Reception M & W 2024 - 2025

Reception Newsletter Autumn 2 2024 2025 

Welcome back to school after the half term break! We hope that you had a good week and are raring to go for the next half term. 

This year the Reception staff are; 

Miss Millington (EYFS coordinator) and Mrs Landell (ReceptionM)

Miss Woodcock and Miss Ward (ReceptionW)

We also have Miss Calvert and Miss Dunlop who support the children on a weekly basis

This half term our topic is called Celebration and Festivals, Light and Dark 

This half term we will support the children to explore their similarities and differences in greater depth with a focus on the many different and wonderful celebrations and festivals that we each experience. We will use the focus text ‘Little Glow’ to introduce them to their new investigation topic and revisit this during the term. As part of this topic we will review the changing seasons and observe this in the outdoors and they will also learn about nocturnal animals. 

Literacy  

In our literacy lessons the children will be focussing on two core texts in additon to their daily end of day stories; the first will be ‘Perfectly Norman’ which like Ruby’s worry from last half term is a ‘Big bright feelings’ book. Using this text we aim to continue to build on children’s PSED skills, being able to talk about their feelings and understand the feelings of others as well as appreciating  that we are all unique. As we draw closer to Christmas we will be reading ‘The gingerbread man’ which will support their ability to retell simple stories using repeated refrains. There will be a key focus on vocabulary in their literacy lessons  and children will be encouraged to use STEM sentences and their ‘talking tactics’ to build on their spoken language skills. They will have the opportunity to apply their phonics knowledge and handwriting skills into their writing too, writing for different purposes linked to the texts and the many celebrations and festivals we will explore. 

Maths 

In maths this half term children will reinforce their counting skills being reminded to count with 1-1 correspondence to ensure accuracy. They will also have lots of practise of subitising and will begin to have a greater understanding of the composition of numbers up to 4 by exploring their ‘parts’. We will relook at the measure of weight this half term and as we build up to christmas we will revisit patterns in some of our Friday Shape, space and measure sessions. 

Phonics 

This half term the children will will spend the first few weeks plugging any gaps missing from previous learning before moving onto the following: 

Rehearsals will soon be underway for our annual Nativity and this year we will be performing ‘Everybody Loves a baby’. Our performance day is Wednesday 18th December.  We will soon send out letters so that tickets can be requested for this. 

A few quick reminders

When beginning in Reception a key priority is for us to support children to become independent, confident and resilient learners. We consciously spend the first few weeks building positive relationships and creating a fun and safe space that the children both enjoy and feel comfortable in. Our EYFS environment (both Nursery and Reception) is largely organised through the use of the Rainbow challenge; each area in the room is associated with a colour from the rainbow and the children are encouraged to independently explore and take ownership of their own learning by working towards reaching a full rainbow by the end of the week. This is something that our children from Nursery will be confident with! 

The areas include:

Construction area - Blue 

Creative area - Purple 

Maths area - Yellow

Writing area - Red 

Reading area - Green 

Roleplay area - White 

Fine- motor area - Orange  

If they complete the Rainbow they are rewarded with a sticker at the end of the week. 

Homework 

Each child also has a homework book, this will outline their weekly homework and we ask that any written homework please be completed in the book so that we can review their efforts each week when it's returned. The weekly deadline for homework to be returned to school is on a Thursday Morning at drop off which will give us enough time to change their books and mark their homework ready for the new work to be sent home on a Friday!  In addition to this your child will be sent home with a book for enjoyment that they have chosen for you to read to/with them and they  will also be allocated an e-book (online) that they have been reading in school to support their application of phonics. Please go to www.collinshub.co.uk and use their login details found in the front of their reading records books.  

Drop off and pick up- Gates open in the morning at 8:40am and children are to be collected at 3:10pm. Please enter by the Myrtle Street entrance and walk your child up onto the EYFS playground where you will see a class teacher stood ready to welcome them into the classroom. At the end of the day we ask that you que patiently outside the gate and once seen your child’s name will be called. If someone else unfamiliar to the staff needs to collect your child/childen please make us aware and pass on the password to them as we cannot realise the children to unfamiliar adults without this. 

Attendance and Punctuality – if your child is not in school on time or off school altogether, they miss out on so much learning – please make sure your child is in school, on time, every day, the gates close at 8:55! 

Outdoor play- please make sure your child has suitable clothing, a waterproof coat, wellingtons, sunhat, gloves, etc.  We go outside everyday come rain or shine! 

Please remember to put names in all clothes, shoes, bags, lunch boxes, etc.

Tapestry  - The online learning journey

At Ashbury Meadow we use the online learning journey called Tapestry. This will be something that you can use at home and see what your child has been learning about in school and to access homework and learning. You will be able to upload homework and observations of your child for the class teacher so it is important that any ‘log on’ issues are sorted ASAP. If your child was in Nursery at Ashbury- your log on details will be the same. If you are new to the school- details will come in due course. 

Useful websites

The school website: 

https://www.ashburymeadow.co.uk/class/reception-m-b 

E book access: 

www.collinshub.co.uk 

Online Learning Journal: 

https://tapestryjournal.com/

Oral health: 

https://www.dentalhealthcareeoe.nhs.uk/services/oral-health-improvement/early-years