Reception
Welcome to Reception
Welcome to Reception. Your class teacher is Mrs O’Brien. Mrs Metcalfe, Miss Lloyd and Mrs Norman are your teaching assistants. Your midday supervisors are Mrs Mehan and Mrs Metcalfe.
Starting full time school in Reception can be a big change, but we try hard to make the transition as smooth as possible. In the autumn term we work with the support and guidance of an adult and we focus on developing the core areas of communication and language, physical development and personal and social education. This will be through topics children are familiar with, for example ‘family’ and ‘people who help us’.
As children get older and are more used to the routines of the day, we introduce more whole class and small group literacy and maths activities alongside topic activities. However, it is still very important that the children have time each morning and afternoon for self-initiated activities in which to play and practice their skills and to follow their own interests.
Throughout the year we maintain electronic Learning Journals for each child in which we record their achievements and interests in the form of photos, observational notes and examples of work. These Learning Journals then help us to make assessments against the Early Learning Goals at the end of the Reception year. Parents have access to these via an online app and can add their own comments and observations.
Topics vary during the year, according to the children’s interests, however we tend to cover seasonal changes and celebrations every year such as autumn, Fireworks night, Diwali, Christmas, winter, spring, Easter etc.
There’s lots to learn during Reception, but we have fun doing it!
Mrs O'BrienMrs Metcalfe
Mrs Norman
Miss Lloyd
New to Reception PowerPoint 2025
New to Reception PowerPoint 2025for website
Reception Class Curriculum Overviews
100 Books to Read Before You Leave Reception!
100 books to read before you leave Reception!
Reception Reading Spine
Phonics Presentation October 2025
Phonics in Reception Presentation WEBSITE
Phonics Pure Sounds
Learn how to pronounce all 44 phonics sounds, or phonemes, used in the English language with these helpful examples, from Oxford Owl.
RECEPTION CLASS 2025-2026
Week beginning 16 February
LI: To balance.
Today the children transformed themselves into trapeze artists to practise balancing.
Week beginning 9 February
LI: To understand what an online activity is.
It is Safer Internet Day and we have been learning about our online reputation and identifying ways we can put information online.
Week beginning 2 February
LI: To write a postcard.
We have been reading The Snail and the Whale and the children, pretending to be the snail, wrote postcards to their snail friends back home.
Week beginning 26 January
LI: To talk about vehicles past and present.
We have been looking at past and present vehicles and discussing similarities and differences.
Week beginning 19 January
LI: To design a sea creature.
We have been reading Lost and Found where the boy and the penguin travel across the ocean. Today we used Purple Mash on the interactive whiteboard to design some sea creatures.
Week beginning 15 December
LI: To write a caption.
Reception are beginning to write captions in phonics using phase 2 and a few phase 3 phonics.
Week beginning 8 December
LI: To learn about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. The children learned all about the food, games and activities that are part of the Hanukkah celebrations. They made cards, Menorahs and pictures.
Week beginning 1 December
LI: To make gingerbread people.
Linked to our story, The Gingerbread Man, we made our own gingerbread people biscuits. We mixed the ingredients, rolled the dough and used a shape cutter. We talked about what would happen to the biscuits once they went into the oven and we observed the changes.
Week beginning 24 November
LI: To write a letter.
We have been reading The Jolly Postman and we wrote letters to our families. We then walked to our local post box to post them. We also had a visit from Debbie, who worked at the Royal Mail, and she told us all about how our letters get from the post box to their houses.
Week beginning 17 November
LI: To explore freezing and melting.
The children were thrilled at the amount of ice we had in Reception playground this morning. We had a lot of discussion around what ice is. Robert said "it's solid water" and Thomas said "the snow freezes the water then it melts".
Week beginning 10 November
LI: To build / write CVC words.
The children are loving learning Monster Phonics and enjoy challenging themselves. This week, we have been building and writing words.
Week beginning 3 November
LI: To find 4 and 5.
This week our focus is the numbers 4 and 5. Today the children sorted cards and objects representing 4 and 5 into the correct piles.
Week beginning 20 October
LI: To move in different ways.
Reception class had a visit from Luke at Stevenage Sporting Futures today. He delivered a session called 'Wild About Nature' where the children stepped into the wild to become little explorers. Through a fun an imaginative PE adventure, the children moved like animals (sprint like cheetahs, leap like frogs, crawl like bears), joined in a journey through the forest, rivers, and meadows, worked in “Nature Teams” to complete simple movement games and learned how to be strong, fast, and calm – just like the animals around us.
Week beginning 6 October
LI: To understand our feelings.
For 'Hello Yellow' we introduced the children to the Zones of Regulation. We reflected on different feelings and why we have them. We looked at what we can do to help us when we feel a certain way.
Week beginning 6 October
LI: To understand the jobs that people do to help us.
We were lucky enough to have a visit from a PCSO and a train driver to talk to us this week about their jobs. The children had lots of questions!
Week beginning 29 September
LI: To create AB patterns.
We have been exploring pattern in Maths and today we created our own AB patterns using a variety of resources. Some children challenged themselves to an ABC pattern and even a recurring pattern.
Week beginning 22 September
LI: To talk about our family.
This term our topic is 'All About Us' and the children have loved sharing all about their families. We are learning about how different families can be and also similarities within others.
Week beginning 15 September
LI: To explore Forest School.
The children have enjoyed exploring Forest School. Mrs Hunter taught them all about what we can and can't do in order to keep us safe. They had a wonderful time discovering what they could find.
Week beginning 1 September
Reception class have had an incredible first week. They have visited Forest School, took part in a Healthy Eating Workshop, danced with scarves, played on the bikes and climbing frame, went to Mini OPAL, won the lunchtime cup and much, much more. Well done to everyone for such a successful start.
