Welcome to Reception! 

Here you will find all the information you need about Reception at Mickley First School! I am looking forward to teaching your child this year and working together to make their first school year at Mickley really special. 

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. 

Phonics and Reading Books:

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.’

Your child 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.

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!

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.

ClassDojo:  

We are very much looking forward to sharing what we are learning about and celebrating with your children through using ClassDojo. Our class has been set up, feel free to send some holiday photographs to share with the class. Please speak to a member of staff if you are unable to access ClassDojo for any reason. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free 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].