Welcome to Reception Class 

Our Vision for our Children in EYFS is in line with our school vision;

We believe every child is amazing and everyone deserves an excellent start to their learning journey. Everything in our nurturing environment sparks enjoyment, curiosity, awe, and wonder encouraging a lifelong love of learning through play, discovery, and meaningful experiences.

Contacts:

Mrs Saunders          ssaunders@redhill.worcs.sch.uk 

Mrs Butcher            sbutcher@redhill.worcs.sch.uk 

This half term in Reception - Our Wonderful World🌱🐣

This half term, the children will be developing their understanding of the world around them by exploring nature and the wonderful creatures that grow and change over time. We will ignite their curiosity by observing frogspawn and watching how it changes as part of a frog’s life cycle. We will be keeping a close eye on our pond, looking out for frogspawn and noticing the signs of new life that Spring brings.

As we learn about the season of Spring, we will explore the changes happening all around us — blooming flowers, growing plants and baby animals. We will link our learning about Spring to frogspawn in the pond, helping the children understand how warmer weather brings new beginnings and supports life cycles in nature.

Through a series of high-quality texts and engaging continuous provision, the children will explore how plants and animals grow and change. Our book focuses this half term will be:

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• What the Ladybird Heard

• Jack and the Beanstalk

We will also have the amazing opportunity to watch chicks hatch in school! The children will observe the chicks closely and learn about the life cycle of a chick, as well as comparing it to other animals such as frogs and caterpillars. We would love to invite parents in to meet our chicks — please look out for future emails with more information about this special visit.

The children will also be growing their own plants and learning about what they need to thrive. They will explore how plants grow in Spring and learn to label the different parts of a plant, observing how they develop and change over time.

In DT, we will be developing our fine motor skills through threading and weaving activities. The children will explore different materials and techniques, creating simple woven patterns while strengthening the skills needed for writing.

In Maths, we will be focusing on numbers to 10. The children will deepen their understanding of counting, recognising and ordering numbers to 10. We will explore one more and one less, number bonds within 10, and begin to compare numbers using language such as greater than and less than.

It is set to be a busy and exciting half term full of discovery, growth and the wonders of Spring!

A few reminders to help the next half term run smoothly:

• PE - This half term will be on Thursdays. 

• Children go outside in all weathers, so a coat is essential.

• Book bags and water bottles should come to school daily. 

Reading books 

Reading books must be kept in book bags at all times. A new reading book will be issued every Monday, matched to your child’s current phonics level, and will be collected in on a Thursday.

Please note that if a book is lost or damaged, there will unfortunately be a £5 charge to cover the cost of replacement. To help prevent damage, please do not place water bottles in book bags, as leaks can easily ruin books.

Reading Diaries

Please ensure reading diaries are to be sent in everyday too. If your child is taking part in a phonics or reading intervention, staff will need to make a note in the diary and inform you when this support is taking place.

If your child is currently using a wordless book, please do come and speak to us— we are more than happy to discuss how you can best support your child’s reading at home.

Thank you for your continued support in developing a love of reading!

In Spring 1, we will move onto teaching Phase 3 sounds, which will include further digraphs (2 letters that make 1 sound) and trigraphs (3 letters that make 1 sound eg. igh).  Click on the link below for guidance on how to pronounce each pure sound clearly. For parents | Letters and Sounds