Reception M & W 2024 - 2025
Miss Millington
Reception Teacher
Miss Woodcock
Reception Newsletter January 2025
RW - Miss Woodcock, Miss Ward, Mrs Begum
RM – Miss Millington, Mrs Landell, Mrs Bibi
We also have Miss Dunlop and Miss Calvert who help us out covering staff planning and preparation and assessment time.
We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and would like to wish you a Happy New Year! It is going to be a busy term with lots of exciting activities planned up until February half term!
This half term our topic is 'Our Wonderful World' and our investigation topic is 'Building's and Landscapes'! During this topic we place a large empahsis on developing children's early Geography skills as we deepen their understanding of the place they live, their sense of community and the connection they have with other countries through their family and friends. Through exploration of the illustrations within both of the Literacy focus texts we will look at different landscapes and begin to learn about different climates across our world. This topic also enables pupils to develop their interest and engagement with Expressive arts and design with children having the opportunity to design and make their own hats. In Literacy, we will be reading 'A Hat for Mr Mountain’ by Soojin Kwak and ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Browne. As always these texts will support them to develop their literacy skills, building on their knowledge of book concepts, story structure and vocabulary with consistent opportunities to apply their phonics. In mathematics this half term the children will be able to recognise numbers 1 to 5 and recognise patterns and arrangements of up to five. When ordering numbers they will be able to see the effect of one more as numbers get bigger. They will start to work on 5 and a bit more (numbers bigger than 5) and this will lead on to looking at equal and unequal numbers – odd and evens. Please have a look at our medium term plan for more information on our topic in the files below
In phonics this term the children will be moving onto phase 3 of 'Little wandle letters and sounds'. During this phase they learn;
Phase 3 graphemes
Week 1 ai ee igh oa
Week 2 oo oo ar or
Week 3 ur ow oi ear
Week 4 air er words with double letters: dd mm tt bb rr gg pp ff
Week 5 longer words
Tricky words: was, you, they, my, by, all, are, sure, pure.
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:
Online Learning Journal:
Oral health:
https://www.dentalhealthcareeoe.nhs.uk/services/oral-health-improvement/early-years
Thank you for all your support!
Reception Team
Files to Download
Reception M & W: Gallery items
Visiting Beswick Library, by Miss Millington
Investigating people who help us in Reception, by Miss Millington