Welcome to Reception

Mrs Smith is the teacher for Chestnut Class and Miss Lester is the teaching assistant. 

We believe that every child deserves the best possible start to life and therefore a firm foundation built from a curriculum that offers practical play based learning opportunities. We value children as individuals, with their own interests and unique learning styles. We value the rich, varied, prior experiences they bring to school from home and other pre-school settings. Through a combination of adult-led and child-initiated play and experiences, children will learn how to make a range of considered choices in their learning, within an environment that sets high expectations. We believe the environment is a ‘third educator’ which equips children with the skills necessary to be independent, life long learners.

We want to develop children who will:

• Enjoy learning, be independent and life long learners
• Investigate, explore and experiment with a wide range of resources inside and outside the classroom
• Take risks and engage in new experiences
• Collaborate and solve problems with others
• Be resilient
• Talk and ask questions
• Use their imagination
• Be reflective learners
• Feel valued and included
• Keep healthy and safe

Learning in Reception is taught through a range of practical, meaningful and stimulating experiences that reflect and value all 7 areas of the curriculum.

The 7 areas of learning are divided into 3 prime areas and 4 specific.

The prime areas run through and support learning in all other areas.

The Prime areas are:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)
• Physical Development (PD)
• Communication and Language (CL)

The Specific areas include essentials skills and knowledge. They grow out of the prime areas and provide important contexts for learning.

The Specific areas are:

• Literacy (L)
• Mathematics (M)
• Understanding the World (UtW)
• Expressive Arts and Design (EAD)

In Reception, the class teacher and nursery nurse work together to monitor and assess children’s learning and development.

This is achieved using the following methods:

• Observations during whole class, group, adult and child initiated experiences are written on sticky labels.
• Whole class and group trackers
• Annotated work
• Photos
• Video clips
• Learning stories

Learning journeys document photos and examples of children’s work to show progress and development. These are updated regularly and shared with parents, carers and children. These show children involved in their many varied learning experiences.

As well as the practitioners working in Reception, we encourage parents and other members of staff or outside agencies to contribute to the documentation of children’s progress. We strongly believe children learn best when the learning caters to their needs and interests. We encourage and support children to be reflective learners by involving them in the learning process.

Parents often ask staff about how phonics is taught. More information can be found on the phonics page of the website. Click on the link below.