Autumn letter 2025
Welcome to Elder 2 (Reception)! It has been wonderful to welcome all returning and new children and parents into our Reception class. The children have made a brilliant start and we are really looking forward to the year ahead! The main staff who will be working in Reception are Miss Rigg (class teacher), Miss France (class TA, mornings and Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons), Mrs White (class TA, mornings) and Ms. Abraham (TA on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons).
Every morning, the infant gate will be opened by staff at 8.50am and will be closed at 8.55am. Children can then enter the classroom where another member of staff will be waiting for them. We hope this will allow a calm start to the day for all children and further build their independence.
Our Curriculum
Throughout the week, Reception will have play-based literacy and maths sessions. The children will also have daily Supersonic Phonics sessions, which are streamed from Nursery to Year 2 as we move through the year. Our special days, through which we cover all areas of learning, will include Messy Mondays (Art and DT), Travelling Tuesdays (Understanding the World), Welly Wednesdays (UW in the outdoors), Thinking Thursdays (Personal, Social and Emotional Development and RE), Physical (and Food) Fridays (PE, cooking/baking). We also add in Music and Computing… lots of fun activities to keep us busy!
After we have done some settling in activities and our baseline assessments, which will be used to inform our planning and next steps for the children, our topic for the first half term will be ‘Bears’. As part of our learning, we will explore the well-loved bear stories, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, which will provide a rich foundation for our learning across all areas of the Early Years curriculum. We will keep you updated with current learning through our Class Dojo and the school website. Please remember to check your child’s Dojo regularly and contribute to it as much as possible. If you need any extra help or information regarding the Dojo app, please don’t hesitate to speak to a member of staff. It is a great way for parents to be involved in their child’s learning and keep up to date with what’s happening in Reception. We will also send home a half-termly topic web which will give you an overview of what your child will be learning each half term.
Book Bags
Last week, your child brought home their reading folders for the first time – how exciting! Initially, the children will read wordless books which are important for developing storytelling language, discussing characters and what is happening on each page. Please remember to sign your child’s yellow reading diary each time they read at home. Books will be changed on Wednesdays each week but please continue to send book bags into school every day so your children can read their books in school too. Thank you.
PE
Our PE day is a Friday; the children will come to school wearing their normal school uniform and will get changed for PE in their classrooms before the session. They have already impressed us with their efforts and independence in their first two lessons. Thank you to those who have already sent in their child’s PE kit. If you have not yet done so, please can you send in a kit (white t-shirt and black shorts) in a named PE bag. These will be kept on pegs and sent home for washing at the end of each half term.
Belongings & Snacks
We request that all belongings are named, including water bottles and snacks. Children can bring one healthy snack for the afternoon if they wish. Fruit and milk will be provided daily by school for the morning snack and the children’s drink bottles are available for them in the classroom throughout the day.
We also ask for all children to bring spare clothes in a separate named bag. We take part in Welly Wednesday (forest school activities) on a Wednesday. Please could wellies and waterproofs either be provided each week or left in school as we aim to get out in all weathers! We do have some sets of school waterproofs if you do not have your own.
Our aim is to make Reception as enjoyable and memorable as possible and we are really looking forward to the school year, working with you and your children. The whole team values the philosophy of working closely in partnership with parents. If you have any celebrations of your child’s achievements, questions or queries, please do not hesitate to share these with us either via Dojo or we are available most evenings after school.
We are always grateful for any parents who might be able to come and help listen to readers during the week, whether this is a ‘one off’ or on an occasional basis. Please let us know if you are able to help.
Miss Rigg, Miss France, Mrs White and Ms. Abraham
