Reception
Welcome to Reception
It gives us great pleasure to welcome you to our school and thank you for giving us the opportunity to work with and get to know your children. The first year at school is so important, as it builds the foundations for your child’s personal, social and emotional development, as well as their academic skills, knowledge and understanding. They will soon feel that they belong – to their class, to their house and to the school community. With this, and their developing confidence, your child will continue to thrive throughout their time at Glenfall Community Primary School.
In Reception we endeavour to provide fun, hands-on activities for the children to explore within a safe, challenging and stimulating learning environment, tailored around their interests. This promotes motivated, enthused and eager learners as well as developing a strong sense of independence.
Promoting a love of reading early on is extremely important and we are passionate about exposing the children to a variety of authors and exciting reads, helping to deepen and enrich their vocabulary. By providing exciting opportunities for the children, we encourage them to be curious learners and problem solvers, as well as helping them to find out about the world around them.
Introduction to the Team
Working in Reception this academic year we have a very close team. Mrs Catherine Whyte is the Reception teacher, she has worked in our school in the Reception class for over 20 years. She is supported by Miss Claire Hannis who takes the class on a Thursday morning covering Mrs Whyte’s planning morning.
We have two teaching assistants in Reception. Mrs Jo Allen works with us in the morning every day and Mrs Lisa Elliott joins us every afternoon.
Forest School
This academic year we have our Forest School sessions timetabled for a Tuesday afternoon. We provide the children with waterproof trousers and the children wear their wellies. We prefer the children to have their arms covered when we go to Forest School to avoid stinging nettle stings. We also occasionally head down to Forest School or onto the field to experience different weather. For this reason we ask families to keep a pair of wellies in school all the time.
Physical Education
This academic year our PE day is a Wednesday. We ask the children to come into school in their PE kits on that day. Please also send them into school wearing trainers on Wednesday, some of our sessions will be outside and trainers are much more supportive for their feet than plimsoles.
Phonics
We use a phonics scheme called Anima Phonics to deliver our phonics sessions. It is a full synthetic phonics programme which introduces the children to phonic sounds with a mnemonic action and an animal mascot. We introduce up to 4 sounds per week and the children will bring a colouring sheet home to complete and keep. They will also bring home four flash cards on a Friday to use for practice and word building at home.
Have a look at this website for some tips for reading at home!