Reception 2025 - 2026

Happy New Year.  A heartfelt thank you for all of your lovely messages, cards and very generous Christmas gifts — your kindness means so much to us all in Reception. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break and have lots of news to share with us. We can't wait to welcome you back on Monday 5th January to begin our Spring Term learning adventure 'Into the Woods'. Our topic web contains more information and is available in the 'Files to Download' section at the bottom of this page.

Mrs Adams, Mrs Barnett & the Reception Class team

Routines, Reminders & Messages

Doors open at 8.45am and Reception children will continue to be brought down at 3.10pm, just before Key Stage 1 finish for the day.

Tapestry is Changing Soon - You may have seen that Tapestry (our online learning journal) are making some changes that will take effect soon. We will let you know as soon as we have confirmation of the exact date. Desktop Users will not need to do anything but App Users will need to download a new app (not an update) from the App Store / Google Play store. We have sent you a Tapestry memo with more information and new user guides.

Book Bag and Reading Diary - Your child was given their book bag and reading folder on their first day.  The folder contains their reading diary and phonics reading books.  Please look through the diary and complete the permissions pages as soon as possible (we can't put any lovely photos on our webpage until we have your consent).  

Please record in the diary each time you read with your child.  We will make a note of when we have read in school too.  You can use the diary to pass notes to us but please remember that they are not checked daily.  If your message is urgent or very important then please telephone or email the school office instead.

Phonics Reading Books - Your child will bring home two books per week, that match the sounds learned in phonics lessons. It is important for the children to re-read the books - at least 3 times at home - to help them become more fluent, begin to recognise words and to feel successful as a reader. We encourage the children to read once to sound out and blend all of the words, a second time to remember and begin to read a little more confidently and a third time to help their understanding of the book and be able to talk about it. 

Please ensure all books and the reading diary are kept in your child's folder in their book bag and brought in to school every day, as we also read these books in class. Books are changed on Mondays - we have very limited supplies so please ensure they are in school and availiable to be passed on to the next child.

'Reading for Pleasure' books -  Your child will choose a Reading for Pleasure book during their first week.  These are lovely books for you to share with your child at home. Your child is not expected to read these for themselves but they are wonderful as a bedtime story or snuggled up on the sofa to read together. These books are also changed on Mondays and again we have a limited supply, so would appreciate your support in ensuring they are returned on time to be available for another child.

P.E. -  Our P.E. day is on Thursday. Children should come to school in their PE kits (House t-shirts, school or plain black/navy tracksuit) and velcro pumps or trainers - no laces please!

Home Learning is sent home on Fridays.  This will be a mixture of activities in Home Learning books, online or via Tapestry. Please ensure it is completed and, where applicable, books are returned by the following Wednesday, when we collect them in. 

Tapestry - we use this to share highlights of your child's learning, send messages and set some home learning tasks.  If your child attended our Pre-School then your existing login details are still valid.  If you are new to Rode Heath then you should have received an email with instructions on how to get started (check your junk folder if you don't receive an email). As always, please let us know if you have any problems.

School Spider - Please ensure that you have downloaded the School Spider App. We use this for communicating general school messages and information such as head bumps and changes to arrangements for clubs.

Ensuring that our children are happy, safe and secure in school is very important to us.  We follow our Hearts and Minds curriculum to ensure children's personal, social and emotional development is central to our practice.  More information about our Hearts and Minds curriculum and the weekly Hearts and Mind planning can be found using this link: Hearts and Minds. 

To find year group expectations for Maths, please click here, scroll down and click on the overview. 

For year group expectations for English, please click here, scroll down and click on the overview. 

The expectations for Science and the Foundation subjects can be found by selecting the relevant heading from here.

Our Learning Journey: Monday 5th January 2026

Phonics:

This week we will begin Phase 3 of our Phonics learning, with the letters j and v  We will recognise the letters (graphemes) and link them to the sound they make (phonemes).  We will practise hearing the sounds in short words, reading short sentences and forming the letters correctly to write words.  We will learn the tricky word he.  We call them 'tricky words' because they cannot be sounded out phonetically, we have to learn to read and write the whole word.

Pure Sounds - We teach the children to use 'pure' sounds (the sounds that letters make in words)  Click on the pictures below to hear the 'pure' sounds for Phase 2 and Phase 3 phonics.

Phase 2 Graphemes - s  a t  p  i  n  m  d  g  o  c  k  ck  e  u  r  h  b  f  l  ff ll ss

Phase 3 Graphemes - j  v

Phase 2 Tricky Words - I  no  go  to  the  into

Phase 3 Tricky Words - he

Literacy:

This week we will be writing about our Christmas holidays.  We will be beginning to learn to write short sentences using a capital letter at the beginning, finger spaces between each word and a full stop at the end.

Letter Formation - We work very hard on developing a good pencil grip and forming our letters correctly in Reception. This is important because it reduces strain on the hand muscles and prepares children for joining letters and writing at greater length in Years 1 and 2. The pictures below show the correct formation for each letter and the rhymes we use to support the children to recall them.

  Maths:

This week we will be recapping our learning on numbers to 5.  Through lots of hands‑on activities, songs, and playful problem‑solving, the children will build a deep understanding of numbers to 5, recognise amounts in different arrangements, compare groups using language such as more, fewer, the same and explore simple composition of numbers (for example, knowing that 3 can be made from 1 and 2)

   Personal, Social & Emotional Development:

This week we will be learning about Stranger Danger and revisiting why we have rules in class and at school.

   Understanding the World

This week, we will be exploring light and shadow.  We will also learn about why toothbrushing is an important part of staying healthy.

  Physical Development:

This week, we are learning to control a medium sized ball

    Expressive Arts & Design:

We will be developing our finger painting skills this week and, in Music, will be learning and joining in with action songs.

Engineering:

Don't forget to visit our Think Like an Engineer website regularly to see what we're all busy doing: 

https://thinklikeanengineerproject.com

Our door is always open, please contact us for help at any time. 

At busy times, please telephone to leave a message or email and we will respond as soon as we can.

If you are worried about how to keep your child safe online, please follow the following link:.

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/keeping-your-under-five-safe-online