Welcome to Reception

   NEWS FLASH 

 We have three classes in Reception: Seahorses, Turtlesand Dolphins

Turtle class 

      Mrs Farr        Mrs Wakefield         Mrs Drinkhill          

Seahorse Class

 Miss Smart         Miss Bird          Mrs Remes     

Dolphin Class

Mrs Goodyear         Mrs Jarrett               

Our Early Years Curriculum

Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).  We strongly believe that children at MFSA should experience an early years that is happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; whilst supporting their development, care and learning needs. 

They will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.

There are three prime areas of learning which are:

• Communication and language;
• Physical development; and
• Personal, social and emotional development.

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.

As children grow, these prime areas of learning help them to develop skills in four specific areas. These are: 

• Literacy;
• Mathematics;
• Understanding the world; and
• Expressive arts and design.

Our Learning Journey

Summer 1

Our topic is 'I wonder who we share our planet with...'

What an exciting summer topic this will be, hopefully the sun will come out so we can explore our wonderful grounds as we learn about the minibeasts we share our planet with. The children will be learning about worms and making their own wormery. They will be learning about how ants work together in their colonies. We will be learning about how important bees are and watching our very own caterpillars turn into butterflies. We will end this topic looking at the importance of recycling and how to protect our planet.   

Spring 2

Our topic is ' I wonder what is in there...'

The children will be hooked into this topic by coming into school on Monday morning to find a nest holding lots of different sized eggs. Who do these eggs belong to?

Throughout the topic we will learn about different animals that come from eggs. We will be investigating questions such as 'Where does the animal live?' 'How are the eggs looked after?' The lifecycle of the animal coming from the egg. 

We are also very excited for some real eggs to arrive where the children will be able to observe them cracking and chicks being hatched from them. 

Spring 1 

Our topic is 'I wonder what is out there'. 

In this topic we are flying around the world and visiting different countries. We kick off this topic by coming to school dressed in our favourite country's colours or traditional dress. Each week we will fly to a different country learning facts about food, animals and important landmarks of the country. We will get the chance to taste food and think about the similarities and difference between our own country. The countries we will visit are UK, Kenya, China, Poland and Italy. We will end the topic by inviting the parents in for an 'Hour in Italy'. 

Autumn 2

Our topic was 'I wonder why we celebrate'.

Each week a wrapped present appears in the classroom for us to unwrap and find clues about the celebration we would be learning about to. We had to use our prior knowledge to see if we could guess. We learnt lots of facts and carried our exciting learning about Bonfire night, Diwali, Remembrance, Birthdays, Winter and Christmas. To end the term we had a visit from Father Christmas and performed our Nativity 'Prickly Hay' to our parents. 

Autumn 1

Our topic was 'I wonder who is special'.

We transitioned into school very well and all settled quickly. We made lots of new friends, learned how important it is to follow our school rules and started our Early Years learning journey. In this first topic we focussed on ourselves and the people in our family who are special to us. We discussed our likes and dislikes, drew portraits and talked about what we would like to do when we grow up. We then learned about the people in our community who help us. We were very lucky to have visits from a vet, dentist, police officer and paramedic. 

Useful information

Outdoor Learning

We have a morning each week where we learn in our beautiful outdoor area and forest school. 

On this day children need to come to school in old clothes, making sure their arms and legs are covered. 

Seahorse Class - Muddy Monday

Turtles class - Tree Top Thursday

Dolphins Class - Forest Friday

PE

Although we have lots of opportunity in our COOL time learning to practise our fine and gross motor skills are are also lucky to have a PE slot too. 

Dolphin class - Tuesday

 Turtle class - Tuesday 

Seahorse Class - Tuesday

Children can come to school and remain in their PE kits all day. 

Please ensure that they are wearing correct kit, that long hair is tied back and earrings are removed. If your child is doing gymnastics, they will need to wear or bring shorts.

Library

We are very lucky to visit our school library weekly

Dolphins visit on Mondays

Turtles visit on Wednesdays 

Seahorses visit on Thursdays

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Home Learning

The children work so hard in school and have so much fun and are probably very tired when they get home but if you could fit home learning in it would really help. 

Reading

The children work so hard in school developing their Phonics Skills that you will be amazed at the progress they make during the Reception year.  

The children will be sent home a book that is matched to their phonics knowledge and it would be very beneficial if you could read this with them at home every night. This does not have to be the whole book, a few pages would be great. 

Please send books back on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to be changed.  

We also have an our Monster Phonics ebooks that you can access. If you haven't got a login please speak to the class teacher. 

Playing 

Playing is an essential part of the Early Years Curriculum. It is where children learn so many fundamental skills that prepare them for the next stage in their education and life. 

At home you construct, play imaginative game, draw, play a turn taking game. It really doesn't matter what it is as long as you and your child are having fun together, you are communicating and modelling behaviour.