Week beginning 20th October 2025

The final week to our half-term got off to a banging start with our African drums workshop.   Children each had their own djembe drum and we learnt to play different parts of the drum with different parts of our hands. We did call and response songs and leant to represent different animals in a story. It was a lot of fun!

In our forest school session, the children loved exploring the grounds! They had a great time playing in all the wonderful areas created by the older children for OPAL play, such as the mud kitchen and the climbing zone.

In English, we have been reading Autumn stories.  Each class has also reinforced previous sounds and practised reading and blending cvc words, as well as writing them.  We have also used non fiction texts to learn about the festival of Diwali.   Classes looked at pictures and photographs that showed us how families celebrate Diwali. We also looked at diya lamps and rangoli patterns. Children each made their own diya out of clay and used a paper plate as a base to stick shapes to make a rangoli pattern. We had a really fun afternoon!  

In maths, we have continued to learn about capacity, creating fabulous potions!

                  .                      

Linked to Autumn, we have also created pumpkin pictures and used our senses to explore real pumpkins.  

                                 .                                                

We now look forward to a little rest after what has been a very long and busy first half-term to the children's school education.  We are so proud of them and have seen such progress already in their social, emotional and academic learning. We wish you all a happy and safe half-term and look forward to seeing children back after half-term.

Week Beginning 13th October 2025 

Pets have been the main focus to all our learning this week. The children have enjoyed reading the story The Great Pet Sale and talking about pets they have at home or pets they might like to own. During our creative lessons the children have used their understanding of shapes and colours to create beautiful paintings of different pets including dogs, cats, mice and birds!

The children then chose an autumnal leaf and created their own special leaf person. They were so sweet! 

Our maths focus this week has been all about capacity and patterns. The children problem solved in small groups to work out which animals would fit best in each different sized box, thinking about the appropriate size for each animal.

The children were then excited to look at different pattens, first patterns in the environment for example stripy, spotty and checkered.  Then they used a range of different materials to explore creating their own repeating patterns using natural objects and coloured cubes. 

Throughout the week, the children have continued to impress us all with their writing skills. Our writing focus this week has been captions and the children have enjoyed using their phonoligical skills to write the caption 'a cat' thinking about letter formation and spacing when writing in their literacy books. Finally, in our daily phonics lessons, the children have been introduced to the digraph ck and the letter sounds e,u and r. 

Next week, we are looking forward to our African drumming lesson on Tuesday and consolidating all our learning from our first full half term in school.    

Week beginning 6th October '25

A lot of our learning this week has centred around the story 'Owl Babies' by Martin Waddell.  Classes have read and acted out the story, using the story sack and taken part in lots of linked activities, including retelling the story, creating owls out of play dough and painting owls using forks.  In phonics, we have revised previous sounds and looked at the tricky words 'I,' 'and' and 'to.'

In maths, children have been comparing different sizes and using the balance pans to compare different masses.  We have been using lots of different vocabulary, including heavy and light.

At the beginning of the week, reception classes had a great time taking part in a drama workshop about castles and dragons by Perform Drama School. Children all listened really well and joined in with the acting and dancing. 

Classes have continued to enjoy our "Happy Minds' sessions.  This week, we have met 'our brain' and introduced linked language. Children have sorted pictures into emotions, talking about the different parts of the brain.  They have also made a brain hat.

We were also lucky to have another Forest School this week.  Classes started by discussing the visible signs of autumn, such as the leaves changing colour and falling off the trees. Next, the children teamed up with a partner to search for minibeasts in the forest school area, lifting up tree stumps and logs to discover them.

   .  .  

Next week, the main story will be 'The Great Pet Sale.'  In phonics, the new sounds will be 'ck,'  'e,' 'u' and 'r.'  Maths will include capacity and repeated patterns.

Week beginning 29th September 2025 

What an amazing week we have had. The children have completed lots of fantastic learning opportunities linked to their homes and families. Making links and learning more about their new friends. 

In maths this week, the children have created shaped homes using a selection of 2d shapes including squares, circles, triangles and rectangles to create beautiful homes, whilst reinforcing key mathematical vocabulary.  The children have also been practising their cutting skills to stick pictures in size order from the smallest to the biggest. 

In Literacy, the children have really impressed us with their literacy skills by drawing pictures of their families and writing the initial sounds to represent their family members. The children have developed their fine motor skills to create homes and develop their pencil control. 

In phonics this week, the children have been learning all about the letter sounds g,o,c and k and the tricky word and. 

During our year group music lessons, the children loved learning all about tempo and syllables, clapping and moving together to a range of music genres.  

Next week we will be looking closely at the story of Owl Babies and reinforcing all our letter sounds learnt so far this half-term. 

                         .                

Week beginning 22nd September 2025

It is hard to believe that children have been at school for almost a month!  Classes have settled well into routines and are actively immersing themselves into their learning.

In phonics, we have looked at the sounds 'i,' 'n,' 'm,' and 'd.' Children are getting quick to recognise the sounds and also have done some amazing letter formation this week.  

Our main theme this week has been birthdays. Classes read the story 'Kipper's birthday,' as well as several other birthday-linked stories.  We have looked at our birthday walls and thought about how old we are now and how old we will be on our next birthday.  Children have written about how old they are, as well as drawing and painting birthday cakes. On Thursday, they were even able to make icing and use sprinkles to design their own cake or biscuit, which obviously needed eating! Children have been inspired to follow this theme into many different areas of learning, and we have been amazed at their creativity, for example, producing amazing birthday cakes out of stickle bricks.

.  . 

.    

In maths, we have been matching and sorting objects, including thinking about if particular objects match a set.  There have been plenty of other activities throughout the week to build on children's number recognition and understanding.

.   

Classes have also participated in Forest School this week.  They were encouraged to build a house for a fairy or pixie using all the natural resources available in forest school. Children demonstrated fantastic team work.

Next week, in phonics, we will be looking at the phonemes 'g,' 'o,' 'c' and 'k,'  as well as the tricky word 'and.'  In maths, we will be continuing to match, sort and compare.

Week Beginning 15th September 2025 

This week the children in reception have been very busy. Both classes have been learning the letter sounds s,a,t and p and the tricky word I. The children have also enjoyed the interactive story A Wet Walk. 

In maths this week the children have practised the days of the week and learning about the four seasons. The children are showing a good understanding of how many days there are in a week and which season we are in. 

 During our PE lessons, the children have been following instructions and negotiating spaces showing a good understanding of the rules of the hall. 

The children have also been thinking about and recording special things to them, including their favourite colours, their favourite animals and their families. 

Next week we will be learning all about our birthdays and introducing the letter sounds i,n,m and d.   

Week Beginning 8th September 2025

Wow! The children have all completed their first week in Reception. They have enjoyed making lots of new friends, learning their new routines and finding out all about their new teachers. We could not be prouder of how they have all settled. To support their learning, we have introduced our new topic all about me and the children have enjoyed creating self-portraits which are proudly displayed in each classroom.    

The children have also created lovely abstract pieces of artwork inspired by the artist Kandinsky using square paper and colourful circles. This has developed their fine motor control to paint a series of circles and developed their understanding of colours. 

During our practical maths lessons, the children have shown enthusiasm for singing number songs and impressing us all with their counting skills. 

The children loved completing the new play trail in the Reception garden. 

Next week we are looking forward to learning all about our favourite things and starting our phonics lessons.   

 Week beginning 1st September 2025