Gorse Hill Primary School

Elm LD

Meet Our Team

🌿 Welcome to Elm Class at Gorse Hill! 🌿

We are delighted to welcome you and your child to Reception at Gorse Hill Primary School.

Class Teachers:
Mrs Durkan & Mrs Shariff

Teaching Assistants:
Mrs Heathcote & Miss Later

We are looking forward to getting to know your children and supporting them as they begin their exciting journey through school.

🌟 Learning in Reception

Reception is part of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). At this stage, children learn through a combination of play, exploration, adult-led teaching and their own interests.

Our classroom is a play-based learning environment where children are encouraged to explore, investigate, ask questions, solve problems and develop their independence.

We have a topic or focus for our learning, but we also carefully follow the children's interests, ideas and fascinations. This allows us to build learning around what is meaningful and exciting for the children.

You will see children learning through:

🧸 Child-initiated play
👩‍🏫 Adult-led activities
🤝 Small-group learning
🔍 Exploring and investigating
🎨 Creative activities
🌳 Outdoor learning
📚 Stories, rhymes and songs
💬 Talking and developing language
🔢 Practical maths activities
✏️ Phonics, reading and writing

Adults are continually observing, interacting with and assessing the children as they play and learn. We use these observations to identify what children know, what they can do and what their next steps in learning might be.

📚 What Do We Learn Each Day?

Although much of our learning takes place through play, children have opportunities to take part in focused teaching every day.

🔢 Maths

We follow Maths Mastery, which focuses on developing children's deep understanding of mathematical concepts rather than simply learning facts.

This half term, we will particularly focus on:

Numbers to 5
Counting accurately
Recognising quantities
Subitising – recognising a small number of objects without counting them
Understanding the composition of numbers
Comparing quantities
Number formation
Using mathematical language
Applying maths during play and everyday experiences

We encourage children to use their mathematical understanding in the classroom, outdoor area and during their independent play.

📖 English

We begin the year by developing children's speaking and listening skills through our Tales Toolkit.

The Tales Toolkit helps children develop the skills they need to become confident communicators. We encourage children to:

Listen carefully to others
Take turns when talking
Speak clearly
Build sentences
Learn and use new vocabulary
Share their ideas and opinions
Ask and answer questions
Talk about their experiences

Once children have developed these foundations, we will begin using Talk for Writing to support the development of vocabulary, comprehension, storytelling and early writing.

Our key text this half term will be:

🌱 The Enormous Turnip

We will explore the story through retelling, actions, role play, vocabulary, sequencing and creative activities. The children will have lots of opportunities to develop their speaking, listening and early writing skills through the story.

🔤 Read Write Inc. Phonics

We follow Read Write Inc. (RWI) to teach phonics.

During Reception, children are introduced to the Set 1 sounds and learn how to recognise and say the sounds they hear.

We also spend lots of time developing children's listening skills and oral blending. Children learn to listen carefully to sounds in words and begin to blend sounds together to help them read.

For example:

c – a – t → cat 🐱

Phonics is taught regularly and children are given opportunities to practise their sounds and apply their learning throughout the day.

🌍 Our Learning This Half Term

👧 All About Me

We begin the year by learning about ourselves, our bodies and our families.

We will explore:

Parts of our bodies
Our senses
Our likes and dislikes
Our feelings and emotions
Our families
Things that make us special
How we are similar and different
Respecting and celebrating differences
Friendships and relationships

We will then begin to notice the changing season and move towards our learning about:

🍂 Autumn

We will explore the signs of autumn, including changes in the weather, leaves, trees, animals and the natural environment.

We will use our outdoor provision to investigate the world around us and encourage children to ask questions, make observations and talk about what they notice.

🏃 PE – Every Tuesday

PE takes place every Tuesday.

Children can come to school wearing their full PE kit:

White T-shirt
Black shorts or black tracksuit bottoms
Pumps or trainers

Please make sure children wear suitable footwear that they can manage independently where possible.

🧥 What Should My Child Bring to School?

Please ensure your child brings:

🧥 A Coat

Children need an appropriate coat every day, whatever the weather. We spend lots of time learning and playing outdoors, so it is important that children are prepared for changing weather conditions.

💧 Water Bottle

Please send your child to school with a named water bottle every day.

Water bottles will be sent home each day so that they can be cleaned and returned the following morning.

Please make sure all belongings are clearly named.

📱 ClassDojo

You will be added to our ClassDojo class.

ClassDojo is an important way for us to communicate with families. We will use it to:

Share important class information
Keep you updated about what we are learning
Share photographs and videos of learning
Provide links and ideas for home learning
Celebrate children's achievements
Communicate with parents and carers

If your child is absent from school, please let us know through ClassDojo.

We also love sharing children's achievements and successes with you, so please feel free to let us know about things your child has achieved at home too!

📈 How Do We Assess Your Child?

Assessment in Reception happens naturally throughout the day.

As children play, explore and take part in activities, the adults working with them continually observe and assess their learning and development.

We use this information to:

Identify children's strengths
Identify areas where they may need additional support
Plan appropriate next steps
Adapt our provision
Celebrate progress and achievements

We formally report on your child's progress twice during the school year at parents' evenings.

However, we believe that communication between home and school is really important. We will share highlights, achievements or concerns with you as they arise, rather than waiting until parents' evening.

We also encourage you to talk to us if you have any questions or concerns about your child's learning or wellbeing.

⏰ School Times

School doors open: 8:50am
School day begins: 9:00am
Collection: 3:15pm

Please help your child to develop good routines by arriving on time each morning.

If your child is going to be absent from school, please inform us through ClassDojo and follow the school's normal absence procedures.

❤️ Working Together

Starting Reception is a very exciting time for children and families. We want to work closely with you to make sure your child feels happy, safe, confident and excited to learn.

If you have any questions, worries or information that you feel would help us to support your child, please speak to one of the Reception team.

We look forward to a fantastic year of learning, exploring, playing and growing together! 🌈

🔗 Useful Links for Parents

Starting Reception – Department for Education

The Department for Education has produced a useful guide for parents about starting Reception and the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Starting Reception – DfE:
https://beststartinlife.gov.uk/preparing-for-school/

Read Write Inc.

Find out more about Read Write Inc. phonics and how you can support your child at home.

Read Write Inc. – Parent Information:
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parentsandcarers

Overview - Medium Term Planning

Learning Curriculum - Through the Keyhole All About Me - Through the Keyhole

Galleries

New Gallery coming soon.

Key Information and Dates

Holiday List

Useful Websites

Counting to 10

Numbers to10

https://wordwall.net/community https://wordwall.net/en-gb/community/subitising