Reception is a special time in your child's learning journey. It's a year filled with curiosity, creativity, and growth. In the Early Years, we focus on nurturing the whole child; supporting their personal, social, emotional, and academic development through a rich and engaging curriculum.
Our days are filled with play, exploration, and discovery. Children will be learning through hands-on experiences both indoors and outdoors, developing key skills in communication, early literacy and numeracy, physical development, and understanding the world around them. We place great importance on building strong relationships, fostering independence, and creating a safe and joyful environment where every child feels valued and confident.
We believe that learning is most powerful when it's a partnership between home and school. Throughout the year, we'll be sharing updates, celebrating achievements, and inviting you to be part of your child's learning journey. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns. We are here to support you and your child every step of the way.
Curriculum
This term, we will explore the fascinating world of bears and their habitats across the globe with our new project question 'Where in the world do bears live?'. Children will learn about different species of bears, where they live, and what they eat, tasting some of these foods along the way! Through songs and interactive activities, we will become familiar with the names of the continents and use maps to identify land and sea.
Our learning will then focus on polar bears and life in the Arctic. We will compare this icy environment to life in the UK, discovering how people and animals adapt to such extreme conditions. Using non-fiction books, we will deepen our understanding of habitats and Arctic life.
To bring our learning to life, we will:
- Create collaborative bear collages inspired by different species.
- Sew our own polar bear hand puppets using a running stitch.
- Develop physical skills through movement and ball games.
- Build vocabulary by using new words in well-formed sentences.
By the end of the project, children will have a rich understanding of bears, their habitats, and the diversity of environments around the world.
We learn everywhere
At St Wilfrids we have a spacious outside learning environment as well as our indoor learning environment. The children will have access to both environments in all weathers. Please ensure your child has named wellingtons, waterproof coat and trousers at school at all times.
What is your child doing at school?
The Early Years team use an observation tool called Evidence ME. The app enables us to record those Wow moments in your child’s learning. The app also allows us to send you those special moments to celebrate with your child at home. Equally adults at home are able to share with us those wow moments at home.
Reading and Phonics
Your child will be given a book bag. Each Thursday your child will choose a story book to bring home and share with you. The books will be swapped each week on a Thursday.
We will begin RWI phonics as soon as all the children are in school full time. Once the children are familiar with a range of sounds they will bring home a reading book to practice the sounds they have learnt at school so far. Please ensure that your child brings their book bag to school each day with their books in it. Once your child is given their first reading book, they will also be given a reading diary for you to record each time you read with them. Your child will receive a certificate for practicing their reading at home.
Power Maths
In early years we use Power Maths. Power Maths enables children to explore number, calculation, shape and space and measure in a investigative way along side our child centred approach to all learning.
Home Challenges
At the beginning of each term the children will receive a list of home challenges, activities that we suggest they do at home. Each challenge will link our project questions and an area of the EYFS curriculum. The children can choose which ones they do and upload evidence to EvidenceMe.
PE
We started PE in January. Newts have PE on a Tuesday and Tadpoles on a Wednesday. Please send the children into school in their PE kits.
Water bottles and Snacks
Please ensure your child has a named water bottle every day, containing water. Children will be provided with a fruit snack, if they would like to bring in an additional healthy snack for break time they can (e.g. fresh fruit, dry crackers or breadsticks, a bagel, raisins). Please ensure any snacks are both nut and egg free.
We are really looking forward to the coming term and hope the children’s enthusiasm and engagement will shine through at home. As always, our door is always open and we are happy to answer any questions or discuss concerns. Please do contact us on the Early Years email: YearR@stwilfrids-hh.school if you have any questions.
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Killick and Mrs Malcolm
