Reception: Miss Donoghue and Miss Dowson

Welcome to Reception

We are really looking forward to working with your children.  Here are the staff who will be working with your child this year...

Reception Times  

Please arrive promptly. 

Our Reception children have their own dedicated exit and entrance. This is by the gate onto their outdoor learning space next to the main school car park. 

Arriving on Your Child’s First Day 

In September the following transition arrangements are in place to help settle your child into the routines of Reception: 

• Thursday 2nd September and Friday 3rd September. 
  • 9.00-9.10am until 12:00pm (No lunch on this day) 
• Monday 6th September, Tuesday 7th September and Wednesday 8th September  
  • 9.00-9.10am until 1:15pm (Children will have lunch at school on these days) 
• From Thursday 9th September
  • Children will be in school full time – 9.00-9.10am until 3.10pm. 

After this, normal school times will apply. 

We appreciate that it may be difficult for you to leave your child initially and perhaps for your child to leave you.  All children are different and will settle in different ways.  A quick definite goodbye is often best but you know your child and can settle them best in your own way.  If you need help, please ask. 

All children do settle happily, but some can take longer than others. Children who settle initially, may become unsettled after a week or two. Usually there is a simple explanation, but if you know of reasons for this, you may wish to talk to staff to enable us to resolve any problems quickly.  

If your child is upset it is important to reassure your child that you will be back soon to see what they have been doing and explain what you will be doing while they are at school. 

Beginning of the Session  

At the beginning of the session, you and your child will be greeted at the Reception playground gates.  Staff will bring children into setting. The children hang their coats on their peg and find either their photograph or their name card when they are ready - this is an important learning opportunity. Staff will help and encourage your child to complete these routines on their own, to improve their independence skills.  

All staff will do their best to ensure all coats and belongings are kept safe on pegs. Please help us by clearly naming all of your child’s belongings in an obvious place with a permanent marker that can be seen by ourselves and your child.   

Staffs’ first priority is to ensure the safety and well-being of all children. 

End of the Session  

It is really important to collect your children on time. It would help if you could arrive 5 minutes before the session ends. 

At the end of the session the staff will make sure that all children are handed over safely to their parent or carer to go home.  Children should always be collected by a responsible adult over the age of 18 who is known to Reception staff and to the child.  The Reception staff must always know who is expected to collect your child. Please contact the school office in plenty of time if there are any changes to collection arrangements. 

If it is necessary for another adult to collect your child, please let staff know as soon as possible.  You are always able to contact the school office to inform them of any changes. We would appreciate it if this could be done in plenty of time, not at the last minute. We have a duty of care to keep all children safe, therefore children may not be collected by any other adult without the knowledge and permission of the parent/carer. 

Daily Routines 

Group Activity Times 

9:15am  Phonics teaching  

11:00am  Maths teaching  

12:45pm  Children learning 

2:30pm  Storytime 

3:10pm Home time 

In addition to group times, children have different opportunities on a morning and an afternoon to choose where they wish to learn through play and apply their learning. This may be indoors or outdoors. 

The children also have the opportunity to take part in woodland sessions. You will get a letter so that you know when your child will be having these sessions. 

Milk is provided free of charge until your child is 5 years of age.  Once your child is 5 years old, you have the choice to purchase milk.  This is arranged through Cool Milk. Please speak to the school office if you need help to arrange this.   Alternatively, water is available. Children should not bring juice into school. 

Children in Reception receive a piece of fruit or vegetable each day. We also provide breakfast bagels for our children each morning. 

School Meals and Lunchtime Arrangements 

Taylor Shaw provides our school meals service.  Children have lunch in the main dining hall.  

Reception children all qualify for a free school meal as part of Government funding. This is known as Universal Free School Meals.  We would strongly encourage all of our Reception children to have a free school meal, particularly when there is such a wide choice of hot and cold meals including sandwiches. 

Menus are sent out each term.  We also have LunchHound which allows you and your child to choose what your child eats from a selection of menus. This system means that every child can have a meal of their choice. 

Packed Lunches 

For the safety of pupils who have nut allergies, this school is a nut-free zone.  Please do not include any nuts, nut products or chocolate spread in your child’s packed lunch. 

We do not allow fizzy or isotonic drinks as they are high in sugar. 

School Uniform 

Reception children are expected to wear school uniform.

Please click here for further information: here 

Wrap Around Care 

Information on Breakfast Club can be fund here

Information on After School Childcare can be fund here

Additional Information 

• Mrs Henson is our SENCo please contact her if you have any questions with regards to your child in terms of special educational needs. 

• Please contact the school office before 8:50am if your child is absent. Once a child is five years old parents and carers have a legal responsibility to ensure their child attends school regularly. 

• Holidays forms must be completed for term time holidays.  

• Please inform us of any change of address or telephone numbers 

For more information on our curriculum, please click here

Home Learning 

You can read your reading book from your yellow folder or use your log in (found inside your reading record) for your morning reading followed up by the writing activity for the day.  

For some extra practice & a closer look at those tricky & nonsense words you can follow the links below to practice blending some alien words! Make sure you press revise all phase 2.

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/2/picnic-on-pluto

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/2/dragons-den

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/2/buried-treasure 

Story Time 

At the end of the day find your favourite spot in the house and get comfortable! Do you have a cushion, blanket or favourite toy you could share story time with? Are you having a snack or relaxing? Story time is one of our favourite times of day. You could read one of your favourite stories with an adult at home or listen to one of your favourite stories on the BBC iPlayer using the link below

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b00jdlm2/cbeebies-bedtime-stories 

Useful Websites

During this challenging time, we wanted to provide you with details of websites that can be accessed at home to support children’s learning and development specifically for the early years. Please find a list of suggested websites below. We hope you find this information useful and enjoy using these sites to enhance your child’s learning experiences at home!

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources 

Great site with some free phonics games

http://www.phonicsplaycomics.co.uk/comics.html

Practise your phonics whilst reading simple comics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies 

Many games often recognised by children from their favourite programmes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/search?q=eyfs 

Links to particular cbeebies games from areas of learning.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories  

Cbeebies stories and rhymes.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/ 

Interactive books and reading activities to share with your child at home.

https://www.funwithspot.com/ 

New and improved! Try creating your own Spot story.

https://stories.audible.com/discovery

Listen to a story together.

https://www.sebastianswan.org.uk/ 

Books for reading together with links to understanding of the world (good for natural science).

https://ictgames.com/ 

Some excellent numeracy and literacy resources

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/literacy.html 

Good for spelling high frequency and tricky words!

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html 

Lots of maths and literacy games

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=37 

Games of varying quality to support different areas of learning.

https://www.abc.net.au/abckids/shows/play-school/ 

Various educational games, videos and craft ideas