Welcome to Year R

Welcome to Year R

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the exciting activities, areas of learning and discovery opportunities that our 4 to 5 year old children will enjoy in their first year at school.

In Reception, the children have access to multiple outside areas and an inviting classroom, with all areas carefully planned and set up to offer a rich and stimulating environment; one that embraces all aspects of the EYFS curriculum. Our extensive grounds allow the children to freely explore and develop their imaginative, creative and physical skills. Within our secret garden, children can enjoy den building, exploring nature, planting and imaginative play in our mud kitchen. In the sensory garden, children enjoy the changing sights and sounds over the seasons with a multitude of hidden instruments, mirrors, birdhouses and bug hotels as well as many highly fragranced herbs and flowers.

We are proud to offer a play track and Little Street village for the children to develop their physical development and role play skills and most importantly to bring their learning to life. The children’s creative and imaginative skills are encouraged to flow throughout class directed and independent play time.

The Literacy curriculum in Reception is covered through a variety of traditional tales, non- fiction text and stories from other cultures. With role play areas available throughout the setting, children enjoy applying new stories and imaginative features to their play and also adding their own twists to stories they know and love. We place a strong emphasis on the importance of the early development of reading and writing, with dedicated times for both of these skills throughout each day. Each child will come home each week with a new reading for pleasure book and freely chosen library book. Our creative curriculum covers all aspect of the EYFS areas of learning and we are particularly proud to offer dedicated PE lessons (including swimming in our on-site pool), weekly French lessons and Outdoor Woodland Learning (OWLS) for all children in early years.

One of the highlights of the year is our Christmas Production where the children thoroughly enjoy displaying their newfound confidence on stage.  Each child also has the opportunity to perform in a class assembly where each class showcases what they have learnt in their first year at school. We invite parents to us on performance days to celebrate so many successes and talents that emerge even from such a young age.  

We value the importance of building strong relationships with our parents, keeping the child at the heart. Parents are welcome to help in school as parent readers, surprise storytellers, swimming volunteers, support with arts and crafts projects and on school trips. Parents are also welcome to attend workshops and coffee mornings as well as enjoying watching their child perform on a number of occasions.

Thank you for visiting our page and we hope you enjoy seeing what an exciting time we have in Reception.

Miss Randles (Year R Leader)

Curriculum Map