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. 

Friday 29th November - Non-Uniform Day Donations for Christmas Fayre a bottle or chocolates 

Friday 6th December - Christmas Fayre in the infant hall 3.30pm

Friday 13th December - Christmas jumper and Christmas Dinner Day- Donate £1 to Save the children 

Tuesday 17th December - Library Trip AM

Wednesday 18th December - Christmas songs around the tree - 2.30pm festive jumpers and/or headwear 

Thursday 19th December - Reception Christmas Party - Food lists will be displayed

Friday 20th December - Break Up for Christmas Holiday

Our topic for this half-term is:

Me and My Community 

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

Moses Obeys

Gideon is courageous

David prays and sings to God

David is chosen as King

David stands up to Goliath

David and Jonathan

Waiting for Jesus

God’s son is born

Angels bring good news to shepherds

The wise men visit Jesus

Phonics

This year we will teach phonics through the Supersonic Phonic Friend's scheme. This programme was created by Phonics’ expert Anna Lucas and designed by artist Fiona Cameron. It 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 moved onto Basics 2 which teaches children at least one spelling for 18 of the 44 sounds of the English language. Children will use their auditory processing and memory skills from Firm Foundations in Phonics 1 to start 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 learn the early concepts of Choose to Use with Suze for a handful of multiple spellings for sounds.

At the end of The Basics 2, children will be able to hear up to 3 sounds in words, recognise spellings and read and write simple CVC words with the 18 spellings for sounds. They will be 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.

Literacy

In Literacy we will be learning about our community. We will start by going on a walk to see what things we can spot in our local area. This will give us the opportunity to use the sounds we know to write labels for the photographs we have taken. The children will also be learning The Little Red Hen story using Talk For Writing. They will have the story read to them, make a class story map with actions, have the opportunity to make their own story map and re-tell the story to their classmates. After the children will be encouraged to write key initial sounds or CVC words and and simple sentences about the story.

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 we will be focusing on Number, 2d shapes and Place Value. We will first teach the children the key principles of counting.

The stable-order principle - Children understand when counting, the numbers have to be said in a certain order.

The cardinal principle - Children understand that the number name assigned to the final object is the total number of objects in that group is the total number of objects in that group.

The abstract principle - This involves children understanding that anything can be counted including things that cannot be touched for example sounds and movements.

 The order-irrelevance principle - This involves children understanding that the order we count a group of objects is irrelevant. There will still be the same number.

The children will also have the opportunity to sort and match objects, compare size, explore 2d shapes, first circles and triangles and then shapes with four sides, such as squares and rectangles. 

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 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: 

- I’m special, you’re special

- Same and different

- Same and different families

- Same and different homes

- I am caring

- I am a friend

- What’s safe to go onto my body

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

Physical Development

The key focus for this term will be to encourage ALL the children to dress and undress independently, this usually takes a number of weeks. There will be lost shorts, t-shirts and pumps, so please ensure all P.E kit is named.

Once we feel the children are ready we will go on to learn these key skills through our P.E scheme called, 'Get Set for P.E' 

To move around safely in space.

To follow instructions and stop safely.

To stop safely and develop control when using equipment.

To work co-operatively with a partner. 

Expressive Arts and Design

We will start the school year by learning about the famous author and illustrator Pat Hutchins. The children explore a range of Pat Hutchins books and illustrations to see if they can notice any similarities and differences.  We will focus on a couple of pages, asking the children to draw the patterns and lines they can see. 

 The children will move on to investigating different lines and producing lines of different thickness and tone using a pencil. We will teach the children how different textures are created using lines for the characters fur and feathers. Children to have a go at re-creating the fur and feathers using a variety of drawing tools – graphic tools, hands, chalk, pens and pencils. 

 Children to draw their own versions of the illustrations in a Pat Hutchins story or use templates to create their own piece of work. Children to have access to a range of different surfaces and coloured paper.

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.