Reception Information | Mickley First School

Welcome to Reception!

Here you will find all the information you need about Reception year at Mickley First School! Our Early Years Team work together to make your child’s first school year at Mickley really special.

We aim to provide every child with a feeling of security, feeling as a valued individual and feeling confident to explore new learning. We understand that the Reception school year is pivotal in children developing a love for learning, therefore we ensure there is a balance of engaging teacher-led activities as well as child-initiated exploration. This allows for the children to follow their own interests and build upon their own passions.

Within the first few weeks of Reception year, we invite parents into school to join us for a Curriculum Information Meeting where we share information about our class routines, expectations and curriculum.

LINK TO CURRICULUM PAGE

See our Autumn Term Topic – Emotions and Celebrations

See our Autumn Term Topic – Myself and My World

See our Spring Term Topic – Winter and Dinosaurs

ClassDojo:

We use the ClassDojo app to keep in touch regularly with parents, sharing the children’s learning online.

Individual Portfolios: We use ClassDojo portfolios to share ‘wow moments’ at home. This can be something your child is proud of and wants to share, or something chosen to show progress and achievements.
Whole class posts: At the end of each week, we share a whole class post to share what we have been up to in school that week.
Communication: We encourage you to send messages and add photos to your child’s portfolio. These can be shared in school to celebrate anything that has been going on at home.

If you have any questions or concerns, we encourage parents to chat to us at the start or end of the school day. Alternatively, you can write a message in your child’s diary or contact our school office by phoning 01661 842269 or emailing [email protected].

School Subjects

PE Days:

Our PE sessions are on a Friday and are delivered by the NUFC Foundation. Please ensure your child comes into school wearing their P.E kit for this session. This should be a school jumper, a white T-shirt and black shorts or jogging bottoms with trainers for outdoors. All uniform should be labelled, including coats, shoes and PE kits.

Outdoor Shoes:

We are fortunate to have a wonderful outdoor space and we spend lots of time exploring the world around us, whatever the weather! We ask that children have a pair of wellies that are kept in school for these occasions.

Phonics and Reading Books:

We follow the Little Wandle Phonics Scheme to teach new letters and sounds. We teach four new sounds a week and have a review lesson on a Friday. You will receive a list of the sounds that we are learning to have at home, to support your children with the letter formation and pronunciation. For more information please see the Little Wandle website – https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

As your child begins their reading journey, they will start to bring home a reading book in line with their current reading ability. At the start of Reception these books are wordless or have very few words but are important to your child’s reading development. These books allow children to learn how stories work, including the order and direction in which they read, without the pressure of too many words on the page. Children will enjoy talking about the story and discussing what is happening in the pictures. The first step in reading is to use visual prompts to help read the words. The pictures provide lots of opportunities for playing with environmental sounds, an important first step in the teaching of phonics. As your child’s phonics knowledge and reading skills develop, they will receive a phonics-based book linked to the sounds taught in class, these books will then become levelled reading books according to their reading ability. In school we call this ‘My Book.’

The children will bring home a ‘My Book’ and an ‘Our Book’. The ‘My Book’ is a book matched to your child’s phonics knowledge. These books are used to boost your child’s fluency when reading aloud and encouraging them to segment and blend words. The ‘Our Book’ is a book that the children choose themselves from our class library. This should be read alongside an adult and aims to boost children’s interest and love of reading. These books are to be returned on Friday.

Mathematics:

We follow the White Rose Maths scheme, supporting the children to gain a deep understanding of the counting principles and number sense. Key mathematical concepts are revisited and developed throughout the year. For more information please see – https://whiteroseeducation.com/parent-pupil-resources/maths#start

Homework:

To support your child’s reading and writing, your child will bring home a Homework Book on Friday with the sounds they have been learning that week and a couple of activities to practice at home. This will be age appropriate and allow yourselves to be involved in their learning to read journey!

End of Reception:

We aim for every child to leave Reception as an independent, confident and enthusiastic learner, ready for Key Stage 1. We have a smooth transition into Year 1, ensuring the Early Learning Goals have been met.