St. Peter's Catholic Primary School

The Reception Class is your child's final year of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). We aim to have fun while learning the new skills we need for the future.

This is a very important stage as it helps your child get ready for Year One, as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes.

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
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development

These prime areas are those most essential for your child's healthy development and future learning.

The prime areas will help children to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are: 

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding of the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside.

Foundation Stage and KS1 follow the Letters and Sounds ‘Little Wandle’ scheme for phonics.

In Foundation Stage, we expect children to start developing their independence and we ask that children are able to dress themselves, including doing their own shirt buttons (not their top button - these can be tricky!), putting on skirts and trousers, putting on their own tights/socks and shoes.

In the dinner hall, we encourage all children to pick up and use a knife and fork correctly, as we feel that this is an important life skill.

Children are expected to go to the toilet independently. Spare clothes will be provided if an accident should happen.

Children have access to their water bottles throughout the day.

Children will put their snack in the basket each morning as they come into school. We kindly ask that all snacks are clearly labelled with your child's name.  Alternatively, they may order toast and juice, milk or water at the beginning of each week from the kitchen.

Each term, parents are invited to a Stay and Learn Session where they have the opportunity to take part in their child's learning at the start or end of the day. This helps parents to understand what learning in Foundation Stage looks like. 

Comments from parents attending the sessions:

• Lovely to see all the children working hard and expressing themselves,
• Really nice idea inviting parents in and giving them the opportunity to see what happens during the day, 
• It's lovely to see what they do in school and how they do things e.g. ordering lunch,
• Really enjoyed seeing our child during their school day. Very engaging!

Comments from the children:

• It will help me, 
• I was happy to show our learning,
• I was excited to share what we know, 
• We matched animals to their habitats together. 

In Foundation Stage, we record your child's learning journey using the online learning journal, Tapestry. We ask that parents upload photos to Tapestry that support their child's learning development, at least twice a week. Please see the document below for further information.

P.E. will take place on a Tuesday. Children will need the correct P.E. kit consisting of a black t-shirt with logo, maroon shorts, black St. Peter’s hoodie or school jumper, extra socks. On cold days, children may wear black tracksuit bottoms/leggings. A school tracksuit is also available. All St. Peter's clothes can be ordered through Touchline UK Warrington. We ask that the children come into school wearing their P.E. kits on a Tuesday.

In Foundation Stage, English comes under the title 'Literacy' in our Early Learning Goals (E.L.G.) which has three strands, Comprehension, Word Reading and Writing. This encompasses writing, reading and phonics. Each week, the children will take part in a focused writing activity with an adult. In addition to this, children have weekly challenges to complete independently which enable them to apply what they are learning.

Please click on the image below to see a list of 50 books recommended for Reception.

In Foundation Stage, the Mathematics E.L.G. has two strands, Number and Numerical Patterns. Every day the children have a class Mathematics lesson and each week the children take part in at least one focused Mathematics activity with an adult and this is usually very practical. We follow the White Rose scheme of work to provide consistency with the rest of the school.

Please see the Development Matters document below for further information on what the children are expected to know to reach their E.L.G.

Homework begins in the Autumn Term. It is given out on a Friday and is to be returned no later than Tuesday of the following week. The first homework that we give out each year is letter formation based on the phonemes that we have been learning that week. As the year progresses out homework can be Mathematics or Topic related. In EYFS the homework can often be very practical and in these weeks we ask that you upload a photo or example of your child's work to Tapestry.