WELCOME TO
Reception is a very important part of your child’s school journey as it helps your child get ready for school as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes. We hope your child’s early years’ experience will be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; and support their development, care and learning needs.
For children in the Early Years Foundation Stage, we adopt a rigorous approach towards individualised teaching and learning. The statutory Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is the basis of the all teaching and learning and forms the core aspects of our Reception curriculum. There are seven areas of learning and development that shape educational provision in early years’ settings. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected. Three ‘Prime’ areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning and building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive:
• Personal and Emotional Development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
Our school also supports children in four ‘Specific’ areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied:
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design
We deliver learning for all of the areas through purposeful play and learning experiences, with a balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities. Through play, our children explore and develop learning experiences which help them make sense of the world. They practise and build ideas, learning how to control themselves and understand the need for rules. We provide the opportunity for our pupils to think creatively and work and communicate with others as they investigate and solve problems.
How is my child's learning assessed in EYFS
Our teachers in EYFS assess children throughout Reception in the following ways:
On entry to Reception, all children will be participating in the reception baseline assessment (RBA) within the first 6 weeks of starting reception.
The purpose of the assessment is to provide the starting point for a new measure that will help parents understand how well schools support their pupils to progress between reception and year 6.
When children join us in Reception, their knowledge and understanding of the English language is assessed using the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI: https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/project/nuffield-early-language-intervention). These assessments show us that early English language development for the majority of our new children is below average with a mean score that places the children joining us in Reception, in the lowest 30% of children nationally.
At the end of the EYFS – in the summer term of the reception year in school – teachers complete an assessment which is known as the EYFS Profile. This assessment is carried out by the reception teacher and is based on what they, and other staff caring for your child, have observed over a period of time.
Another important part of the EYFS Profile is your knowledge about your child’s learning and development, so do let your child’s class teacher know about what your child does with you: such as how confident your child is in writing their name, reading and talking about a favourite book, speaking to people your child is not so familiar with or their understanding of numbers.
All of the information collected is used to judge how your child is doing in the 7 areas of learning and development. Finding out at this stage how your child is doing will mean that the teacher your child has in their next school year – year 1 – will know what your child really enjoys doing and does well, as well as helping them decide where to take your child’s journey next.
The school will give you a report of your child’s progress, including information from his or her EYFS Profile.
Workshops
Thank you to all the Reception parents that attended the recent Phonics and Maths Workshop. It was so lovely to see so many of you wanting to support your child with their Phonics and Early Reading.
Please see below the PowerPoint Presentation that was used at the Workshop.
If you have any questions, please speak to your child's Class Teacher.
Useful Websites
Parents’ guide to Little Wandle Phonics in Reception:
Parents and carers guide to our Reception lessons - YouTube
Parents’ guide to pronouncing the phonemes:
Parent and carers guide to pronouncing phonemes - YouTube
Parents’ guide to Tricky Words: