Reception 2025 - 2026

Mrs Keating

Welcome to Reception Class

Class Teacher - Mrs Keating

Teaching Assistant - Mrs Murphy

Learning support: Mrs Chu

WELCOME TO THE SPRING TERM!

Welcome back to another busy and exciting term! We had such a wonderful term last year, and your gorgeous children blossomed in so many ways. We can’t wait to continue with them on this wonderful learning journey. Our main focus for this half term is centred around books written by the author Julia Donaldson. Each week the children will enjoy a different story from which the class activities will be based. We will also be learning all about Julia Donaldson. During the second half term, our focus will be ‘What Happens on a Farm?’. We will be focusing our topic around the theme of growth and change and we are hoping to nurture some hatching eggs, which is always a fantastic experience for the children.

Religion

Our Religion topics are ‘Galilee to Jerusalem’ and ‘Desert to Garden.’ During the spring term, children will develop an understanding of Jesus through a series of discussion based and creative tasks. They will know that Jesus helps us to choose good, and that he cured people who were ill. Our overarching theme is that ‘God is Love.’ Children will be encouraged to show their care for one another and take responsibility for choices and actions.

Maths

In Maths, children will practise subitising and counting. They will explore numbers up to and beyond 5, notice when groups are the same or different, and begin to recognise doubles. They will start to match amounts to numerals. The children will be comparing mass and capacity and measuring length and height. We will also continue to learn about 2D shapes, introduce 3D shapes, and continue our pattern investigations.

Literacy and reading

In writing, we will be encouraging the children to use their phonics to write words, captions and begin to write short sentences. We will be learning to spell and read more of the tricky words. The children will be encouraged to become more independent and to try and sound out words using their knowledge of the letter sounds and their ‘segmenting fingers’. Throughout the term, we will reinforce sounds they have previously learnt and introduce the new Phase 3 sounds from the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds program. We will continue progressing through the reading books in line with the children’s phonic knowledge. Please continue to read daily at home.

We will continue focusing on building up finger strength for writing using a variety of activities, for example, using scissors for cutting, using a range of mark making materials (pencils, felt-tip pens, chalk, paint/brushes), using small construction etc. We will also continue with ‘dough disco’ and our wonderful outdoor ‘Playdough Station’ which gives the children access to playdough every day, alongside all other fine-motor activities. All of these activities strengthen the hands and fingers for writing and this is essential for the development of pencil control. Spring term also sees the introduction of short handwriting sessions which will take place several times a week in focussed, small groups. Remember ‘Nip, Flip and Grip!’

PE will continue to take place on a Monday and Thursday, and this term children may continue to come to school in their PE kits on PE days. Just a reminder that PE kit is part of our uniform, and must be in line with our uniform policy.

Additional Requests:

Please can you make sure the children only have water in their bottles as it is our school policy not to allow juice or fizzy drinks, unless this has been discussed with school.