Reception

In Reception the children learn in a number of ways:
Through songs, games and teaching activities
Through playing
From first hand experience
Some time is whole group time, but many activities operate with small groups or in pairs where the children have the chance to explore and develop at their own pace.

The Key Curriculum Learning Areas for the Reception class

Literacy
Literacy teaching objectives cover three main areas:

Reading skills
We begin teaching phonics; the sounds letters make (a, b, ch, sh, ck), and then put these sounds together to make words. This skill can be used to decode many words in the English language. We also teach high frequency words that the children learn by sight, such as the and one.
We develop reading for meaning with questions about the books and pictures.

Writing
Writing is developed from emergent writing to forming letters. Emergent writing is critical for children’s imagination. The flow of writing shows how they are progressing in their phonics knowledge and high frequency word usage to convey meaning.

Speaking and Listening.
Spoken language is also vital and so we devote time to speaking and listening in literacy time.

We use the Oxford Reading Tree as our reading scheme throughout the school. The series is based on the everyday life of a family in the United Kingdom. As the series progresses, they move on to have exciting adventures which are fun, informative and interesting to read about. The first books have no words and the children are encouraged to tell their own stories, predict and sequence events. They become familiar with the characters and soon progress to reading simple sentences. The books go home regularly for you to share with your child.

Mathematics
Our mathematics programme is based on the British National Numeracy Strategy. We use the Oxford Maths Zone scheme which focuses on understanding and mental work before written work. It begins with number recognition, and progresses to simple operations (+, -), using maths vocabulary like more, and less, counting on and backwards. It also covers concepts like shapes, positions and days of the week. They work in small groups with lots of games and songs to help consolidate what they have learned.

Theme Work
Theme time covers the Knowledge and Understanding of the World National Curriculum learning objectives. Throughout the year our theme work will include various topics like Growing, Colours, Houses and Homes, Materials, Festivals and Ourselves. Theme work is cross–curricular and depending on the topic, includes social studies, geography, science, art, social and emotional development. It also often links in with literacy and mathematics. Religious education, Design and technology and ICT (computer) are also integrated into theme time. The children have computer time each week.

Physical Education
Physical Education is important for the development of the children’s gross motor skills. Ball skills, climbing, team games, kicking, rolling, jumping and throwing are some of the skills we develop.
During the warmer weather, the children swim once a week at the Nursery School pool.
Gymnastics is also part of our PE curriculum. The children enjoy going out to a well equipped gymnasium to cover this area of the curriculum.

Music
The children enjoy music lessons twice a week. The emphasis is on enjoying music and movement, whilst learning about beat and rhythm. The children participate in our annual Christmas concert.