Wow! What a great start to school life.

We have made a great start learning lots of phonic sounds and some early number skills, for example subitising. We have been working to name 2D shapes and to identify sides and corners. We developed our gross motor skills through daily dough disco sessions.

We experience a full curriculum: Jigsaw (personal, social and emotional education), RE, History, Geography, Science,Music, Art and Design and Technology, PE and physical development sessions, Maths and English. We follow the Early Years curriculum guidance to cover this and work hard to bring it to life for the children.

The children are able to put on their own wellies and later change back into their shoes for our weekly welly walks. These are adventures in the grounds to learn about the world around us. We planted bulbs and learnt about where it is safe to play at lunch play and what it is safe to play with. We are learning simple risk assessment skills and talk about the risk and the benefit of different outdoor activities.

We have had a community afternoon to explore engaging ways to help your child love maths. Children and carers had a go at a variety of games and activities, including scarf dancing to write numbers.

Our lantern lit pyjama story time was enjoyed by Nursery and Reception families. The children made their own lanterns and watched a simple performance of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears (by staff) and enjoyed stories read by their teachers. It was lovely to watch the families going back home in the dark lit up by their lanterns.

At the end of the term the Reception class performed songs and a simple dance while dressed as angels as part of the Nativity performance at school.  What a great start to Christmas.

Spring Term 1

We have started the New Year with enthusiasm and have been enjoying some great learning. The children have set themselves targets to achieve. Many children decided to learn to zip up their coats. We are now better at doing up our own coats than many of the children higher up the school.

Our outdoor adventures have continued for example, playing hide and seek to learn to keep safe and begin to risk asses for ourselves, exploring giant ice cubes, observing the effect of wind on evergreen and deciduous trees (we had an exciting session when we tried to catch the wind)  and learning about hedgehogs and hibernation. We even made our own tiny hedgehogs and then found a good place for them to hibernate in the grounds. More recently we learnt to recognise some common birds as we prepared for the Big School Birdwatch.  The children used collage to create some fabulous 3D birds to display in class. We have spotted nests in the grounds and fed the birds and watched them as they eat.

The New Year was also a time for some new activities to start in class. We began our Big Brush daily toothbrushing at school and this should help us reinforce good habits for healthy teeth. We also introduced regular 'drawing club' sessions in class where the children invent new parts for stories. Lots of the children are now confidently writing simple words like peg, hen, cat and red. Some children are feeling ready to start using the sentence stems displayed to write simple sentences such as, 'It is a ____________' and 'I see a__________'. They use simple words to complete sentences or challenge themselves to use their phonics. One child worked hard to use phonics to try and write 'tickle machine' - this was how the main character was going to get rid of the monster in the story!

We were very pleased to welcome in our Reception and Nursery community to a 'Help your child read and write ' afternoon of activities. Parents and children shared games and provision that is regularly available in class while the children proudly showed off their phonics skills and shared their writing books with their parents. We were delighted by the feedback:

' Perfect ideas , so much fun learning.'

'Brilliant! Keep on doing what you're doing.'

'Such helpful activities - not just for kids but for parents too.'

'I think the open afternoons are really great! Might be nice to have more 121 meetings with teachers.'

'Today is an amazing day, it's more than a professional way of how to encourage our kids to read and write. I really appreciate them. Many thanks for your effort.'

'It was wonderful. I loved seeing my daughter's development.'

'It was amazing to see all the activities that kids were engaging with. So much appreciated and pleased. Your efforts are so clear and even reflected in every kid's education.'

'Really good afternoon to see what the children get up to and how reading and writing is taught.'

'Very pleased with this afternoon and to see all the activities they are taking part in.'

Spring Term 2 2024

Our Reception children have had a fun packed time in class, working super hard on their reading, writing and maths. They have spent time exploring and developing their imagination through their topic of Travelling.

Drawing Club is offering fantastic opportunities for the children to apply their phonics learning from Read Write inc, linked to some wonderful stories. They have been writing for all sorts of purposes across the provision, such as making signs for the car wash, creating books about transport and making up their own stories.

We love reading in Reception and jumping into the world of stories. A fabulous time was had during World Book Day where the children dressed up as their favourite book characters and went on their own ‘Magic Train Ride’.

Lots of opportunities have also been had to help the children master their understanding of number and different mathematical concepts. The children have thought about key mathematical vocabulary such as ‘taller’, ‘shorter’, ‘longer’, 'full', 'half-full' and 'empty'. They have been learning how to sequence events and days of the week. They have also started to explore words associated with time, such as 'later', 'tomorrow' and 'today.'

We also love to adventure and invent in Reception! Children work together to build giant models and make up games. They work to invent big and small creations including food shooters, pirate ships and costumes, applying lots of practical skills taught in class. In addition, our weekly welly time sessions explore the possibilities for adventures outdoors and help us to learn more about our planet and how to care for it.

The have also enjoyed a wonderful trip to Exeter Library where they go to experience a visit away from school.