Our school is situated on a large site, in an area of outstanding beauty. Our Reception children have free access to the outside. This includes a woodland area where they can make fairy houses, build dens, hunt for mini beasts and cook in the mud kitchen. They also have a run way for practising physical activities including cycling and badminton, as well as our blue calm area where children can develop their creative skills by painting, creating adventures for small world toys and become project managers and builders, building with duplo, wood and real bricks.
Our Reception Team:
Mrs Denyssen - Class Teacher Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday am
Mrs Priestley - Class Teacher Wednesday pm, Thursday, Friday
Mrs Tomkins - Teaching Assistant
Miss Cathro - Teaching Assistant
The Foundation Stage Curriculum
In Reception we continue the Early Years Foundation Stage which the children begin in Nursery / Preschool. The Foundation Stage Curriculum is divided into seven areas of learning.
The 3 prime areas are:
Personal social and Emotional Development
Physical Development
Communication and Language
The Prime areas are the foundations, underpinning all learning.
The 4 specific areas are:
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding of the World
Expressive Arts and Design
In order for the children to reach their potential they need to elicit high involvement in their activities and have a high emotional wellbeing. We endeavour to give each child a happy experience of their school years whilst at Newdigate. Our passionate and knowledgeable team are quick to respond to the children's interests, developing their knowledge and skills whilst identifying next steps. This enables the children to achieve a high level of engagement and high learning outcomes. We also passionately believe in fostering a 'growth mindset' in our children so that they know they can achieve and succeed if they keep persevering and are resilient.
Please click on the following to find out about the curriculum coverage for each term.
The children initially bring home wordless books telling the story by looking at the pictures. This helps them to develop their story language.
Once the children can recognise some graphemes (sounds) and they are beginning to blend, they bring home phonetically decodable books with simple sentences. The books will match the phonic sounds that they know. The length of the text and the child's fluency will determine how many books a week are sent home. The aim is to re-read books in order to develop fluency.
If you have any queries or concerns please do come and speak to us or you can ring us. We have regular curriculum meetings, parents evenings, and open the book visits.
'Tapestry'
To keep parents up to date with your child's learning, every parent is given a log in to their child's online learning Journal called Tapestry. Through this site, we upload observations, including photos and videos, which link to the above areas of learning. You can also upload videos, photos and comments to add to your child's learning journal.
How can you help support your child?
Our expectations are that the children read 4 times a week and take part in the home learning tasks. The sooner this regular routine is implemented the easier it will be for you and your child.
We believe that it is very important for the children to see the close relationship between home and school. Therefore Home Learning tasks will be set every week. This allows parents to help their children learn the phonemes (sounds) that they have been taught during the week.
Many parents have found that our school Bee Rules are very useful to use at home as well.
You many find the following links and downloads helpful.
