Welcome to Reception!
Starting school is an exciting and important step in children’s development. Research shows that good Early Years (Nursery and Reception) provision lays solid foundations for future learning and achievement.
At Dale Hall Community Primary School our aim is to work together with you to meet your child’s development and learning needs whilst they are in our Reception classes. We strive to provide a welcoming, safe, caring, stimulating and fun learning environment. Our activities and learning tasks are tailored to meet the needs of our youngest learners. We ensure that we provide playful opportunities that are open ended and challenge children’s thinking. We support their learning by allowing them to explore their own ideas and choose ways to do things for themselves. We encourage them to persist, take a risk, test their ideas, learn by trial and error and to enjoy a challenge when solving problems.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Guidance forms the basis of our curriculum. It is based on seven areas of learning and is broad and open-ended allowing us to follow the interests of the children. The seven areas of learning consist of Communication and language; Physical Development and Personal, Social and Emotional Development. These are the prime areas. The prime areas support learning in four specific areas. They are; Literacy (reading and writing) Mathematics; Understanding the world and Expressive arts and Design. Our aim is to provide high quality teaching and learning that enables all children to reach a good level of learning by the end of Reception.
It is during their time in Reception that children develop self confidence and a belief in themselves. They try new things on their own and feel pride in their achievements. They become more independent and take care of their own personal needs. They learn social skills and develop friendships. Good Reception provision prepares children for their lives ahead and enables them to take their first steps along a life-long learning journey that could lead them almost anywhere!
Early Years Leader. Starfish Class
You’ll find lots of paint and paper and crafty bits in Mrs Kirk’s house as she loves to be creative. She also likes to cycle and cook. In the summer you’ll find her swimming in the sea, especially if the waves are big!
Teaching Assistant- Starfish Class (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday)
Mrs Vaughan loves exploring new places so you will often find her planning her next adventure! She loves being by the sea and going for long walks.
Teaching Assistant - Starfish Class (Wednesday)
Mrs Brooke loves to be by the seaside where she can and sit and read a good book. She also enjoys drawing. To keep fit Mrs Brooke goes to Pilates, swimming and out for long walks.
Teacher - Seahorse Class
Miss Grover is an animal lover. She has one cat called Stripey and a dog called Merlin who she likes to take for long walks in the sunshine! Miss Grover also likes to play badminton and netball. She also enjoys going to Body Balance at the gym.
Teaching Assistant - Seahorse Class
You will often find Mrs Clements in the kitchen baking delicious goodies such as brownies and cakes. She also likes to read lots and to spend time with her family and friends.
Our Story Based Curriculum
In Reception we follow a Story Based Curriculum. Each term a range of high quality books are chosen which form our ‘termly focus stories’. Many of the activities and experiences which go on throughout the term are linked to the characters, themes and concepts which can be found within these books. Linking children’s learning to storytelling in this way provides many opportunities for children to become immersed in their play experiences having built an understanding of the accompanying book. As a parent or carer to support your children’s learning at home please see our list of books being used. You could visit the local library to borrow a copy of the book, talk about the characters and settings of the story and use the internet to search for audio stories and activities linked to the books.
W/B 17th September - 'Kippers Birthday' By Mick Inkpen
W/B 24th September - 'Owl Babies' By Martin Waddell
W/B 1st October - Andy Goldsworthy (non fiction)
W/B 8th October - 'The Rainbow Fish' By Marcus Pfister
W/B 15th October - 'The Rainbow Fish' continued.
W/B 29th October - 'Aaarrgh Spider' By Lydia Monks
W/B 19th November 'Handas Surprise' By Eileen Browne
Playdough is Brilliant!
Playdough is amazing for so many reasons. Not only is it a great way to develop the muscles in children's fingers as they squash, squeeze, roll, flatten, pinch, chop and pull it has so many other benefits too! Here is a really interesting article from the imagination tree, describing all of the benefits of playing with playdough.
https://theimaginationtree.com/benefits-of-playing-with-play-dough/
And here is a tried and tested recipe that must have been used hundreds of times over the last 34 years. So many little hands have enjoyed playing with the playdough from this recipe. Why don’t you give it a try?
Cooked dough (long lasting)
2 cups flour
2 cups water
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbs oil
1 cup salt
Food colouring
Cook all of the ingredients in a saucepan over a low heat. Keep mixing until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Sprinkle a little flour onto a board and knead well to finish.