Welcome to the Reception class page
The Teacher in Reception is Miss Smith.
The Teaching Assistants in Reception are Miss Cresswell and Miss Hall.
At Hillside Primary School we have one Reception class which holds up to 30 children.
We believe that every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be capable, resilient, confident and self-assured. Every child will develop and learn at different rates and it is our job to help support them and ensure they do not fall behind. To support every child, we provide them with an enabling environment with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. The children benefit from a strong partnership between the teachers and parents/carers.
We follow a curriculum which focuses on the seven areas of learning. The Statutory Framework for the EYFS states that “All areas of learning and development are important and interconnected.
Three prime areas that are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving are:
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, social and emotional development
The four specific areas through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied are:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Expressive arts and design
- Understanding the world
During the day the children will take part in activities covering all aspects of The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, sometimes individually, in small groups or as a whole class. The curriculum is taught both indoors and outdoors.
We also develop the Characteristics of Effective Learning which help children to be successful learners throughout life:
- playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
- active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
- creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things
Phonics
Children in Reception all engage with our structured and rigorous Success for all FFT phonics scheme. We complete one phonics lesson a day for 20 minutes. This includes introducing new sounds, blending and segmenting words, reading tricky words, reading books at their level and lots more. We regularly assess the children throughout the phonics lesson and by our half termly assessments on the FFT tracker.
More information for parents can be found at https://fft.org.uk/phonics/ or https://parents.fft.org.uk/
Maths Curriculum
Mathematics in Reception is taught using the New 2020 Early Years Framework. We follow the New White Rose Maths Scheme, which the rest of the school uses, so that there is progression between Reception and Key Stage 1. Maths is taught daily and is incorporated within our continuous provision. We use concrete, pictorial and abstract activities, to help the children’s understanding and skill progression. Progress is recorded using Pupil Asset. The spatial reasoning toolkit for ‘Early Years: Early Childhood Maths Group” is also used.
Other Experiences
We provide lots of other experiences for our children, linking to our curriculum, their needs and gaps in knowledge. We set up lots of shared days, trips and experiences alongside our Nursery class and ensure that are informative, engaging and beneficial to each child.
Below are some of the experiences we have provided so far this year.
-Weekly trips to our local Bradwell Library. Four children from each class visit each week and are given the opportunity to borrow books and read them in class.
-Autumn walk to our local Mill Lane field. The children were able to explore the local area and see all the seasonal changes. The children especially enjoyed looking at the allotments and seeing all the crops that were growing.
-Diwali Day. The children had a shared day where they learnt all about Diwali and the celebrations that take place. They had a go at lots of different activities and even tried some Indian bread.
-Remembrance Day. The children had a whole week learning all about Remembrance Day and what this meant. They learnt about why we wear poppies and then made their very own poppy stones to decorate the school with. They then created a very special poppy wreath, which they placed on our local war memorial in the afternoon on Remembrance Day. The children also got to visit the local church to see the wonderful poppy display and tell Reverend Steve all about what they had been learning.
We change and adapt our curriculum each year and throughout the year, linking to the things we see that the children need more experience of to help prepare them for the future.
Our Curriculum Map is below.