Reception 2024 - 2025

Mrs Barnett

I have worked at Rode Heath School for many years now. I thoroughly enjoy being part of all of the exciting learning opportunities which Rode Heath has to offer. Outside of school, I love to go exploring outdoors with my two children.

Mrs Adams

I have been working with young children for over 20 years and am passionate about giving them the best possible start to school life by learning through creative and meaningful contexts. As a Forest School teacher I love taking learning outside the classroom and introducing children to new skills, such as den building, tree climbing, campfire cookery and caring for our woodland environment.

Miss Street

I have worked as a TA at Rode Heath for the past 8 years, working in Key Stage 1, specialising in EYFS. I thoroughly enjoy working with the new starters, supporting them as they start on their new journey of school life. I believe all children should be treated as I would wish my own to be treated.

All About Me Autumn 2024.png

We can't believe it's already the last week of your first term in Reception! We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas break and we are looking forward to seeing you back in the new year .

If you or any family / friends are getting rid of any baby doll play items (dolls, clothes or other play items), please consider donating them to Reception. Our dolls have definitely seen better days and we would be very grateful.

Mrs Adams, Mrs Barnett & the Reception Team.

Routines, Reminders & Messages

Elf Run - Wednesday 18th December at 1.30pm.

Christmas Holidays start on Friday 20th December and we look forward to seeing you back on Monday 6th January. We hope you all have a wonderful break!

Home Learning - We will not be sending out any home learning this week (16th Dec). Enjoy your break and remember to keep reading!!

Book Bag and Reading Diary - Your child will be given their book bag and reading folder on their first day. The folder contains their reading diary and, from Week 2, their 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 them in class. Books are changed on Mondays - we have very limited supplies of books 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, they are not expected to read these for themselves but are wonderful as a bedtime story or snuggling 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 to be chosen by another child.

P.E. - We have P.E. on Thursdays this term Children should come to school in their PE kits (House t-shirts, school or plain black/navy tracksuits and pumps or velcro trainers.

Home Learning will be sent home every Friday. Please ensure it is completed and returned by the following Wednesday, when we will collect in the home learning books. We do not send any home learning to be completed over the holidays.

Tapestry - we use this to share highlights of your child's learning. 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. As always, please let us know if you have any problems.

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 16th December 2024

Phonics:

This week we will be learning the new letters w and x. We will focus on linking the phoneme (sound) to the grapheme, forming letters correctly and blending/segmenting skills.

We will continue to practise reading/writing our Phase 2 tricky words and our new Phase 3 tricky word she. Tricky words are words that cannot be sounded out and blended - we just have to learn what they look like!

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 w x

Phase 2 Tricky Words - I no go to the into

Phase 3 Tricky Words - he she

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.

Literacy:

This week we are completing our work on sequencing the Christmas story.

We continue to focus on writing our names and the letters we have learned in Phonics. We are blending sounds we have learned to read simple CVC words (consonant/vowel/consonant) and captions. We are also segmenting CVC words to hear the sounds, in order to begin to write them.

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.

Letter Form Rhymes.png