Reception M & W 2025 - 2026
Miss Millington
Reception Teacher
Miss Woodcock
Reception Newsletter
RW- Miss Woodcock, Miss Ward,
RM – Mrs Millington-Stubbs, Mrs Landell and Miss Davies
We also have Mrs Begum and Miss Ali who support some of our pupils day to day in school.
Welcome to Spring 2!
This half term our topic is See how we Grow
Within Literacy lessons the children will explore the books ‘Lulu’s flowers’ by Anna Mcquinn and ‘The Little Red Hen’ which has been written by a variety of authors. Throughout the year we continually build on children's communication and language skills at every opportunity, but we focus largely on this within the literacy lessons encouaging children to share their ideas, ask questions, lsiten to others and speak in full sentences.Their writing for a purpose will be based around instructions and we hope to see them applying their phonics in order to segment to spell the words needed for each instructional phrase as well as remembering the spelling of some common tricky words. In handwriting lessons we will continue to build children’s accuracy with writing capital letters and secure the formation of lower case letters.
Through the focus texts and exploration within our investigation lessons (where we explore Understanding the world) the children will build on their knowledge of different life cycles, with a focus on plants which was touched upon in Nursery and will develop their understanding of where food comes from. We will carry out different experiments surrounding growing and the children will have the opportunity to grow and care for their own plants as well as baking their own bread.
Within maths children will secure their knowledge of the stable order principles to 5 and will subitise with arrangements up to 6. They will build on their understanding of the composition of numbers 6 and 7 as numbers that are composed as 5 and a bit. They will be encouraged to use the language more and less. Within shape, space and measure we will relook at the measure of height, linking this to the monitoring of their plants growth over the course of the term.
Phonics
A few quick reminders...
Each week each class awards 2 pupils the 'Star of the week' certificate and 'characteristics of effective learning' certificate. Children who receive the star of the week certificate are mentioned on the school’s weekly newsletter. The certificates will be given out to the pupils in the closest celebration assembly which is held in the studio on the date specified in the weekly newsletter so keep an eye for this term’s dates! If your child has been awarded a certificate you are welcome to come to the celebration assembly to see them receive it.
Please remember that the final assembly is open to all parents to come and celebrate the children's work and achievements over the half term this will normally fall on the last day of term!
Homework: We would just like to remind you about homework. We appreciate that life is busy but helping your child at home is vital for their learning. Each Friday within their book bag your child will come home with a book for enjoyment, this is for you to read with them and their collin’s E-book will be updated online, this is matched to their phonics ability and is for them to read with you. Please aim to hear them read at least 3 x per week and make a comment in their reading record about their reading. In their homework folders they will be sent home weekly homework that reinforces their learning that week. Book bags should be in school every day, but homework folders only need to be returned on a Wednesday.
Attendance and Punctuality – if your child is not in school on time or off school altogether, they miss out on so much learning – please make sure your child is in school, on time, every day.
Drop off and pick up- Please enter by the Myrtle Street entrance and walk your child up onto the EYFS playground where you will see a teacher stood ready to welcome them into the classroom. Children are to be brought in from 8.40am and collected at 3.10pm.
Outdoor play- please make sure your child has suitable clothing, waterproof coat, wellies, sunhat, gloves, etc. We go outside every day, rain or shine.
P.E- will be run by city in the community on a Wednesday afternoon. Children do not need to come to school in an P.E kit however please make sure they have suitable footwear on that day.
Rainbow Challenge - In Reception a key priority is for us to support children to become independent, confident and resilient learners. We consciously spend the first weeks building positive relationships and creating a fun and safe space that the children both enjoy and feel comfortable in. Continuing on from nursery they will be encouraged to display independence and take ownership over their learning through the use of the ‘Rainbow Challenge’. For those pupils and parents who are new to school the ‘Rainbow challenge’ is used by the children during their ‘continuous provision time or extended learning’ which occurs after adult input lessons. The classroom is broken up into areas such as construction, roleplay or reading and each represents a different colour of the rainbow. Children are encouraged to explore their whole environment throughout the week and in doing so gain a coloured lollipop stick for each area they have engaged with. If they complete the Rainbow they are rewarded with a sticker at the end of the week. Please note alongside these planned activities children are also called to work specifically with the adults for adult focussed learning.
Please remember to put names in all clothes, shoes, bags, lunch boxes, etc.
Useful websites
The school website:
https://www.ashburymeadow.co.uk/class/reception-m-b
Collins E book access: Home - Collins Hub
Online Learning Journal:
Phonics support for parents: For parents | Letters and Sounds
Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework - GOV.UK
Development Matters - Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage
Oral health:
https://www.dentalhealthcareeoe.nhs.uk/services/oral-health-improvement/early-years
One final message...
Here in Early years at Ashbury meadow primary school we put every effort into building strong relationships with our pupils so that school is a place they not only enjoy, and feel safe but THRIVE and communication and Language forms the foundation of this, please take a few minutes to watch this TED talk which encompasses our ethos
How Every Child can Thrive by Five by Molly Wright
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aISXCw0Pi94
Thank you for all your support!
Reception Team