Reception 2024 - 2025

Welcome to the Reception class page.

Miss Schofield is the class teacher (Monday to Thursday). Mrs Howarth is the teacher every Friday. The teaching assistant is Mrs Robinson. 

At St Andrew's we value a strong link between home and school so we can enable our children to flourish.

Our school vision is to 'Let our light shine' in as many ways possible.

Our core Christian values: courage, kindness and respect are woven into the life of the school.

We encourage a strong community link between staff, parents, children,governors,the church and wider community so we can work in partnership. We want to prepare children for their 'life journey' so they can contribute to the world in which they live.

Intent, Implementation, Impact in EYFS

Intent

The EYFS curriculum is designed to encourage independent, curious and happy learners. We recognise children’s prior learning and various starting points and create a holistic curriculum that maximises cross-curricular links and builds strong foundations for their future. Every child is recognised as a unique individual, and we encourage and work from children’s interests to provide them with the opportunities to follow their imagination and creativity. In Reception, we support children to work to their full potential and empower them to reflect and aim high. We celebrate the differences in our school community and always strive to promote a love for learning. We create an environment that encourages all children to seek new experiences and broaden their knowledge and provide opportunities to engage their inquisitive minds. Therefore, we provide engaging continuous indoor and outdoor provision, that follow children’s interests, to support learners in investigating and developing their skills. We work in close partnership with parents and carers throughout the year to support their learning and to encourage children to reach their full potential. We also aim to support the transition from EYFS to KS1 and provide children with the skills and attitude they need to succeed throughout their education.

Implementation

Pupils learn through a balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities and challenges. The weekly timetable is carefully structured so that children have rigorous directed teaching in English, Mathematics and Phonics every day. Topic sessions to focus UW and EAD in our weekly timetable and we use Wellcomm activities and Jigsaw Circle Time to focus on C&L and PSE. This focused group time enables the teacher to systematically check for understanding, identify and respond to misconceptions quickly and provide real-time verbal feedback which results in a strong impact on the acquisition of new learning. This teaching and learning is also continued through the carefully planned out Continuous Provision areas of the classroom.

All areas of the classroom are carefully planned out and resourced to ensure children’s independent learning, curiosity, resilience and decision making is developed. The curriculum is planned for the inside and outside classrooms to promote sustained thinking and active learning. Weekly team meetings are held to discuss targets for the class and individual children and the activities and adult interaction in the classroom areas are planned to develop these targeted areas. We hold Half Termly whole class discussions to decide the next half terms topic and topic area.

Pupils at St Andrew’s are all Mathematicians. We want our children to develop a deep understanding of number and number patterns. We want the children to broaden their mathematical vocabulary by exploring concepts through practical activities linked to number, space, shape and measure.

Reading is at the heart of our learning. At St Andrews we teach daily phonics which supports our teaching of Early Reading. We ensure high quality texts are used alongside all of our topics, introducing pupils in Reception to both Fiction and Non-Fiction texts. All areas of the classroom have books linked to the learning taking place in that area to enrich their knowledge of reading and always provide opportunities for reading. We want our children to value books, retell familiar stories and create their own narratives. We want them to be able to read words and sentences using their phonetic knowledge and write a sentence independently

Impact

We aim to ensure all children progress through a balanced and creative EYFS curriculum. We strive to ensure every child makes a very good level of progress in all areas of development, from their individual starting points. All children get the best possible start to their school life and develop the knowledge and skills to reach and exceed their potential and have a smooth transition into Year 1.

What learning looks like in EYFS

Child-Initiated Learning

Every Half Term our Topics are based on the children’s interests and asking what they wish to learn about. We base this on interests we see around their play and also through whole class discussions. This then allows us to plan our Topic role play area and Adult Initiated activities. We do this in order to ensure that all children are engaged with their learning and feel valued in our school. We also bring calendar events, celebrations and festivals into our topics and child-initiated play

Adult Led Learning

Through targets we have identified and using the planned topics and interests of the children, we plan high quality adult led activities which develop children’s knowledge, skills and learning. This focuses on all areas of development in order to support all children to make a good level of progress over the year.

Whole Class Learning

At the start of each day we sit together as a class for the Register and Phonics lesson. This also includes a ‘Dough Disco’ activity to work on children’s fine motor skills and help with concentration. We also have a similar timetable after lunch, when we have the Register, Mathematics lesson and ‘Squiggle’ scarf dance, which develops gross motor skills and again helps with concentration. We find that this routine allows smooth transition into different parts of the day and also prepares them for a more structured routine of Year 1. We also come together as a whole class on the carpet for an end of the day story, as this is a wonderful opportunity for children to hear new texts and enjoy a story with their peers. This is a calming time with our end of the day prayer before going home

Parent Partnership

We have an excellent school and parent partnership through a number of ways.

• We always greet children into the school and out at home time and this gives parents an opportunity to update us on anything they need to tell us.
• We use the ’Seesaw’ website and app which allows us to communicate with parents regularly and update them with pictures and messages of things we have been doing in school. It also allows parents to update us on anything their child wishes to share with us.
• We hold half termly ’Stay and Play’ sessions which invite parents into our classroom to join in with activities and play based learning and allow parents to see what we have been doing in school.
• ‘Rory the Reception Bear’ is sent home every week with a child that has been chosen as a ‘Superstar of the Week’ in the celebration assembly. This is a way for children to talk about what they have been doing at the weekend and give them the confidence to talk in front of their peer

Wellcomm Assessments

When children begin in Reception we carry out the Wellcomm assessment to give us the opportunity to identify areas of concern in language, communication and interaction development, in order to ensure targeted early intervention. This assessment is then carried out each term to track progress and plan activities to support development.