RECEPTION HANDBOOK
Class Teacher: Mrs Crompton
Teaching Assistant: Mrs Winterburn
The first year of a child’s schooling is critical to their future development. The purpose of their reception year is to ignite children’s interest in and excitement for learning through offering a play based curriculum. Children learn through engaging in a mixture of self-initiated and adult led experiences. This important stage helps to prepare children for the more formal learning they will encounter in Key Stage 1 and beyond. In addition, essential social skills and learning attitudes are acquired as children interact with their peers.
What can I do to help my child before (s)he starts school? Some practicalities:
We do not expect the majority of four-year olds to be able to tie their own laces, but we do encourage them to try! Help is always available. It is very useful if your child can dress and undress when they join the school.
Velcro fastening shoes and slip on plimsolls can be one less frustration for both child and teacher in the early stages. Please name your child’s clothing clearly. If your child recognizes his or her name this can be very reassuring when they are locating their special things.
It can be very worrying if a child cannot manage to go to the toilet without assistance. There are often stiff fasteners, particularly on school trousers, and a few practice sessions are worthwhile.
Do reassure your child that (s)he can always go to the toilet when they need to. During whole class discussions, small group tasks, or when in the breathing space (by the canal), we teach the children sign language to indicate they wish to go to the toilet. A quick nod confirms that we have understood. At all other times, whether inside or outside, the children can access the toilets independently. All children should know how to flush the toilet after use, and wash their hands. Can your child blow his or her nose and use a tissue correctly?
Help is at hand to cut up food during lunchtime, but we would expect all children to handle a knife and fork correctly, and sit sensibly at the table.
Polite Reminders:
· playing can be a very messy business. Children do wear aprons, but accidents can happen.
· please clearly name any items of clothing which your child is likely to take off e.g. coats, each items of P.E. kit, wellington boots they may bring in and leave at school.
· encourage your children to dress and undress even though it will take a little longer, especially taking of their coats, handing them up and putting them on
· if you child needs to be changed for any reason and comes home in school’s spare clothes, we would appreciate them being washed and returned as soon as possible – Thank you.
“Just Playing?”
A high quality early years education is about much more than colours and shapes, numbers and letters, It’s about learning to be independent, confident, strong and curious.
It’s about developing children’s natural joy and wonder at the world they live in.
It’s about having a positive attitude, forming positive relationships and believing in yourself. If children can learn to “have a go”, learn from mistakes and try again, they will succeed in their future learning. Young children learn by doing things for themselves, by exploring and investigating, watching and listening, talking and discussing, creating and communicating – in other words – playing. Play is children’s work and playing hard is very tiring! Your children may be really exhausted and perhaps a bit grumpy when they come home – please make allowances. You’ll want to know what your child has been doing for three hours.
“What did you do at school today?”
“Don’t know – Nothing – Just playing”, are common replies!
Sometimes children make something, draw or paint, so you can see what they’ve done. Often their play has nothing to show for it, the learning is invisible. Whatever they’ve done, please don’t compare your child with anyone else, or put them under any pressure to make something for you – it’s so easy to knock their self-esteem.
So, what have they really been doing and how will they learn if they are ‘just playing’.
Young children learn from everything around them – the people, the environment, the atmosphere, the routine, and the experiences. All aspects of children’s growth and development are woven together, but it is interesting to look at the different areas of learning separately to understand how young children learn. The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum describes the following areas of learning, with ‘Early Learning Goals’ to be aimed for by the end of children’s Reception year in school.
Home Learning for Reception Children
As children spend approximately 15% of their life at school and 85% of their life at home it is essential that they are assisted to see learning as something that happens both at school and at home. In Reception the key purpose of home learning is to develop a partnership with parents and involve them actively in pupils’ learning. The most important form of support parents can offer their child is to read to them and, when they are ready, hear them read. If possible this should happen for a short period of time every day. We strongly encourage the setting up of a regular routine so that children can establish a reading habit.
At this age in a child’s development the best learning happens through story, play and games. At least once a fortnight, parents will receive a home learning letter outlining the focus for the week’s learning and suggesting ways you can support your child. The home learning is always fun and very varied and will be sent home on Friday’s in a home learning black folder each week. In addition, the following activities are recommended:
· Talk with your child about what they have done at school (and about what they do at home). This offers a valuable opportunity for reflection and a chance to consolidate what has been learnt. It also provides a meaningful context for developing speaking and listening skills.
· Read to your child for a short time every day. Discuss the story with her, talk about the pictures and ask her to predict what will happen next or to explain why an event in the story happened. The more stories a child hears, the more they learn to understand how stories work. Those with a greater experience of stories are more equipped to learn to read. A great deal of a child’s understanding about the world comes from stories.
· Help your child to learn nursery rhymes. Act them out together. Children really enjoy this and very quickly they will learn them off by heart and be able to recite them. There are many good books containing these. One is ‘The Helen Oxenbury Nursery Collection’.
· Ask your child to read to you from a graded reading book that is from a structured reading scheme. In the early stages you will probably need to help your child out and do some of the reading for them. As time progresses your child will become increasingly able to read to you. Children in reception will bring home a graded reading book.
· Sing with your child! Children love singing familiar songs. Those with a repetitive structure or a chorus are particularly easy for them to learn (Ten green bottles; Old Macdonald had a farm; the wheels on the bus)
· Provide plenty of opportunities for drawing, colouring and painting. Drawing a picture is an important channel for children to communicate and express themselves. It is really good for them to draw often. Give your child the chance to use a broad range of media: crayons, felt tips, paints, pastels and chalks.
· Make things with your child. Children really enjoy using a whole range of different materials. Play dough helps the development of their motor skills. Replicas of every day items can be made using paper, card, tape; glue; string, glitter, beads and a whole range of recyclable materials.
· Simple games help children to develop basic mathematical skills. You could play the following games with your child: dominoes, snakes and ladders, draughts, connect 4, and any other simple dice game.
· Let your child build: duplo, lego, meccano and other construction materials help the development of their creative skills.
· Words and numbers in the environment: do comment on the words and numbers your child will come across during their daily life. Help to develop your child’s awareness of them whenever possible.
· Find meaningful contexts for counting: Count with your child when they are going up or down stairs; when you go to the supermarket, when you are laying the table and at other times when the opportunity arises.
· Ensure your child has plenty of exercise. Children need to run around, visit a playground, play in the sandpit, climb up a climbing frame, chase a ball and go on the swings. All these activities help to develop the child’s physical skills as well as assisting them to overcome fears and inhibitions.
· Small world toys such as a doll’s house or a model garage allow children to act out their feelings through play.
· It goes without saying that trips to places of interest are hugely rewarding for children. They develop their knowledge and understanding of the world by extending their experience of life.
There are many excellent interactive learning activities on the internet that you can enjoy with your child. E.g. BBC Learning Zone, Phonics Play.
Books, Rhymes, Words
Pre-school children have a real thirst for books and will love to share a book with an interested adult. Do encourage your child to choose books from the library and to become used to the library as an interesting place where stories are read, and songs are sung to them. We would also recommend you teaching them nursery rhymes.
If a child has a particular interest, please do all you can to find books on that subject to show him or her how fascinating books can be. Children love to possess their own books and have a special place to keep them.
Remember that children are great imitators. If they see you reading a newspaper, magazine, or borrowing books from the library, they will soon share your enthusiasm and interest. Never underestimate the value of nursery rhymes, favourite songs, poems and stories, which are repeated over and over again. Try to ensure that book-sharing times take place during quiet moments such as after waking, after a mid-day meal or just before teatime or bedtime. This encourages the right attitude and atmosphere towards books and reading time.
As children grow older, play ‘let’s guess what’s going to happen on the next page/at the end of the story.’ Find the words that they have seen elsewhere. For example,
‘That says “out”, we saw it on the door of the supermarket’
The child who enters school knowing that books are fun and interesting will make tremendous strides towards proper reading.
Your child will need a school book bag when starting school (available from the school office). These need to come into school on a daily basis to support reading at home and school. This will be a partnership between parent and teacher. We will provide you with a special list of ideas about how to share/read a book with your child.
In reception your child will be given a reading journal. This will be checked daily by the class teacher and is a place for you to record the reading that your child has done at home. At the front of the journal is:
· Some information and ideas on how to help your child with reading
· A phonic checklist
· Lists of words that the children need to learn. These words are split into ‘sound’ words and ‘tricky’ words. The ‘sound’ words are words that can be sounded out, once the children know all the sounds; ‘tricky’ words are ones that cannot be sounded out and need to be learnt.
· Information on how to hold a pencil correctly
· Guidance on how we teach and form our letters at Carnforth Primary School.
Handwriting
At Carnforth Primary we use the Nelson Handwriting scheme shown below.
Here are examples of how to form our alphabet letters:
a b c d e f
g h i j k l
m n o p q r
s t u v w x
y z
Please ensure correct pencil grip and formation of letters and numbers from the start.
We teach the sounds letters make using the Jolly Phonics System in which the children are taught the letter sounds through actions, songs and stories.
Number Formation – handwriting policy
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Children should be shown that all numbers begin at the top.
You can help your child to be ready for school number work particularly by introducing the language and concepts of mathematics.
DIY activities can be very useful here. ‘Pass me the shortest/longest screw. I need a short/longer nail. Shall we wash along the car bumper, between the wiper blades, around the headlights?’
Much of this language will (and should) be incidental, but will prove an invaluable aid to your child when faced with mathematical concepts and problems at school.