Miss Witham
Mrs Mayson
Mrs Downing
Welcome to Reception!
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autumn 2 timetable reception 2025.pdf
autumn 2 topic web reception 2025.pdf
Early Years Foundation Stage
A warm welcome to the EYFS here at Brereton CE Primary School and into our school community as your child takes their first step on their journey here with us.
From the very beginning of your child’s journey at Brereton, we believe it is of the utmost importance that they feel secure, safe and happy at school. We aim to nurture a love of learning and to lay the foundations to enable children to develop as confident, independent and enthusiastic learners. Ensuring your children are happy and excited to come to school, knowing that they are a valued member of our school and wider community, is a priority for us.
Our Environment
Our Reception classroom is purposefully designed to be inviting and exciting for our youngest children. We believe in the value of an environment that facilitates independence; it is well resourced with engaging opportunities that support children to be inquisitive, explorative and creative. Within our classroom, we provide stimulating play opportunities which reflect the children’s interests and stage of learning and development. These opportunities encourage children to follow their ideas and motivate them to access a wide range of learning opportunities across the EYFS curriculum.
Our Reception classroom is comprised of a large indoor space, as well as an enclosed outdoor area that the children have access to throughout the day. Our EYFS class also have a weekly Forest School morning with a qualified Forest School teacher, as well as having the opportunity and responsibility to grow and nurture plants in our school garden.
Our Curriculum
“Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up”
Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage - setting the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five. 2021)
The Early Years Foundation Stage follows a unique curriculum that enables every child to have the best possible start to their educational journey. At Brereton CE Primary School, our children learn through an ambitious, broad and balanced curriculum that is carefully planned to take into consideration their starting points, interests and how they learn best. It is our aim that all children will be successful in achieving their full potential, and will be motivated to do so through planned, purposeful, play-based experiences and effective adult interactions. We use high-quality texts and exciting experiences to offer engaging hooks into learning opportunities and to foster a language rich learning environment that promotes the development of vocabulary.
Through the balance of a specifically planned curriculum and following children’s interests and leads in learning, adults provide high quality teaching and learning opportunities to ensure all children make progress and achieve the best they possibly can. These teaching and learning opportunities are planned to promote the development of vocabulary
Our curriculum is based on the principles of the EYFS Statutory Framework 2021 and is supported by the Development Matters Framework. It takes into consideration children’s prior early learning, development and experiences and their future learning when they progress into the National Curriculum.
The Early Years Foundation Stage comprises of seven areas of learning and development which are divided into Prime and Specific areas. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected.
Prime Areas
Three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. These three areas, the prime areas, are:
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Specific Areas
There are four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. The specific areas are:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Art and Design
Characteristics of Effective Learning
In order to support children to achieve in all of the Prime and Specific Areas of Learning, the Characteristics of Effective Learning are at the heart of all we do. All adults in our EYFS take time each day to notice how children are learning, their interests and what motivates them to learn. We consider the Characteristics of Effective learning alongside these observations to carefully and effectively plan for all children’s next steps. Children become self-motivated learners who embrace challenge and are inspired to learn. They are able to fulfil their potential and develop the skills necessary for success.
- Playing and Exploring: children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
- Active Learning: children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
- Creating and Thinking Critically: children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things
How we Learn
During the school day, our Reception class learn through a balance of short teacher directed sessions, adult initiated activities and child-initiated learning through play sessions. At Brereton CE Primary School, we advocate the value of play. Children are learning through practical, first-hand experiences, practising skills and extending areas of their learning. We therefore timetable blocks of sustained, uninterrupted child-initiated learning time and plan high quality experiences for children’s play so that adults can support children’s learning in enjoyable, challenging and meaningful ways.
Our adult led phonics sessions follow the Read Write Inc. programme. Our maths sessions follow the NCETM Mastering Number planning (White Rose Maths is used for Shape, Space and Measure) and are timetabled to begin with a short carpet input, followed by small group work within child-initiated learning time. Our literacy is always inspired by high-quality texts and meaningful experiences, motivating children to be enthused about writing.
Reading Books and Phonics
At Brereton CE Primary School, we use the Read Write Inc. (RWI) programme to get children off to a flying start with their phonics and reading. We also hold an Early Reading and Phonics meeting for Reception parents and carers in the first few weeks of school to share more information about how we teach early reading and phonics, and our school systems such as our book changing system.
At the beginning of the year, your child will be given a reading diary. We love to read any comments that you write in your child’s reading diary about what they have been reading and how they have found their decodable books. We will stick any reading assessment information into these reading diaries, as well as noting the books that your child will bring home for the week.
Each day, children read in their small phonics groups with their reading teacher. All of the books are linked to each child’s phonic ability. At the end of each week, children bring home 3 books:
- The guided reading book that they have read in school that week. They should feel very confident with this book as they have read it 4 times in school – rereading at home with you will help them to build fluency/speed, comprehension and confidence.
- A book bag book. Book bag books link to the stories that we have read in guided reading time. They provide practice of the same sounds. Your child will not have read this book before, but they know all the sounds and will be able to work out any new words.
- A reading for pleasure book. These are chosen by the children from our reading for pleasure library, to provide opportunity to listen to a lovely story to develop vocabulary, comprehension and a love of books.
We collect reading books and reading diaries in on a Thursday. We keep these overnight so that they can be changed after school. On a Friday, your child will bring home their reading diary and their new reading books for the week.
At the start of the year, your child will just bring home a Reading for Pleasure book to share with you. Later in the term, as your child learns more sounds and is able to blend them together to read words, your child will also bring home Read Write Inc. books that they can decode themselves to read to you. We strongly recommend that you read with your child for ten minutes a day.
Links with Parents and Carers
It is essential to us at Brereton that we establish strong home school partnerships so that our children are supported in all aspects of their life. Through this effective relationship, our children will develop a strong sense of themselves; their cultural capital; and be nurtured, loved and cared for.
Our relationship with parents or carers is fundamental to our work in the EYFS. Staff are always available on the door, before and after school, and more personal individual meetings can be arranged after school if and when appropriate. We nurture an environment of open communication and accessibility so that children can enjoy their Reception year to the full.
Methods of communication include:
- A weekly class blog with information about our learning and plenty of photographs to share.
- Messages via Compass
- Notes in reading diaries
- Our class email address
- Parent consultations
Start and End of Day Procedures
Parents and carers can drop off from 8:35-8:50am to the Reception outdoor area. Once the children are inside, they will: hang their coat on their peg, put their bag in their tray, put their water bottle in the box and move their photograph to ‘self-register’. They will then engage in ‘soft start’ activities. At the end of the day, parents and carers collect at 3pm from the Reception outdoor area.
Bookbags
Children are encouraged to bring a school book bag with their reading diary and book (once provided) inside. We would encourage spare underwear and socks in your child’s school bag. We have ample spare uniform so no other items are required.
Water Bottles
We keep our water bottles in a basket within the classroom so that children can access them freely. However, we recognise that young children often need a prompt to drink so we also hand water bottles out and encourage children to have a drink at snack time, after lunch time play (drinks are also provided with lunch), and during our end of the day story. Water bottles should be filled and brought into school on a daily basis. They will be sent home to be cleaned and refilled at the end of each day.
Snack
Every morning, we have ‘Snack and Chat’ time altogether. This is a lovely, social time to eat together each morning and supports the development of language and social skills whilst also ensuring that the children are within sight and sound of staff at all times whilst eating. Fruit and milk are freely available to the children. Children can also bring a healthy snack from home if they wish. Toast is available at a cost of 30p.
Homework
There is no expectation in the Reception year for children to complete homework and no formal tasks shall be sent home. We do, however, ask that you regularly read with your child at home and we love to read your messages about this in the reading diaries. A ‘How to Help at Home’ document shall also be sent home each week, with some more information about what we have been learning and some suggestions of practical activities for supporting this learning at home. There is no expectation to complete or evidence these activities; this document is for your information.
Forest School
Each week, our Reception class spend a morning in our Forest School with our Forest School teacher, Mr Simmons alongside two other members of EYFS staff. We love to spend time in our Forest School sessions in all weathers and these outdoor sessions shall only be cancelled if it is extremely wet, cold or windy.
Children should come to school with: waterproof clothing or a spare set of clothes to cover their uniform, a coat appropriate for the weather conditions (including a hood), and a pair of wellington boots. In Reception, we have a stand for wellington boots and each child has a peg in the classroom. They can therefore leave their wellies and waterproofs in school if they wish.
To find out more about our EYFS, please click the links below. Please follow our school social media and read our weekly blogs to see our EYFS learning in action. We would welcome anyone wanting to find out more about starting school at Brereton CE Primary School to contact our school office.
Getting School Ready the Healthy Way
Information for parents: Reception baseline assessment
What to expect in the Early Years Foundation Stage: a guide for parents
Tips for sharing stories at home
Handwriting phrases for helping your child to form letters