start to use these words in their own writing.  

Mathematics

At St Peter's we use White Rose Hub to plan and deliver structured lessons which cover the statutory requirements of Development Matters in order to meet the Early Learning Goals.

This term the children become more familiar with numbers beyond 10 and the pattern (table order) of numbers to 20 and beyond. First, we will ensure children can say the numbers 11, 12 and 13 and we will support them to ue one-to-one correspondence to count items beyond 10. They will go on to recognise that the numbers 1 to 3 repeat after every full ten. So, they have 1 ten and 1, 1 ten and 2, 1 ten and 3. We focus on numbers to 13 first, before going up to 20.

We will also encourage the children to count on a back from different starting points, to say what comes before or after a given number and place numbers in order.

After, we will focus on the process of counting and the numerical patterns. The children will be provided with opportunities for verbal counting beyond 20. They will also be provided with hundred squares and number tracks which will support the children to become familiar with 2-digit numbers beyond 20 and start to spot patterns within them.

Understanding the World

This term our topic is Minibeast. This topic will give the children the chance to explore their local environment to learn about a different insects, their diet and habitat. The children will be encouraged to classify them according to the amount of legs they have, how they move or what they eat.

The children will also have weekly opportunities to use the computers in the ICT suite to complete simple programs that support current learning, draw their portraits on 2simple and create bonfire pictures.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

As a school we use SCARF which is a whole-school approach supporting primary schools in promoting positive behaviour, mental health, wellbeing, resilience and achievement.  More than just a PSHE scheme of work, SCARF supports great learning every day. SCARF represents our values for children of Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship. This half term we will be covering:

- Seasons

- Life stages - plants and animals

- Life stages - humans

- Where do babies come from?

- Getting bigger 

- Me and my body - Boys and girls 

The children will have the opportunities to express their ideas and thoughts and any feeling or worries they may have.

Physical Development

This term in 'Get Set for P.E' the children will be learning 

- To develop changing direction 

- To develop jumping

- To develop hopping

- To explore different ways to travel using equipment 

- To aim when throwing and practise keeping score 

Expressive Arts and Design

This term the children will be introduced to colour and collage. The children will look at the work of Eric Carle and learn how he created his illustrations. Then the children will make their own paper using paint to create different effects using tools and their colouring mixing knowledge to make the colours they need. After, the children will create their own minibeast by using the paper they have made and cutting skills. In DT the children will be making their own sandwich bag linked to our spine book Sam's Sandwich. Firstly, they will explore existing sandwich bags and lunch boxes to discover their purpose. The children will go on to learning about different joins including pinning, gluing and stapling and have the opportunity to explore these skills in the continuous provision.  Then, they will have a go at designing their own bag before making and evaluating it. 

Make sure you check out our Art and DT page to see what we've been up to. 

In fortnightly guided drawing sessions, the teacher will model a variety of techniques and tools linked to the skills the children have been learning in their EAD lessons. 

Also, every week the children will take part in a music lesson. They start by learning different songs and thinking about their breathing techniques. Within this the children are taught about pitch, tempo, pulse and rhythm. They also have the opportunity to play the glockenspiel.