Friday 28th February 2025 - Do all animals live on Farms? - Where did Rosie go for a walk?

We hope you all had a great half term break. The children have loved getting stuck into our new topic 'Do all animals live on farms?'.

In this topic, we start off with the farm setting and looking at the animals you'd typically see there as well as learning about life cycles. Then we'll be looking at some other habitats and seeing which animals you would find in them. Please see our attached topic plan document for further details. You will have all received paper copies of the shared learning for this half term, but we've attached a copy just in case!

We've had a fantastic first week back to school, focussing on our first key text 'Rosie's Walk' by Pat Hutchins. The children have enjoyed reenacting the story and exploring the positional language used in the text. We've also had a few special visitors too! When the children arrived at school on Tuesday, there were 10 little eggs keeping warm in our incubator. By Wednesday morning, 2 had hatched before the adults even got into school and 1 more emerged just as the children came into school! By the end of the day, we had 9 and that's the final number of successfully hatched chicks we have. After the weekend, the children will be able to gently handle the chicks, under supervision, as they'll be bigger and be able to keep themselves warm for longer periods of time before returning to the comfort of the heat lamp.

We also had a visit from Henrietta the Bantam hen who is 7 years old! It was great to see a full grown chicken and learn all about what she needs to stay healthy.

We've been reading a mix of fiction and non-fiction  in our Book Talk sessions and learned two more sounds in phonics. 

Now that we're familiar with the routine, we complete our phonics sheets more independently as morning jobs twice a week. This frees up more learning time to develop and practise our writing skills!

We have also been continuing to consolidate our subitising skills and understanding of the composition of the numbers 6, 7 and 8, seeing them as 'five and a bit'. In our maths journals we made beds for the Numberblocks, and compared who could fit into different beds and who couldn't, using comparative language: bigger than, more than, smaller than, fewer than, etc.

Here are some dates for your diaries over the coming weeks:

• Tues 4^th March
  Go Purple Day - Children will be making a purple bracelet in school, in exchange for a small donation. Profits will go towards supporting the work of charity “Grief Encounters”. Children will complete activities linked to this charity’s work too.
  FOB Book Swap - Bring in your pre-loved, good condition books and on World Book Day, FOB will facilitate a book swap in school.

• Thurs 6^th March
  World Book Day - We will be celebrating this event in school in a number of ways. Please send your child to school wearing either non-uniform, pajamas or a costume of your choice. https://www.worldbookday.com/dressing-up-ideas/ has loads of ideas for easy and inexpensive homemade costumes.
  Bedtime Stories (after school 4:45-5:45pm) - There will be a £2 charge for this event to help us buy new books for our library and class book corners. Please see link to sign up for this in today's newsletter.

• Monday 10^th March 
  2:30pm Parents’ Interactive Phonics/Reading session -  Join your child and their class teacher for a mini reading lesson and chance for your child to share their learning.

• W/B 17th March
  Neurodiversity Celebration Week - Children will take part in activities to discover more about how our brains work and think about questions such as “How are we different/ the same?” and “What makes us unique?”. We will host a number of neurodivergent visitors in school during the week.

• Fri 21st March 
  Red Nose Day & World Down Syndrome Charity Day – wear Own clothes (Odd socks if you want). All proceeds from donations will be shared between the charities.

• Fri 28th March
  2:20pm Rec & Cygnets Mother’s Day assembly - Parents and carers are welcome although only one adult per child please if possible. This will enable everyone to be able to see the children. Cygnets and Reception-2.20 p.m. Year 1 and 2- 2.40 p.m. Children can be taken home following their assembly.

• W/B 31st March
  Autism Acceptance Week - Children will be finding out more about Autism and what it’s like to have Autism or to have a family member with Autism. 

• Tues 1st April
  Wear favourite colour to school - This is to celebrate the fact that we are all special, unique and different, regardless of labels.
  Parents’ evening  - In person. You will be given the choice to book either a 10 minute in person appointment on this date or a 10 minute online appointment on Wednesday 9th April. 

   

• Wed 9th April
  Parents’ evening - Hybrid- In Person and Online. You will be given the choice to book either a 10 minute in person or online appointment on this date or a 10 minute in person appointment on Tuesday 1st April.

• Fri 11th April
  9:10am Easter Assembly  led by Rev Dan - parents are welcome to join but the children will not be performing

Friday 7th February - Spring 1 Week 5 - What's your favourite Italian treat?

The children have enjoyed a wide range of activities inspired by the country of Italy this week. We have explored different Italian cuisines and we have been lucky enough to be able to make pasta using a special pasta machine. Thank you to the volunteers who helped us with this - we couldn't have done it without you! We have also had lots of fun this week in our pizzeria roleplay where the children have used our handmade pizza oven to serve delicious pizza to their customers. 

As part of Mental Health Week 2025, we have continued to focus on all of the ways we can keep our minds healthy. The children have already learnt lots of strategies to support them with their emotional regulation and it was lovely to see them share their understanding of this. Thank you to those of you who could attend our Inside Out Movie Evening - it was lovely to see so many of you there. We hope to host more similar events in school in the future!

Next week. we'll be thinking about the conditions needed for growing plants (farming crops), and we hope to begin sowing seeds for vegetables in our raised beds and get some flowers and herbs growing in our garden. If there are any green fingered parents/grandparents etc. who would like to join us for an afternoon next week and help, we'd really love your support. Research also shows that gardening can be a great way of supporting mental health and wellbeing; getting outside and working together towards a shared, achievable goal (even in the cold apparently).

Friday 31st January 2025 - Can you only get noodles in China? 

This week we've been learning about China and the Lunar New Year. We've had lots of fun making fans, trying to master the art of using chopsticks and eating some delicious noodles to celebrate the start of the year of the Snake. Thank you to the parents who came in to cook for us - the children loved it! Happy New Year to the children and their families who were celebrating this week.

The children are making superb progress with their writing too! We've been practising writing more CVC words, working on spelling, letter formation and finger spaces when recording a dictated sentence about which Chinese zodiac animals we are: the pig or the rat!

 We also wrote a short caption about our own dragons we designed. We're continually practising oral composition of a complete sentence as 'a chunk of sense', making sure we use the correct grammar when speaking. We don't have all the phonic knowledge we need for everything we want to write yet, but we're working on building our confidence to take risks and 'have a go'. We will start thinking more about using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops as we keep practising.

We have also been exploring the composition of numbers bigger than five, finding the '5 within', and completed journalling about the 'Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer' number rhyme. Then we changed it to six little men, then seven little men.

Next week is Children's Mental Health Week falls across next week too, but we'll be focussing on the activities we have planned for it in the week after half term (beginning 19th February). The theme this year is: 'Know Yourself, Grow Yourself'. 

There will be a 'Movie Night' on  Thursday 6th February, where children and their families are invited to join us at 3.30pm to watch the movie “Inside Out”. Bring along your rugs, cushions and picnic teas and enjoy an early evening out, watching the film and hearing a little about how this can help your child to talk about their emotions. There will not be a charge for this event but we would encourage you to give a small donation towards providing resources to support mental health activities in school.

Friday 24th January 2025 - Spring 1 Week 3 - How many curries could we try in countries like India or Pakistan?

In phonics we learned two more sounds: /w/ and /x/. Everyone's sounding out and blending is really coming along. Now we just need to build on fluency and start thinking about using expression when reading our decodable texts.

Our maths focus was all about the composition of the number 5 this week. We did a lot of work on 'Five Little Speckled Frogs', using toys, props and other concrete manipulatives to represent the frogs. We can show the different ways (parts) that we can make the 'whole' 5.

Thank you so much to everyone who was able to attend our interactive maths session yesterday afternoon. It was lovely for the sessions to be so well attended, even if it was a bit of a squash and squeeze! We really appreciate your engagement and support.

We will be sending through a survey for feedback on our interactive sessions. Please complete it so your voice can be heard and we can continue to make improvements where possible.

Your children will be bringing some home learning activities back with them over the next five weeks. We'll pop them in the yellow phonics folders so they don't get scrunched up. These resources have been developed by the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics (NCETM) and will support your child with consolidating their deep understanding of number. This will develop their skills of subitising, counting (cardinality and ordinality) and cement their learning on concepts of number composition and comparison. 

The resources are yours to keep and the logs can be stuck in the pink shared learning books if you would like, so we can celebrate your child's engagement and achievements!

Friday 17th January 2025 - Spring 1 Week 2 - Do the French really make the best bread?

It's been another busy week In Reception. We have been exploring French cuisine this week, looking at French patisseries and creating our own French Cafe outdoors. We even had the opportunity to make and taste our own bread. Aswell as this, we have been exploring different French landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.

In phonics we've started learning our first level 2 sounds: 'j' and 'v'. The children have really risen to the challenge!

We also wrote our first sentences in our workbooks. These were simple captions describing a French patisserie of their choice.

In maths, we've been building up our mental number lines (1-5), understanding the sequence of numbers and using staircases as a visual to consolidate the children's understanding of 'one more' and 'one fewer'.

Thank you so much to those of you who have already offered your time to come in and help support us with cooking each week. If you think you might be available but want a bit more information. please come and have a chat with either Mrs Towers or Mrs Thomas. We'd really appreciate your help!

Friday 10th January 2025 - Spring 1 Where does our food come from? - Week 1 - What makes fruit different from vegetables?

All the children have come back into school ready for learning and have a really positive week back. Despite the cold this week we have managed to spend lots of time outside this week and the children have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the ice and frost in our outdoor classroom.

We've begun our new topic 'Where does our food come from?' where we'll be exploring food, landmarks and traditions in a selection of different countries around the world. This week we started by exploring fruits and vegetables and read the story 'Oliver's Vegetables'. We enjoyed exploring different fruits and vegetables and how they differ from one another. We have also been looking at maps and exploring different landmarks close to where we live.

In phonics we've been revisiting and assessing our knowledge of level 1+, before we move onto level 2 next week.

In maths we've been consolidating our subitising skills and relating different representations of numbers 1-5 with their corresponding numerals.

Request for help

Over the next few weeks, we'll be learning about different countries and we'd really love to provide the children with the opportunity of cooking/baking some food to taste each week. This will be wholly reliant on parent volunteers offering to help.

Ideally, Wednesday afternoons (from 1pm) are best, as we already have one volunteer supporting our outdoor provision, whilst class teachers and TAs deliver interventions. We would provide (very simple) recipes, all the ingredients and equipment, ensuring they would be safe and meet all dietary requirements including allergies. If you think you can help, please get in touch.

These are what we were hoping to include:

• W/B 13^th Jan - France: baking bread

• W/B 20^th Jan - India and Pakistan: making a veggie curry

• W/B 27^th Jan - China: cooking a veggie noodle dish 

• W/B 3^rd Feb - Italy: making pasta
   

• W/B 11^th Feb - planting seeds in the garden - no cooking involved!

Other dates for your diary this half term:

• Mon 13th Jan - ‘Brew Monday’. Parents and carers are invited into class from 2pm for activities to support positive mental health. You can then grab a cuppa and cake in the hall and chat with mental health experts.

• Thurs 23rd Jan - Reception Maths Interactive Parents and Carers Session and Work Viewing at 2:30pm. Join your child and their class teacher for a mini maths lesson and chance to better understand your child's learning

• W/B 3rd Feb - Children's Mental Health Week. The children will take part in activities linked to story books highlighting the importance of positive mental health.

• Thurs 6^th Feb - Movie Night starting at 3.30pm. Bring your picnic tea and come and watch “Inside Out” with your friends and family. This movie is a great chance to talk about emotions and how we react to our feelings. Donations encouraged to support our work on mental health.

• Tues 11^th Feb - Safer Internet Day. The children will be taking part in a range of activities throughout the day to support their learning about online safety.

Friday 6th December 2024 - Autumn 2 Week 5 - What are shadows?

This week we've been learning about shadows, the night sky and exploring star constellations. We've also delivered the Taking Care - Protective Behaviours programme. Please see the previous email sent on Tuesday for more information. 

Christmas assemblies

We have also been very busy rehearsing our Christmas assembly, ready to perform next week!

If you haven't already, please send in with your child on Monday a Christmassy/wintery outfit, jumper or pyjamas (whatever's easiest). We will be having a dress rehearsal (with the whole school) first thing and will be practising changing all by ourselves!

There are two opportunities to see our short assembly:

Tuesday 10^th December and Wednesday 11^th December, both at 1:20pm. There are no tickets for this as it is one year group at a time so the hall shouldn't be too crowded at all.

Helpers needed!

On  the afternoon of Tuesday 17^th December, the whole school will be attending and participating in a Christmas service at St Mark's Chruch. We will be walking there and any offers of adult support to accompany us safely there and back would be gratefully received. Please email us to let us know you're coming - we'll organise groups accordingly.

Friday 29th November 2024

This week has been a fun-filled one where we've enjoyed stories such as 'The Dark' by Lemony Snicket and 'Can't You Sleep Little Bear?' by Martin Waddell. We've discussed how the dark maybe isn't so scary and it might just be our imaginations running away with us that can be frightening.

We've explored using torches and coloured filters as well as designing and making playdough monsters (that could hide in the dark).

Today and Monday are our 'Three Little Pigs' Theme Days. There will be some photos of the different activities and experiences that have taken place across the school, emailed out next week. These are taking place to familiarise the children with the story in preparation for our trip to see the production at the Macready Theatre on Monday 16^th December.

We've now been taking part in the 'Walk to School Challenge' using the Living Streets Travel Tracker for a couple of weeks now. Both reception classes are doing a great job and earned their first badge, which will be coming home today. The aim is to walk to school as much as possible - there is a new WOW badge to earn each month by walking/wheeling, cycling, scooting or doing Park and Stride. 

Friday 15th November 2024

Please see this week's floor book entry attached.

This week in phonics, we've learned two new graphemes: 'ck' and 'e'.

You'll have had the grapheme pictures and tiles for 'g', 'o', 'c' and 'k' come home in your child's bookbag today. You can add them to your collection. Playing games whilst revisiting sounds already learned will really help to consolidate your child's understanding of the grapho-phonic correspondences. You'll also be able to show them how to compose many simple CVC (and now CVCC) words!

In maths, we've been continuing to consolidate counting and looking at the composition of numbers up to 5, understanding that we can count objects in any order but only once each, remembering to stop on the final one. We've also been comparing numbers and exploring vocabulary such as: less, fewer, more, bigger, smaller, most, least and equal.

Thank you so much to everyone who has sent in wellies for their child to wear when we get outside and visit the muddier areas of our school. If your child already has a pair at Puffin club, we'll liaise with them so please don't worry that you'll need to buy an additional pair.

Please remember to clearly label both wellies. 

Another thank you for all of your donations for Children in Need today. 

Thursday 14th November 2024

Thank you to those who were able to attend for joining us on Monday.

Please see the attached slides used in the meeting for those of you who were unable to make it but wanted a chance to catch up on anything missed.

Reading slides to follow.

Friday 25th October 2024

During this last week of the half term, we've been exploring and describing the signs of autumn. Thank you so much for all the conkers, pine cones, leaves and other natural materials you've been bringing in. They have been fabulous for giving the children meaningful hands-on experiences and very much appreciated! 

In maths we've been comparing numbers 1-5 using the vocabulary 'more' and 'less', continuing to build on our subitising skills too, then quickly comparing two different amounts. The conkers have come in handy for that too!

In phonics we've learnt two new sounds: 'g' and 'o'. Now there are even more words we can begin to read and write.

After the half term break we will be starting a new topic: 'Are you afraid of the dark?' This will focus on learning about light and dark as well as different festivals celebrated in different religions and cultures in the autumn. We'll be looking at Diwali, Bonfire Night, Mid-Autumn (Moon) festival (even though it's a little bit late) and later on ... Christmas!

If there are any festivals or celebrations important to you and your child that you'd like to share with us, please get in touch. It doesn't have to be just in this coming half term. We'd love the opportunity to learn about different traditions and celebrate each other's cultures throughout the year. We'd also welcome any parents who would like to come in to talk to the reception classes about any festivals they celebrate with their families and friends. Sharing traditional dress, tasting food, observing artwork or artefacts, etc. would be fantastic experiences for the children. Just email if you'd like to help and we'll schedule in a visit.

There will also be a reception parents' meeting about reading taking place on Monday 11th November at 2:15pm. We hope to see many of you there!

We hope you have a wonderful and restful half term break and look forward to seeing you on Monday 4th.

Friday 18th October 2024

We've been working hard again this week, teaching our 7^th and 8^th sounds in phonics: 'm' and 'd'. So many more children are now blending which is fantastic!

We have also been developing a deeper understanding of numbers 1-4 and been sharpening our subitising skills. 

Our junk model houses are well underway. We'll be adding more detail to them next week and then assembling them all to create a street.

Thank you so much for all the cardboard box donations - they've all been used as they were much needed!

Next week we're focussing on autumn. We already have a few conkers, but if any of you get outdoors this weekend, we'd love to add to our collection. Any leaves that would be good for rubbings or comparing colours would be fabulous. Pine cones would also be greatly received!

We will also have some focus lessons on our new RE curriculum. Our overarching question for this unit is "How can people show that they belong together?" Within this first week, we will be trying to answer the questions:

1.    Where do I Belong?

2.    What groups can people be part of? 

3.          How do some people show their worldview? 

We'll be exploring different symbols for some of the main world religions, reading the book 'Hats of Faith' and beginning to explore a Muslim and Sikh Worldview. 
If any parents belong to a faith and would be interested in coming into school for a short visit and talking to the children about your beliefs and practices, that would be fantastic. Please bear in mind the age-group, so it will just be a very short and simple discussion, but such a valuable opportunity for some of our pupils to also share their religion and culture with their class.

We'd love for the children to be able to learn more about special clothing, jewellery or artefacts that are significant to your faith; if you have any items that the children could see and ask questions about, or potentially handle (if appropriate) that would be wonderful too.

If you're available to help, please let Mrs Towers or Mrs Thomas know, either at the beginning/end of the school day or by replying to this email, and we'll organise a time.

Thank you for your much appreciated continued support.

Friday 11th October 2024

Please see the attached floor book pages for this week.

There won't be any Floppy's phonics folder with sheets in your child's bookbag this week as we've been learning 'i' and 'n'. Next week we will be focussing on 'm' and 'd', and after that we will send the sheets with all 4 sounds on and the picture and grapheme tiles to add to your collection and expand on the games.

In maths this week, we've been looking at the composition of numbers up to 5, but focusing mainly on the 'threeness of 3' and understanding that if you rearrange three objects into a different order, if they're different colours, shapes or sizes, 3 is still 3! We've also been making patterns: ABAB, ABB and ABC. We'll continue to practise these skills through a range of different activities in our provision

We've been so lucky to have lots of visits from babies this week! The children have enjoyed learning about what babies can't do by themselves that they can now that they're 4 and 5. We also created  timelines to show change over time and build on our understanding of simple chronology.

Next week, each child will be creating a junk model house to add to a whole class 'street'. If you have any small cardboard boxes to donate, no bigger than 20x20x30cm (roughly, or something similar!) it would be very much appreciated! We have a few already, but extras would be great.

Parents' evenings are coming up and the booking system went live on Wednesday. If you haven't yet had a chance to book your appointment for Thursday 17^th of Tuesday 22nd October, you can follow this link: SchoolCloud Login. If you're experiencing any difficulties with the booking system, please get in touch with the admin team and they should be able to help you.

We've had a few requests for a guide on the marking symbols used in school.

We also sometimes use SC for 'self correction'.

We hope that's helpful.

Friday 4th October 2024

It's been a very exciting and different day. The children were so well behaved, walking together safely and being excellent representatives for our school. We are very proud of them. There may have been a few welly/shoe mix-ups - there were a lot to organise! If you're missing anything, please let us know and we will locate and return your items to you as soon as we can!

This week we've been busy learning another 2 sounds: 't' and 'p'. You'll notice a new Floppy's Phonics Folder in your child's book bag containing a couple of sheets. There's one with 4 sections which has already been completed. These are our Floppy's Phonics sheets which we complete in school and will be sending home at the end of each week so you can see what we're learning, how your child's getting on and what they need to keep practising. Please keep your child's sheets in the folder. You may send it back to school on a Monday so new sheets don't get creased when we put them in your child's book bag at the end of each week.

There's also a sheet of grapheme and picture cards with this week's sounds. The attached document provides guidance for parents on how to use this as a resource which you'll add to each week and can use as ongoing support for your child's phonics learning at home. Keeping them in an envelope or plastic wallet is ideal. Please don't stick the cards in your pink shared learning books - that way you can keep using them. Try to make it a short, snappy and fun way to engage your child with consolidating their learning and spending some quality time with them, all in one go! It shouldn't be onerous or stressful for you.

Over the next couple of weeks we'll be revising the first 4 sounds, learning the next few sounds and working on our recognition of the letters corresponding with their sounds as well as starting to blend them together to begin to make consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

In maths, we've been working on counting small groups of objects, images and even counting out the number of sounds we can hear! For successful and secure counting,  children need to understand the five principles of counting. If you're interested in knowing more, please see the attached explanation.

Friday 27th September 2024

This has been yet another busy week. 

We have now started our main topic for this half term: 'What makes a home?'.

This week our topic focus has been looking at different families as well as talking about drawing our own families. Attached are the week's pages from our floor book. 

We had an exciting week where we had a visit from teachers and pupils from Rugby School, performing in a short concert for the children in Cygnets and Reception together. They introduced the children to a few different types of instruments. Everyone really enjoyed it and loved describing the different sounds: high, low, loud, quiet, sad and happy.

Then we had a visit from Warwick the Bear, which we've already emailed you all about - we'll start sending him home for weekend adventures soon.

We've also started our phonics and mastering number lessons and even got outside when we managed to avoid the rain!

There is also an information booklet attached with guidance on how to use the Floppy's Phonics Extra Practice Zone. This is simply there if you want to use it. We understand that different learning approaches suit different children (and their parents) so this is not compulsory, just a resource you may use if you wish to.

Thank you to everyone who could make it to the reception parents' meeting this afternoon. You should have already received the slides, but we'll also be adding them to the school website so you can catch them if you missed it or want to have another look. 

Friday 20th September 2024

It's been another busy week in reception and we've achieved an awful lot!

You'll see from the attached pages from our floor book just why your child may be exhausted after we've packed so much in. Every child's face is covered as the admin team work hard to compile permissions lists for all year groups.

Both classes are now very familiar with the daily routines and we're seeing more and more happy, confident faces coming in each morning. 

We've been learning about Chris Haughton's story 'Don't Worry Little Crab', which has been a great conversation starter for talking about feeling worried about starting school but it never being as bad once we get there, as well as things and people who help us when we're anxious. We're also been making stick puppets to help re-enact the story and creating artwork for a collaborative display (we'll send a photo through when it's all finished and ready) using a range of different tools and techniques.

Please could we remind everyone to ensure your child comes into school with a coat suitable for those sudden rain showers. We try to get outside whenever we can, even when there's light rain and the weather's quite unpredictable at the moment!

You are all invited to join us for the Reception Parents & Carers meeting on Friday 27^th September at 2:15pm. We will share with you what a typical day in reception looks like, the seven areas of learning and the skills that your child will be building through our curriculum. We understand that many of you work during school hours and will be unable to join us - we will send out the slides and links to useful clips after the meeting.

Again, if you have any questions or concerns, please do get in touch. If you'd like to catch us at the end of the day, please wait until we've dismissed all of the children, ensuring that everyone has reached their adult safely first.

We go through all the discarded cardigans and jumpers at the end of each day, giving them out to the children but sometimes they still get left behind! You're always welcome to come in and have a look through the cloakroom, in case we've missed any. We also have a small pile of unnamed items already forming - If you think any of them might be yours, please just come and let us know. We're happy to help.

Friday  13th September 2024 

Well, we've made it through our first full week in reception and the children have been amazing! There have been a few tears coming in in the mornings, but it hasn't taken the children long to settle once in their classrooms.

We've attached some photos to show you some of the things they got up to so far. They've all been very busy and had plenty of time mixing up between the classes and in the outdoor classroom!

We'll continue to send home a weekly email with pages from our reception floor book, keeping you updated, especially when we're introducing new learning or an activity that might be useful at home. These will be uploaded regularly to our class page on the school website: https://www.bawnmoreinfantschool.co.uk/reception-1/

There is a lot for our admin team to do in order to be up and running with everything needed on the website, so please bear with us.

During our first couple of weeks, our topic is 'How do I feel?'. We will start by thinking about the emotions we all experience. We will name them and talk about when or where we feel them. The children will then talk, draw and maybe write about the things they are good at or enjoy doing at school and at home.  We will discuss whether these things are the same for all of us.

For the rest of this half term, we will be asking the children to explore the question ‘What makes a home?’. More information will follow, but you can have a look at our planning overviews for each, attached and to be uploaded later to our curriculum pages on the website: https://www.bawnmoreinfantschool.co.uk/reception/

You'll also find the shared learning webs here (but we'll send them out as paper copies and in an email next week too)!

We will be using our outdoor environment regularly to practise our gross motor skills on the trim trail and the wheeled vehicles (balance bikes, scooters, etc.) as well as getting to know all our new friends by sharing and taking turns with activities together in the outdoor classroom.  In PE we will start practising our physical skills with our PE curriculum with Miss Sprayson as well as having PE with our class teachers.  PE days are Tuesdays and Fridays and the children come to school wearing their PE kits.

In Literacy our school follows the ‘Floppy’s Phonics’ scheme which is linked to the Oxford Reading Tree books.  We will start to learn our first sounds (s, a , t , p, i, n, etc).  These will help us ‘sound out’ and blend simple words when reading and spelling.  We will also get to know the characters in our reading books: Biff, Chip, Kipper and Floppy the dog.  Listening to and talking about stories and poems will of course be a big focus and we will be doing this every day.

In Numeracy we will be following the NCETM Maths Mastery Number Sense programme to explore and develop our understanding of numbers to 5.  We will be using a variety of practical apparatus and visual representations to count, group and find patterns within numbers. We will also learn about and develop the children’s vocabulary related to shapes and measurement in our environment. Attached is an overview for the year, for your information.

Our shared learning books will come home in your child's bookbag on Wednesday afternoons and you can share your child’s learning at home by recording it in this pink book and returning it to school on Monday mornings.

Our priority is that your child is happy to come to school, try new things and make new friends! If you have any questions or concerns about classroom matters you can always talk to the class teacher at drop off or pick up times (after we've dismissed all of the children) or email us on this email. If it's particularly busy at drop off you can always pass a message to the admin team or put a note in your child's bookbag - this is checked each morning. Again, if we're in high demand at pick up time, you can always email us to arrange a specific time to meet or have a quick phone call.

Here is a QR code to join the Reception 2024-25 WhatsApp group. It's not officially run or monitored by Bawnmore staff, but can be a really useful way of making connections and keeping in the loop.