Welcome to Elder 2 – Reception

The children in Reception are offered a ‘hands on’ play based curriculum, both indoors and outdoors, throughout the day.

In addition to the activities planned by the adults, the children are offered plenty of opportunities to direct their own learning and staff are highly skilled in observing the children and recognising opportunities to support and extend children’s ideas.

Please see a copy of our curriculum map for 2021-22…

September 2021 Welcome Letter

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Elder 2. We are really enjoying getting to know your children and we are all looking forward to the year ahead. The main staff who will be working with your children are; Mrs Jones and Mrs Tholen (Class teachers) and Miss Brewer (Class TA). Mrs White (Nursery TA) may also pop in to help sometimes. We are always grateful to 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 can help. (We will make a list of available helpers and let you know as   soon as we’re able to have people in school.)

As you are aware, your children will be taught as 2 separate classes in the Early Years Foundation Stage Unit for this academic year. Every morning, Reception will have play based literacy and maths lessons and we also have Letters and Sounds (phonics) sessions which are streamed from Nursery to Year 2. Afternoon activities will include; PE, forest schools, ‘Travelling Tuesday’, art and music; and may include joining with Nursery for some sessions.

Our topic for the first half term will be Home Sweet Home. This will begin when we have settled the children into our classroom routines and expectations and when we have completed our baseline assessments. Within this first topic we will look at family, nursery rhymes and homes/houses through the story of The 3 Little Pigs. We will keep you updated with current learning through our Facebook page, school website and Class Dojo. 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 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, (as we know many children say they have done nothing at school!) It would be great to see some pictures of what the children got up to over summer!   

We have made the decision as a school to keep our arrangements for PE the same as last year. Therefore, all children need to come to school wearing their PE kit on Fridays. We also request that all belongings are named, including water bottles and snacks. Children can bring one healthy snack for the afternoon if they want to. We take part in Welly Wednesday (forest school activities) on a Wednesday afternoon so please could wellies be provided every week or left in school and waterproofs, as we aim to get out in all weathers!

Every morning, the infant door will be opened at 8.50am and will remain open until 9am. Please arrive at school between these times; not before or after. Children can then enter the building as they arrive with an EYFS member of staff. We hope this will allow a staggered and calmer start to the day for all children.

Please don’t hesitate to come and see us if you or your child have any concerns or questions at any point during the remainder of the school year – we are available most evenings after school. Our welcome booklet should also answer any questions you may have.

Our aim is to make EYFS as enjoyable and memorable as possible and we are really looking forward to the school year and working with you and your children.

Kind Regards,

The Early Years Foundation Stage Team

Autumn Term 2020

Our topic for the first half term will be Home Sweet Home. Within this topic we will look at family, nursery rhymes and homes/houses through the story of The 3 Little Pigs.

Our topic for the second half of the term is Celebrations! We will look at Halloween, Bonfire night and Christmas. Our books that we will focus on will include; Funnybones, Room on the Broom, and The Christmas Story.

Spring Term 2021

Summer Term 2021

Welcome back! We are so pleased to be back in school altogether. We have really missed everyone. This half term we are going to be learning about ‘Growth and Change’. We have started by thinking about the book, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and will later go on to look at ‘Yucky Worms’, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘Jasper’s Beanstalk’. How exciting as we came into school on Monday to find we had some real caterpillars in class to look after and help grow into beautiful butterflies. We have been learning all week about the life cycle of a butterfly and thinking about healthy food. We will go on to plant some of our own food and get out and about on a minibeast hunt. In maths, we are looking at subitising to 5 or 10, as well as adding and subtracting in Reception. In PE, we hope to get the big equipment out to practise our climbing and in art we are learning about printing and collages. We have such a fun and busy term ahead, it feels so good to be back!

We will keep you updated with current learning through our Facebook page, school website and Learning Journeys. Please remember to look at your child’s learning journey regularly and contribute to it as much as possible. It is a great way for parents to be involved in their child’s learning and keep up to date with what’s happening.

(Please see our Facebook page for regular updates and information about our learning.

Sedbergh Primary School -EYFS)