Author: kkeohane

As the children’s final term in Reception is flying by, here is a recap of the letter that we sent out at the beginning of the year outlining a little bit more about the Early Years Curriculum and the national expectations for the end of the year.

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework explains how and what your child will be learning to support their development throughout Nursery and Reception.
Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.

Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first. These are:
• Communication and language;
• Physical development; and
• Personal, social and emotional development.

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.
As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:
• Literacy;
• Mathematics;
• Understanding the world; and
• Expressive arts and design.

http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/03/Development-Matters-FINAL-PRINT-AMENDED.pdf

EARLY LEARNING GOALS
At the end of the Reception year, children are assessed in relation to ‘Early Learning Goals’ and are given a judgement as to whether they are ‘meeting the expected levels of development’, ‘exceeding the expected levels’ or ‘not yet reaching the expected levels’ (‘emerging’)’. It is important for you to see these early learning goals so that you know what the national expectations for children at the end of Reception are in each area of learning. If your child is exceeding these goals then the National Curriculum for Year 1 is used to ensure they are being challenged at the appropriate level. Below is a link to government exemplification materials for each of the early learning goals. The aim is not just that children reach these expected goals but that they are given the opportunities to exceed them.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eyfs-profile-exemplication-materials

Stars of the Week: Shaye and Scarlet

This week, Reception visited Redcross Gardens as part of our RE lesson to take a closer look at God’s Wonderful World. We looked for evidence of creation in the environment, including insects, flowers, plants and pond life, and talked about how Christians believe that everything God has created is equally as important.

Shaye: “I saw some snails and tadpoles and I love going to Redcross Gardens all the time!”
Scarlet: “I found some caterpillars in the bush and they looked funny!”

When we got back to school we read the book I am Mr Elephant and started to think about the importance of looking our world.

Stars of the Week: Kemena and Carter

This week, Reception have been learning all about the weather. We have made observations of the weather every day and recorded it on a weather chart. The children have also become weather forecasters in our role play weather station. Let’s hope they can forecast us some sun for next week!

Next week, we are going to be transport models using recyclable materials. If you have any recyclables to spare, such as plastic bottles or kitchen roll tubes, they would be greatly appreciated!

Reception had a lovely afternoon enjoying the sunshine today! We found some shade under the trees where the children could relax and read stories:

Stars of the week: All of Reception

On Tuesday, Reception visited Pizza Express where we made some very yummy margarita pizzas!
Our first task was to prepare our dough by flattening out the mixture into a round base. Next, we added the tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and oregano before it went into the oven. Finally, the children got to enjoy their pizzas for lunch back at school!

Here are some pictures of our trip:

The Spring Term came to a close after a very busy week in Reception. Below you can find a video of our collective worship and some pictures from Stay ‘n’ Play. Thank you again to all the parents who came along and joined us!

Stars of the week: Joni and Annamaria

Last week we celebrated book week at Cathedral School. We started the week by reading the book The Egg by M.P Robertson, then the next day we received a letter from the Natural History Museum reporting that an egg shaped object had been spotted in our school grounds! We searched around the school looking for clues, until eventually we found a golden egg! The children wrote newspaper articles to document our exciting morning.

On Friday, we celebrated World Book Day. The children looked wonderful dressed up as characters from their favourite stories:

!IMPORTANT DATE FOR YOUR DIARY! On Wednesday 21st March, it is Reception’s collective worship at 9am followed by our Easter Stay ‘n’ Play session. We look forward to seeing you there!

Stars of the week: Funmi and Charles

Last week,we had a very exciting start to our new topic (The World Around Me) when we went on our first class trip to London Sea Life Aquarium.
We saw lots of fish, sea turtles, stingrays, penguins and sharks. The children particularly enjoyed seeing the penguins jumping in and out of their pool and eating lunch next to the shark tank!
The children’s behaviour was fantastic and they should be very proud of themselves!
A huge thank you again to all of our helpers!

Here are some pictures of our trip:

It was very exciting this afternoon when it started to snow during our PE lesson! We had great fun making snowflakes (and throwing them at Sara!)

Stars of the week: Martha and Nathan

This half term in Reception our topic is The World Around Me, where will be learning about animals and the different habitats and environments that exist in the wonderful world we live in. This week, we began our topic by conducting lots of ‘Eggs’periments as we are beginning to learn about new life. We put eggs into 3 different containers; one with vinegar, one with salt water and one with tap water. The children first made predictions about what they thought might happen and then wrote down their observations. From next week, the children will be using their observation skills to observe what is happening to the eggs that arrive and are put into the incubator!