Reception

Welcome to the Reception webpage!

If you have any questions, please contact Mrs Moses (Rockhopper Penguins Class) or Miss O'Donnell (Sea Lions Class) via the School Office or at the Reception entrance at drop-off/pick-up.

Reception gallery 2024/2025

Welcome to Christ Church! We are Rockhopper Penguins and Sealions Classes.

Included on this page are various pieces of information and helpful tips for you to use as your child begins their journey through our school.  Information is also shared on Google Classroom, along with areas for you to share 'WOW' moments, challenge homework and any queries or questions you may have.

If, at any time, you need to speak to us, a member of the team is always available at drop off and pick up times.  We work as a unit, rather than solely as separate classes, and all members of the team know our children thoroughly and so will be able to help. 

Important Information

EYFS Expectations for the year

Fun Morning 2024

Monday

Tuesday - Sealions PE

Wednesday - Sealions and Penguins PE

Thursday - Penguins PE

Friday

Children must bring a named water bottle to school each day. 

Next Parent Workshop: information coming soon

National Testing Information

Please click on the link for more information from the Standards & Testing Agency regarding Reception Baseline Assessment. 

Curriculum Newsletters

Spring 1 2025 Reception Curriculum Newsletter

Autumn 2 2024 Reception Curriculum Newsletter

PE

To support your child's personal development, all children in Reception change for PE at school.  Your child will need to bring their named PE kit in a named bag on Wednesdays.

PE Kit:

a plain light-blue t-shirt

dark coloured jogging bottoms/shorts

single colour trainers

For reasons of safety, the wearing of jewellery is discouraged. 

Children need to have their PE kits in school as changing independently is part of the EYFS assessment.  These will stay in school through the half term and then will be sent home at the end of each half term to be washed and checked through ready for the next half term.  On PE days, it is useful to make sure that children are in uniform which they find easier to take off and put on. 

As a reminder, longer hair must be up and earrings removed prior to coming to school on these days. 

Listen, Learn, Take a Turn

These sessions aim to help parents and carers to support children in as effective way as possible.  We begin the year with an overview of the year ahead and then move through the areas of learning in which parents and carers have indicated support would be welcomed.

We create a 'how to help' leaflet for each area which is shared with parents and carers.  These leaflets are shared below (please click on the link) and include:

Phonics

Reading

Writing

Maths

Transition to Year 1

Phonics and Early Reading

'Reading is fundamental to education. Proficiency in reading, writing and spoken language is vital for pupils’ success. Through these, they develop communication skills for education and for working with others: in school, in training and at work. Pupils who find it difficult to learn to read are likely to struggle across the curriculum, since English is both a subject in its own right and the medium for teaching.'

(The Reading Framework, DfE, July 2023, page 4)

'In 2000, when the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) analysed its data on the 15-year-olds who had taken part in that year’s assessment, the literacy scores for pupils who were ‘highly engaged in reading’ were significantly above the international average; those who were ‘poorly engaged’ scored below it. This was the case whatever their family’s occupational status. The OECD emphasised: ‘Reading practices can play an important role in reducing the gap between the reading proficiency scores of students from different socio-economic backgrounds. But pupils cannot be ‘highly engaged’ if reading words is a struggle. It is vital, therefore, that phonics is a priority in teaching reading.' 

(The Reading Framework, DfE, July 2023, page 12)

At Christ Church Primary School, we follow a systematic, synthetic phonics approach using 'Bug Club Phonics' throughout EYFS and Key Stage 1.

This systematic approach ensures that children learn and use one sound (phoneme) for each of the 44 sounds in the English language.  This means that children can read simple words and sentences quickly and are able to use their knowledge to write simple words, phrases and sentences.

The written representation of each phoneme is called a grapheme.

Alongside these phonemes, children learn 'tricky words'.  These are words which cannot be sounded out using phonics.  

In Reception, these words follow sets or phases and start from phase 2.  Children concentrate on learning how to read and write phases 2 - 4 across the year.

These words are:

Phase 2

I, the, to, no, go, into

Phase 3

he, she, we, me, be, you, was, they, my, are, her, all

Phase 4

said, have, like, so, do, some, come, little, one, were, there, what, when, out

Reading for pleasure is an integral part of creating lifelong readers and we share good quality texts with the children throughout the day, also allowing them to have access to books in their 'Challenge time' across the learning environment both in and outdoors.  Children learn how to choose books which interest them and are involved in choosing which stories are read.