Jesus said, "I have come in order that you may have life - life in all its fullness."

John 10:10

Christian Value

Our Christian Value for this half term is LEARNING THROUGH STORIES. Have a look on our Values tab to see how we have been exploring how that looks in our school and how we can live it out in our lives, as Jesus taught us to.

Welcome to Reception!

Mrs Halligan - Class Teacher

email: nicola.halligan@st-pauls.stockport.sch.uk

Mrs Wood- Teaching Assistant 

Ms Blair  - Management and PPA Cover Teacher (Friday)

Mrs Babcock - Speech and Language Support

Mr Stevenson - PE Coach (PE Tuesday)

Our Topics

                                      Ourselves                                     

Talk for Writing Text: Traditional Tale - Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Autumn Two

                   Transport and Journeys              

 Talk for Writing Text: The Train Ride by Judith Crebbin

Spring One

           Winter and Polar Lands           

 Talk for Writing Text: Can't you sleep Little Bear?

Spring Two

                               Down on the Farm                              

  Talk for Writing Text: Traditional Tale - The Little Red Hen

Summer One

                                  Into Africa                               

 Talk for Writing Text: Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson

Summer Two

                                     Under the Sea                                    

Talk for Writing Text: Billy's Bucket by Kes Gray

Welcome to the last half-term of the  Summer!

It is hard to believe we are now into our last half-term of Reception!   The children have worked so hard and made super progress over the year.  Our last topic, Under the Sea, provides lots of creative opportunities for the children to explore.  We will be working hard on our reading (do read with your children at home every week - it really makes a difference), writing sentences and consolidating our number skills.

This is a time of transition too, as we look forward to the year ahead, preparing your children for Year One. 

The Reception Year will be celebrated with a super party and general dastardly deeds on 'Pirate Day' on Friday 22nd July.  It would be great if you could provide a costume for this special day. Thank you.

A special thank you also, for the support you have given to your children, and to the staff, in enabling your children to be the 'best that they can be'. 

School finishes for the summer holidays on Wednesday 27th July.  

As always, if you have any questions about anything happening this term, do let me know,

From Mrs Halligan

Reception Class Teacher and Early Years Foundation Stage Leader

Welcome back to our second Spring Term!

This will be a very busy term.  We are learning all about farm animals and growing vegetables as part of our 'Down on the Farm' topic.  If any parents are 'green fingered' and would like to help out with our planting, do let the staff team know, we would love your support. 

Our school value is 'Hope'.  We are looking forward to reading your own hopes and dreams for your children's futures and sharing them with the class.  We will also celebrate and learn all about the Easter Story and the hope that Jesus Christ gave to the people with his resurrection. 

Please do keep reading every week with your children. Remember to sign the Reading Record. We will continue to award  stickers for reading weekly at home.  A certificate will be awarded to all those children who have achieved a sticker each week over a 6 week period, or as close to this if they have been absent due to illness.  

Thank you to those families who have engaged so brilliantly with 'Learning with Parents'.  It is a delight to read about the children's learning, and the photos posted to me are a real plus!  I am sure it is making a great difference to their progress through the Reception year.  If you are still to engage, please do.  New activities will continue to be posted each Monday.  If you are struggling to access the website please come and speak to me and we can resolve this together. 

Please do keep paying your children's tuck money.  Ten pounds needs to be payed via Parent Pay to cover the cost of our daily toast snack from January through to Easter.  If you are having any problems making the payment, please do let me know.  There is a facility to pay weekly smaller amounts through Parent Pay. 

I am sure we are going to have another lovely half-term, even better with Spring on the way! If you have any queries or concerns about any of the above, do come and see me.  The door is always open!

Thank you

Mrs Halligan

Things you need to know

School Day

Reception classes start at 8:45am and finish at 3:10pm

Tuck

Tuck is £10 for the term up to Christmas.  You can pay this via Parent Pay.  This pays for toast everyday and for occasional extra bits and pieces which enhance children's learning, e.g. art and craft resources, baking ingredients, party food, role-play resources. If we do not receive enough contributions towards tuck, we may have to start providing it to only those who do pay.

PE

PE with Mr Stevenson will take place every Tuesday morning. Please ensure your child's PE kit is all named and in school. We will send it home at the end of each half-term for a wash.  PE kit consists of navy/black shorts, plain sky blue t-shirt, black pumps, trainers and jogging pants for outdoors.

Water Bottles

Please provide a water bottle for your child and bring to school everyday. We are a healthy school and only plain water is allowed, thank you.

Reading Books

Reading books need to be in school everyday. Please sign the Planner to indicate if you have read the book with your child at home. Books will be changed weekly.  Please note - do not put water bottles in the book bag. There will be a charge to replace any damaged reading books.

Phonics Homework Books

Phonics Homework will be sent home every Friday. Each week the new letter sounds the class learn during the week will be written in their book. Please practise reading and writing these sounds at home and return to school on Monday.

Library

Every Friday your child will be given the opportunity to choose a Library book. This should be returned every week so that they can regularly change it.

Good News Bear

As a reward for lovely behaviour, every child has the chance to take home our Good News Bear at some point over the year. A book will also be sent in which you can help your child to draw and/or write or add photographs about their time with the bear. The Bear will be sent home on Fridays.

What is the Early Years Foundation Stage?

Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

Overarching principles

Four guiding principles should shape practice in early years settings. These are:

• every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured

• children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships

• children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.

• importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates.

The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)  

There are seven areas of learning and development that must shape educational programmes in early years settings. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected.  Three areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving.

These are the prime areas:

• communication and language

• physical development

• personal, social and emotional development 

Providers must also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. The specific areas are:

• literacy

• mathematics

• understanding the world

• expressive arts and design

More information on the EYFS curriculum can be found in our Reception booklet.

Reception Baseline Assessment

Your child will be participating in the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) within the first 6 weeks of starting Reception. The purpose of the assessment is to provide the starting point for a new measure that will help parents understand how well schools support their pupils to progress between Reception and Year 6 / the end of Key Stage 2.

For further information about the RBA, please click on the link below to access the 'Information for Parents' leaflet published by the Standards and Testing Agency.