Welcome to Reception!

Dear Parents and Carers, 

We are very excited for the term ahead, in which our topic will be "Magical Me".  We have lots of wonderful things planned and we can't wait to get started.  We are looking forward to getting to know your children and supporting them in their transition to Hazlemere Church of England Reception Class.  We are looking forward to finding out what your child likes doing, dislikes doing, things they are good at and things they would like to get better at.  The booklets you filled in with your child in July have been super helpful in informing our initial planning - thank you.     

Kind Regards, 

Mrs S. Howard 

Reception Class Teacher

A reminder of Reception first week settling in schedule: 

You are welcome to attend our "meet the teacher" presentation for further information about our class and routines.

Thursday 7th September 

2.30pm 

Tapestry 

We use Tapestry as a way of recording children's learning of new skills.  We hope you will enjoy seeing your child's learning journey and will use this as a tool to talk to your child about what they have been doing and learning in school. 

Invitations to create your Tapestry account have been sent to the email address you provided us with in July.  Please check your junk for this in case you have missed it.    

Fruit and Milk

Children will have the opportunity to have fruit and milk daily.  Fruit is provided for all children automatically.  If you would like your child to receive milk, please register at: 

https://www.coolmilk.com/parents/ 

Water Bottles 

Please also ensure your child attends school with a named water bottle.  This will be kept on the trolley for your child to access throughout the day.  Please make sure your child does not bring this water bottle inside their bookbag as they can leak and spoil any work or books in the bag.

Phonics 

The children participate in a structured phonics session daily.  We also provide many supporting activities and resources in the classroom and garden to consolidate what we have learnt during these sessions.  

We will begin by learning the phonemes s, a, t, p, i, n and will match these to their corresponding grapheme.  We will begin to use these graphemes when reading and writing short words.

Please find below a useful link when supporting your child in the pronounciation of the phoneme. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCI2mu7URBc 

Phonics Home Learning

Each week your child will bring home their phonics home learning book.  Please support your child in practising to form the letters accurately, ensuring they start and finish in the correct place.  

Your child will also need to practise the word in their "harder to read and spell words" pack.  Please remember, this pack includes words that cannot be sounded out and should be learnt by sight.  Please spend a few minutes daily asking your child to read these words. 

Termly Newsletter

Reading

Useful Websites

Oxford Owl - Online Reading Books

Literacy and Numeracy Games

More Literacy and Numeracy Games

Games to support various areas of the EYFS Curriculum

Home Learning Resources - Maths

Planning - Reception

Curriculum

The Early Years Foundation Stage

The prime areas of learning are...
CL         communication and language
PD         physical development
PSED    personal social and emotional development

The specific areas of learning are...
L        literacy
M       mathematics
EAD   expressive arts and design
UW    understanding the world

There are 4 key principles that underpin our practice in the Early Years at Hazlemere C of E.

A Unique Child   We recognise that all children are different. We identify and celebrate their strengths and support their areas for development.

Positive Relationships   Our pupils interact well with each other and with the adults in the school. We encourage parents to be involved with their child's education.

Enabling Environments   Our indoor and outdoor areas encourage exploration, investigation and independent learning. Our displays and resources are well maintained and reflect current learning.

Learning and Development   Pupils achieve well and make good progress from their starting points. Learning is playful, practical and purposeful and builds upon prior attainment. Our children enjoy coming to school.

Overview 

At Hazlemere Church of England Combined School we believe that the time spent in Reception is paramount to building a solid foundation for future learning.  In Reception, children are able to consolidate their skills and knowledge gained from Nursery and Pre-School and extend these skills further to begin early reading and writing. 

We believe that communication and language is very important and we have time throughout the learning day to focus on effective communication skills.  Children's interests and passions  are at the heart of our planning and this is reflected in the learning. When children are interested and excited, they engage in the learning, which results in the children enjoying their days at school.

During their time in our Reception class, through the Characteristics of effective learning, we aim to foster every child’s independence, nurture them, inspire learning and provide challenges that extend their learning.

Reception children enjoy a generous amount of indoor and outdoor space.  As well as their own classroom, Reception children have access to the main school building and all of its facilities: library, prayer space, media suite, and a large and exciting outdoor garden and playfields.

We value our relationship with parents and we hold termly workshops.  We appreciate your feedback, and if there are any areas in which you feel unsure about how to support your child's development, or any areas in which you would like further information, please approach us so we can arrange a workshop or provide information via the website. 

We also use Tapestry as a way of recording children's learning of new skills and we encourage parents to add to the journal to ensure we have a clear picture of the child's interests and progress.  Please see below for further information.

We believe that children should be given opportunities to develop effective learning skills through Child Initiated Learning both inside and outside, in small groups and whole class sessions.  We also plan for one to one sessions and small focused group work.  We want all of our children to feel proud of their achievements and learning and also to be ready  and confident for their next stage of their learning journey into Year 1.

For more information about starting in Reception, please download our information booklet on the admissions page.

We would welcome the opportunity to show you our Early Years building where our Reception and Nursery class is based.  If you would like to book a tour, please call the school office.