Reception 2024 - 2025

Autumn Half Term 2 2024

Welcome Reception!

Mrs Whittall and Mrs Campbell are excited to welcome you to St Mary’s. We have some exciting topics and experiences in store and are looking forward to exploring them together. We aim to make your first year at St Mary's a memorable one and hope you do too. 

Our Christian Values

During the Autumn term, our Christian value is Compassion.

“We love each other because he loved us first.” 1 John 4:19

Our Aims

We offer a curriculum rich in wonder and memorable experiences. We provide a stimulating environment that provides exciting opportunities, promotes challenge, exploration, adventure and a real love of learning.
It is our intent that all children develop physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally in an environment which values all cultures, communities and people. We aim for our children to be confident and independent, to believe in themselves and interact positively with others.
Play is an integral part of learning. A mix of adult directed and uninterrupted child-initiated play ensures the best outcomes for pupils.
Warm and positive relationships between staff and children, consistent routines and strong relationships with parents are key.

Reading

We will use Little Wandle scheme of work for our Phonics lessons and to develop reading and spelling strategies. Our we daily routine will include phonics and reading sessions.

Your child will bring home a ‘Phonics Reader’ and a ‘Love of Reading’ book. Regular reading at home is essential and we ask that you read the ‘Phonics Reader’ book with your child, at least 3 times per week. We suggest that you question your child regularly about the book they are reading to develop a deeper understanding of a range of texts, to develop new vocabulary and to strengthen writing skills.

This half term we will complete phase 2 of the Little Wandle sceme.

Our class books for this half-term include ‘I’m going to eat this Ant’ and ‘Winnie the Witch.’

Writing

We will continue to focus on our fine motor skills in order to prepare our hands for writing. We will be developing our pencil control and learning how to write or name using our best handwriting form the letters that we have been learning in our phonics lessons. We will also be starting to write simple CVC words using our phonics.

Maths

As mathematicians, the children will learn through concrete experiences moving onto pictorial and abstract methods as their confidence builds. They will also be expected to use their learning to reason about maths and solve problems. 

During the autumn term the children will build on previous experiences of number from their home and nursery environments, and further develop their subitising and counting skills. They will explore the composition of numbers within 5. They will begin to compare sets of objects and use the language of comparison.

Understanding of the World

People Culture and Communities

This half term we will be focusing on different celebration across the world. We will be focusing mainly on Christmas and thinking about the true meaning of Christmas, and we will also be looking at Diwali.

Natural world

As part of our work on our focus book ‘I’m going to eat this Ant,’ we will be observing and researching different animals/insects. We will also be thinking about our local area and landmarks and introducing simple maps and globes

Past and Present

We will be looking at Guy Fawkes and how his actions influenced Bonfire Night and we will be thinking about the people and animals that served us in battle as we commemorate Remembrance Day.

RE

For RE we will use the Questful RE planning. This half term we will explore Christmas and the impact that it has on people. We will also be performing our Nativity play for our parents.

Justice and Responsibility

As we continue to live our lives and act out the teachings of Jesus, we will continue to focus on justice and responsibility and will challenge big questions.

PE

Our PE will concentrate on our gymnastics and balancing skills.

Art and DT

As artists, we will be influenced by the work of Andy Goldsworthy to produce our own collages using natural resources.

PSHE

In PSHE, we will follow the Heartsmart scheme and introducing the Heartsmart principle of ‘Don’t Forget to Let Love in!’. We will be guided by Boris, the Heartsmart mascot and learning about the importance of loving ourselves and dealing with our emotions.

Music

As musicians, we will be using Charanga to explore different music genres and new terminology. This half term we will focus on the topic ‘My Stories’

We will also be learning lots of new songs which we will perform during our Nativity productions.

Possible trips & visitors

We will be receiving a mystery visitor in December. Keep a look out on Dojo for more information and pictures.