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 7th January - Return to school

Friday 7th February - Wear your scarf to school day - Donation to go towards providing a calm space in Reception. 

Friday 14th February - Break the rules day - All rules broken will be 'fined' £1

Rules to be broken:

1. temporary tattoos

2. mad hair

3. painted nails

4. squash in water bottle

5. no uniform 

Friday 14th February - Break up for half term 

Monday 24th February - Return to school

Monday 3rd March - Coppers for Choppers - All children to bring is as many coins as possible to raise money for Midland Air Ambulance 

Thursday 6th March - World Book Day 

Friday 21st March - World Downs Syndrome Day - Wear Jazzy Socks

Thursday 27th March - Mother's Day Assembly - 9am in the infant hall

Thursday 10th April - Reception and Nursery Easter Bonnet Parade - 2pm 

Friday 11th April - Break up for Easter 

Tuesday 29th April - Return to school

Our topic for this half-term is:

People Who Help Us

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

 Jesus Calls his disciples

Jesus feeds 5000

Jesus walks on water

Jesus brings Jairus’ daughter back to life

The story of the good Samaritan

Jesus visits Martha and Mary

Jesus welcomes children

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 now 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.

We are now moving on to Basics 3. The Basics 3 teaches children the spellings for the further 26 of the 44 sounds of the English language. Children will use their auditory processing and memory skills from Firm Foundations in Phonics 1 and their Basics 2 skills to continue to recognise the 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 will continue to learn 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. Children will learn their tricky words with Tess and read nonsense words with Nan.

Literacy

Firstly, this term we will be learning about winter. As a class we will discuss what we already know about winter and display our knowledge in the classroom. Then the children will go on a winter walk to experience winter through their senses to build on previous knowledge. Next, the children will draw a winter scene from their first hand experience, building on their drawing skills from previous guided drawing sessions. The children will then write a sentence for their scene. We will formally introduce the children to simple grammar by modelling capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. Ensuring the children have an understanding of why we use this punctuation. 

Later on in this half term we will start our People Who Help Us topic. The children will be taught some of the features of fiction and non-fiction books and why we have different types of books. They will use non-fiction books to research a particular job role in the community and they will create an information poster. Building on their sentence writing skills from earlier this term the children will write sentences and captions about people who help us. We will also have visits from people in our local community to tell us about their jobs and how they help others.

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.

 Introduce Zero

Children are introduced to the concept of zero. Here, they learn that the number name ‘zero’ and the numeral 0 can be used to represent this idea. . They can also then be introduced to finding and recognising the numeral in the classroom and outdoor environment.

Find 0-5

They will build on learning from the previous step and use their knowledge of zero to find an amount to five, including zero. When exploring numbers to five through games, the children will be supporterd to recognise when zero occurs. We will us resources such as blank number cards or blank faces on a dice. The children will be encouraged to relate these to making the correct number of moves on a track, as well as matching the same amounts. The children will notice when zero occurs in activities in the classroom as well as in daily routines. For example, there are zero people away today or there are zero apples left.

Subitise to 5 

In this small step, children will continue to develop the skill of perceptual subitising. This form of subitising refers to instantly recognising the number of objects in a group without needing to count them. In this step, the concept of subitising zero objects is introduced, as well as the instant recognition of up to five objects. Children will be encouraged to represent their subitising by showing the numeral ‘0’, showing no fingers or an empty five frame. Use images, stories and rhymes that include representations of 0−5 to embed this skill.

One more and one less

The children will build on their knowledge of ‘1 more’ to work with the numbers to 5, including zero. They recognise that zero can be a starting point for counting and the number after 0 is 1 Children will be supported to further embed the stable order principle starting from zero, and to understand that the order of the numbers does not change. 

In this small step, children build on their knowledge of ‘1 less’ from 1−5 to work with the numbers to five including zero. They recognise that when counting back, we can include zero after 1 In the same way as for ‘1 more’, children will be supported to embed the stable order of the numbers from five to zero and understand that the order of the numbers does not change. The children will be encouraged to represent the ‘1 less’ pattern as they count and use a variety of manipulatives and situations to model this. 

Understanding the World

In our topic we will be teaching the children about similarities and differences. On our community walk we will look at different types of houses and buildings. We will be encouraging the children to think about the purpose of these buildings and what they need for them to function correctly. The children will also have the chance to talk about their own opinions likes and dislikes. The children will also learn about important people in our community and how they help us. We have planned lots of visits from special people so the children have first hand experiences talking to and exploring different vehicles and objects.

We will also be learning about Harborne and its role as part of the city of Birmingham. 

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:

What's safe to go onto my body

What's safe to go into my body

Safe indoors and outdoors

Listening to my feelings

Keeping safe online

People who keep me safe

Looking after my special people

Looking after my friends

Being helpful at home and caring for our classroom

Caring for our world

Looking after money

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 explore and remember action considering level, shape and direction 

To explore movement using a prop with control and co-ordination 

To move with control and co-ordination expressing ideas through movement 

To remember and repeat action moving in time to music 

To explore actions in response to a theme and begin to use counts 

Expressive Arts and Design

This term the children will be introduced to 'form'. We will look at the work of Lisa Stevens who was a sculptor for Aardman Animations who created characters for Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit films. The children will have a chance to use lots of malleable materials including Play-Doh, clay and salt dough to create their own characters and work in the style of Lisa Stevens. They will be taught to use a variety of tools as well as using manmade, recycled and natural materials to impress items to apply simple decoration.

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.