Reception 2023 - 2024
Miss Ranch
Teacher
Our Reception class is a warm and welcoming environment where lots of exciting learning takes place. The classroom is full of places to learn through play such as craft areas, cosy book corners, stimulating maths zones and a role play that allows your child to fully integrate themselves into the topic of the term. We cover many topics over the year such as minibeasts, where we raise our own caterpillars and watch them transform into beautiful butterflies before setting them free. We also learn about Africa and its incredible animals as well as looking closely at our own environment and how it changes throughout the seasons.
We are committed to ensuring that our learners understand how diverse our world is by celebrating a range of multi – cultural events such as Diwali, where we make our own Diva lamps and learn how to bhangra dance. We also celebrate Chinese New Year where we take part in Dragon dances, learn how to sing in Mandarin and enjoy tasting some new dishes!
In Reception we work from the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) documentation. This is a statutory curriculum for all children in England and sets out clear goals (Early Learning Goals) which children aim to achieve by the end of Foundation Stage before they transition up to Year One. We observe the children’s interests and follow their lead in the topics they want to learn about.
At the beginning of the year a baseline assessment is done for all children in Reception. This helps the staff to plan effectively for each individual child’s next steps. Children enjoy showing us what they can do and are quick to celebrate success! We model resilience throughout the Foundation Stage, encouraging children to take risks and accept new challenges using a play based approach. Lessons are planned to be engaging and fun and continue to be assessed daily.
We spend time developing what are called the 'Prime Areas'. These are; Communication and Language, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Physical Development. When children are progressing well in these areas of learning we can begin to help them with more formal features of learning such as reading and writing.
A lot of learning in Reception is done through continuous provision. This includes a large indoor and outdoor environment that helps children to access all areas of learning such as; exploring media and materials, being imaginative, building and construction, shapes, numbers and much more. Each area has carefully thought out activities and resources in to help learners achieve a specific goal which is changed on a weekly basis.
The Reception staff are here to help your child be the best they can be at Longwood and we look forward to sharing your child's learning journey with you!
If have any questions about your child's learning or would like some support, please book an appointment with the teacher or send us an email.
