Curriculum
In Reception we are committed to taking the time to understand and follow children’s interests and provide a rich curriculum that supports learning, consolidates and deepens knowledge, develops vocabulary whilst taking our children on an exciting journey around the world. This curriculum ensures that children achieve their next steps. Both our indoor and outdoor provision is carefully planned and demonstrates a thorough knowledge and understanding of the way in which our children learn. See our curriculum overviews on this page to see where we are going and who we are going to meet and what we will be learning across each term.
Phonics
In Reception we have 5 phonics sessions a week and also have opportunities throughout the provision for the children to extend their phonic knowledge. This term (Autumn) we will be learning Phase 2 from the 'Unlocking Letters and Sounds' scheme. On this page you will find resources that we use in school to support our teaching of phonics. You can use these resources at home too.
Phonics Guidance for Parents
Sounds
During each phase the children will learn new sounds. Each letter has a name and a sound. For example, the letter B, the name of this letter is B (said like bee) and the sound of this letter is b (said like b-u-h). Have a look at the link below to understand more about letter names and letter sounds.
Digraphs
During Phase 3 we will learn digraph sounds. Digraphs are when 2 letters are together but only make 1 sound. For example, S and H when together make sh. Phase 3 focuses on these digraphs. If you would like to learn more about digraphs please have a look at the link below.
Common Exception Words
Common exception words are considered words that cannot be sounded out. For example, we can sound out the word cat by saying each sound c-a-t. We cannot do this with words such as I, go, to as the letters in these words do not make the phonetic sounds. The children will learn these tricky words just by memorising. Please watch the video below to understand more about these words.
Letter Formation
To help the children to form their letters correctly we use patters. These can be found on the document below. We use the patters as we practise drawing the letters in the air as well as on paper. You can practise these at home with your children too.
Maths
In Reception we use the NCETM-Mastering Number to support us in teaching Maths. Each term the children will be taught different areas of Maths such as cardinality and counting, comparison and composition along with a range of resources to teach pattern, shape and space and measures. In Mastering Number we dig deeper into the different areas of Maths, particularly the composition of numbers. We aim for children to have a deep understanding of number to set them up for when they move further up the school and will come across more complexed Maths problems. On this page you will find an overview of what the children will be learning. We have focused sessions of Maths each week along with opportunities in the inside and outdoor provision to extend knowledge and skills.
Literacy
In Reception we believe that it is paramount for children to develop a love for reading in order to support their learning as they continue through school. Each day consists of a Literacy session as well as '5 a day' reading time and books can be accessed throughout the provision too. In Reception we follow the Literacy Tree scheme where we use a variety of texts each term which we plan our Literacy sessions from. Please see our Literacy Text overview below to see some of the texts that we will cover over this year.
