Welcome to Reception - Wren Class

2023-2024 Class Information

Our teacher is Mrs Lightfoot.  Miss Culver is our teaching assistant.  Mrs Carroll and Mrs Hanson are in Robins class and also support the children with their learning.

PE

PE is on a Monday morning. The children need to bring their PE kits to school every Monday.  These can stay in school and will be sent home at the end of each half term.  

Outdoor Learning

On a Thursday morning we will all take part in an outdoor learning session as a class.  Please ensure the children have boots for this day and clothing appropriate for the weather.

Reading Expectations

Frequently sharing books with your child and talking about the main characters and sequence of events will support your child to develop their comprehension skills.  Please ensure that you read with your child at least five times a week when they begin to bring books home following the school's reading scheme. After reading their phonic book, please record this in their reading diary including the date, the name of the book and a signature from the adult who has read with them. You may also want to comment on whether your child enjoyed the book, if they found it easy or difficult, or use it as an opportunity to ask your child’s class teacher a question. The number of reads will be counted up at the end of every week, so it is important the children have their reading diary and their books with them. Each week, the children in Robins and Wrens will be issued with a raffle ticket if they have read at home five times that week and one child will be selected from these raffle tickets from each class to become the Reader of the Week and receive a certificate for this. 

Letterjoin

Letterjoin is a great website to help the children practise their pre-cursive letter formation, and we encourage the children to access it. It can be accessed via any touchscreen device, and login details will be sent home shortly.

Numbots

Please support your child to interact and engage with Numbots on a weekly basis. Numbots will support the development of your child’s mathematical understanding and in particular their subitising skills. You will receive a login bookmark at parents evening, which will outline how you will be able to log onto Numbots.

At The Round House Primary Academy, we have an 'open door policy'. We welcome you to discuss your child, their progress or any concerns you may have. We might not be able to talk to you straight away but we will endeavour to speak to you as soon as possible. You can also leave a message with the school office or send an e-mail to the school office who will pass it onto us - office@roundhouse.cambs.sch.uk

Our parents, carers and families are all part of the learning journey. The adults at school would like it very much if you could note down any moments which make you think WOW, either on a star moments star or by uploading an observation onto Tapestry. It is wonderful to find out what the children have been up to with you at home. Additional stars are available; just ask a member of the Reception team if you need any more copies of these. Please also look on the classroom door for the latest events and news. 

Every Friday the children will get a special treat, for example a disco or another fun activity, as long as they have made the right choices throughout the week. At the end of each term the children will also get to take part in a whole day of treats called Reward Day!

Curriculum Overviews

Parent Workshops

The Characteristics of Effective Learning

The characteristics of effective learning are important learning behaviours that we support the children to develop throughout the reception year. They are split into three categories:

Playing and Exploring - Engagement:

Can I do this?

Active Learning - Motivation:

Do I want to do this?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/help-your-child-try-new-things

This is a useful website to explore the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, to find out more information about how to help your child to try new things at home and to develop a growth mindset. 

Creating and Thinking Critically - Thinking:

How do I do this? 

We can help children to become effective learners by playing with them, listening and responding to them, acting as a sound board, supporting them to pursue their own interests, inspiring them, modelling discovery learning and both guiding and supporting them (without taking over). 

Home Learning Tips and Advice 

Reading

When listening to your child read, encourage them to point to each word as they say them, to help them develop one to one correspondence. Encourage your child to use the pictures to help them if they are stuck on a word and help them to sound the word out using the phonemes they have been learning in phonics. Remember to use 'pure' sounds for each phoneme, avoiding adding on 'uh' after each sound. For example, 's' is pronounced 'ssss' rather than 'suh' and 'm' is pronounced 'mmm' rather than 'muh'. If your child takes a while to read a sentence, reread it back to them before moving on to the next page (whilst pointing to each word), so that the meaning of what they have read is not lost or forgotten. After reading, ask your child to retell the events of the story and answer some comprehension questions. If your child is not enjoying the book or is struggling, leave the activity and come back to it later. We want to develop a love of reading in our children, not for it to become a forced practice. Encourage your child to spot words on signs around your house and in magazines, recipe books and newspapers. When you are reading a bedtime story, have your child spot and count all of the tricky words they can find, or have them search for a particular word or sound on a page. 

Writing

When your child is completing a written task, e.g. writing a sentence, encourage them to first decide what they are going to write in full. Have them say this sentence out loud in their normal voice, a silly voice, a quiet voice and a loud voice. This repetition will help the order of the words stick in their mind when they come to writing it down. Remind your child that a sentence must begin with a capital letter and that they should use finger spaces, a full stop at the end of the sentence and to try and keep their writing as close to the line as possible. Finally, after writing the sentence, have your child read the sentence back to themselves, and to you, to check it makes sense. When your child is writing, allow them independence in sounding out words before writing them, and encourage them to use the phonemes and graphemes they have been learning in phonics. Even if their spelling of a word is not technically correct, if it is phonetically plausible, allow this. For example, 'yoonikorn' would be an excellent attempt at 'unicorn' and one that we would celebrate in Reception for the use of the phonemes. Finally, encourage your child to use the pre-cursive font (found on Letter Join) at all times, but without joining the letters. Using this font will help your child in the long run as the foundations of the cursive font expected of them in later years will be in place already.

Maths

In maths, the emphasis is on developing a solid understanding of number and pattern and less on writing down numerals and number sentences. The principle of 'concrete, pictorial, abstract' representations of number is key to developing this understanding, with children first creating a concrete representation of a number through building a tower or model using the specific number of bricks/counters. Next, the children would then be encouraged to draw the number, creating a pictorial representation of four rabbits/four flowers/four cars etc. Finally, and only once the first two steps were completed, would the children be asked to write the abstract representation, in this case the numeral. Maths Mastery methods are an excellent way of helping your child to develop a strong understanding of number and pattern, focusing on talking about number and pattern, explaining how something is known and how the child came to the answer they did. In all maths based activities, ask your child 'how do you know?' after they tell you an answer.

Promoting British Values in Reception

Democracy:

Speaking and listening activities promote discussions.

Making decisions together.

Listening to each other’s opinions.

Turn taking, sharing and collaboration.

Individual Liberty:

Freedom for all.

Developing a positive sense of themselves.

We listen to every child through pupil voice.

Through our PSHE curriculum the children’s rights are promoted.

The children are encouraged to make the right choices about how they learn and how they behave.

Mutual Respect and Tolerance:

The classroom rules help children to understand how to share and look after each other.

The children learn about different cultures, faiths and religions. They are encouraged to show respect and tolerance for different people, faiths, cultures and languages.

The children study art and listen to music which reflects multicultural Britain.

The children celebrate special days and festivals throughout the year.

Rule of Law:

The children learn about their rights and responsibilities. They also learn about consequences of behavior and also learn to distinguish between right and wrong.

The children agree to abide by the rules and understand that these rules apply to everyone.