Mrs Shirley and Mrs Palmen's Class

Hello and welcome to Reception. 

Our early years curriculum is based on learning through exploration and play. We access a variety of different activities in Reception to support us with our learning.  

A typical day in Reception:

Our school day begins with Early Doors at 8.45am. Children are welcome to arrive anytime between 8.45am and 9am. 

After registration and prayers, we are ready to learn our Letters and Sounds. Each day we learn a new letter or sound with adult-directed activities. After our whole class learning, we have some time to choose our own activities or we work with an adult in small groups or 1-1. Our outdoor area is often set up so that children can access activities both inside and out. After break time we all sit down together for snack time. We have a healthy snack each day except on Friday's when we have a treat. 

After snack time we take part in Maths activities, which can involve counting, singing, shape games, ICT, water play, sand play and measuring. We like to learn through fun, practical games and activities. Lunchtime begins at 11.30am. Most of us have hot dinners and some children bring in a packed lunch.

At 12.35pm we go back into class for our afternoon session. Each day we focus on different areas of the early years curriculum. Our activities can be linked to our Come and See topic, Show and Tell, Music, Knowledge & Understanding of the World or Personal, Social and Emotional Development (Circle Time Games). We have a piece of fruit each afternoon as part of the free fruit scheme Healthy Schools Government initiative.

Each day we take part in Collective Worship and we enjoy learning about Jesus through our Come and See topics. We say prayers each morning, before and after lunch and before home time.

Before we go home, we like to finish our day with a story, songs or dough gym.

General Information 

P.E. 

This term our P.E lessons will be on a Wednesday morning. Please send your child to school in their full P.E kit. The children must have their school jumper or cardigan to wear.

Snack

Snack money is £1 per week or £6 per half term. 

Parental Involvement

 The early years curriculum is based on learning through play and exploration, There are a number of ways you can help your child to learn and make progress:

* Good attendance

* Home reading

* Point out numbers and letters in the environment

* Count at every opportunity

* Encourage your child to talk about the world around them. 

Reading

Reading can be a special time for you and your child. Research has shown that reading for as little as 5 or 10 minutes each day can help support your child's educational development. 

Book Trust Best Books for 0-5s

Here is the link for the recommended reads from the Book Trust if you are looking for inspiration for new books to share at home. 

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/our-recommendations/best-books-for-0-5s/

CLASS UPDATES

FRIDAY BOOGIES

Every Friday afternoon we have a 'Friday Boogie' and children who have really impressed us that week get to choose a song they would like to dance to. By the end of the year we hope to have every child choose a song. As you can imagine we are compiling a very eclectic mix of songs! I thought it would be nice to post the song choices here so you can see and even replicate the playlist at home.

Firework by Katy Perry - Isla

Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus - Lilah

I Love Rock 'n' Roll by Joan Jett - Emil

Try Everything by Shakira - Florence

We Built This City by Starship - Vivienne

Roar by Katy Perry - Halle

Can't Stop This Feeling by Justin Timberlake - Madeleine

Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys - Lottie

Barbie Girl by Aqua - Sofia

Could Have Been Me from Sing 2 - Billy

Let It Go from Frozen - Layla

If We Hold on Together by Diana Ross - Leo

My Universe by Coldplay - Phoebe

Starlight by Westlife - Khaleesi

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - Victoria

Good Golly Miss Molly - Billy

We Don't Speak Americano - Jack

Shivers by Ed Sheeran - Halle

Blank Space by Taylor Swift - Lottie

Sky Full of Stars from Sing 2 - Florence

Run the World (Girls) by Beyonce - Lilah

I'm Still Standing by Elton John - Billy

Where are you Now? by Lost Frequencies ft Callum Scott - Halle

Reach for the Stars by S Club 7 - Nellie

I'm a Gummy Bear - Sofia

Shotgun by George Ezra - Halle

September from Trolls - Billy

Shake it Off by Taylor Swift - Alana

Good Tonight from The Bad Guys - Billy

Price Tag by Jessie J - Alana

Gold Forever by The Wanted - Halle

Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music - Florence

The Wellerman by Nathan Evans - Lilah

Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - Madeleine

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2 - Florence

Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO - Lilah

Hug Me by Pharrell Willliams and Trey Parker - Billy

Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran - Lilah

Choo Choo Wah Song - Phoebe

Let's Go Crazy from Sing 2 - Florence

I Love You by Forever 99 - Phoebe

Wannabe by Spice Girls - Florence

Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles - Isla

Shut Up and Dance With Me by Walk the Moon - Madeleine

Stars in the Sky by Kid Cudi - Billy

My Heart Goes by Becky Hill and Topic - Lilah

I believe I can Fly by R Kelly - Emil

Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi - Vivienne

Dancing Queen by Abba - Lilah

We Will Rock You by Queen - Adrian

All Rise by Blue - Madeleine

Family Madrigal from Encanto - Florence

I see Love from Hotel Transylvania 3 - Billy

Daddy Cool by Boney M - Leo

Friday by Riton x Nightcrawlers - Phoebe

Dancing with Myself by Billy Idol - Billy

Where Did You Go? by Jax Jones - Halle

No Drama by James Hype (feat. Craig David) - Lilah

I've Got A Little Something For You by MN8 - Jack

Eye of the Tiger by Survivor - Khaleesi

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen - Adrian

Hakuna Matata - Kevin

Diamonds by Rhianna - Sofia

Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship - Vivienne

Rock You Like a Hurricane by The Scorpions - Flynn

Green, Green Grass by George Ezra - Phoebe

Wannabe by The Spice Girls - Nikita

Strings of Life by Soul Central - Miss Mullan

Set You Free by N Trance - Mrs Palmen

Head Teacher Award 15.07.22

Well it's our very last Head Teacher Award of the school year and Mrs Halsall allowed us a free choice. We decided to give our award to a little girl who has made so much progress over the last year in every way possible. Congratulations, Florence! We are so very proud of you and we know you will have a wonderful time in Year One even if it might seem a bit strange at first. As you can imagine, it was very difficult to choose just one winner, so in recognition of every child's efforts this year, all the children were awarded double rainbow status today. They are all superstars and we are going to miss them all so much in September!

Head Teacher Award 08.07.22

Congratulations to this week's winner of the Head Teacher Award - Eddie - who has done a sensational job of following our school mission statement in recent weeks. Well done, Eddie! We are so proud of all you have achieved since starting Reception! 

Head Teacher Award 01.07.22

This week our Head Teacher award focussed on progress in reading. Our worthy winner is Nellie who consistently works hard on her reading, both in school and at home. It has been so lovely to see her confidence grow and develop over the last few weeks and we have been so impressed with her fluency and knowledge of tricky words. Well done, Nellie!

Head Teacher Award 24.06.22

This week our Head Teacher award was given to someone who works hard in our Come and See lessons. Our current Come and See topic is Friends and in class we have looked at what makes a good friend. Flynn exudes all the qualities we have discussed in class. He is kind, caring, listens to other people's ideas and never leaves anyone out of his games. Well done, Flynn! You are very deserving of this week's award.

Head Teacher Award 17.06.22

This week the Head Teacher award went to someone who is an excellent role model to others and shows exemplary behaviour and attitude. We could have had lots of winners in our class but we chose Maria who is always such a good friend to others. She is always ready to learn, listens beautifully on the carpet and tries super hard in all our activities. Well done, Maria!

Head Teacher Award 27.05.22

Congratulations to Lilah who was awarded this week's Head Teacher award for her commitment to demonstrating British Values. Well done!

Jubilee Creative Week

We have had lots of fun taking part in a variety of Jubilee activities this week including: making lemon trifle, building Buckingham Palace from duplo, recreating the crown jewels from collage materials, drawing portraits of The Queen and having our own afternoon tea with traditional crockery. The children have been fully immersed in their learning and have really enjoyed our creative learning week.

Minibeast Art Project

During April and May the children have worked hard on a minibeast art project. We found out lots of information about different minibeasts and had a good discussion about what we already know about minibeasts. The children worked on an observational drawing of their favourite minibeast before turning this into a 3D salt dough sculpture which they later painted.

Head Teacher Award 20.05.22

This week our Head Teacher Award was awarded to someone who has made progress in writing and it was an incredibly tough choice because every child in our class has made incredible progress in their writing recently. However, we decided that our shining star was Leo who has shown amazing perseverance and stamina. Well done, Leo! We are so proud of your work and all that you have achieved.

PE Award 18.05.22

Phoebe showed amazing team work and listening skills during our PE lesson this week. The children practised relay races and hurdles. Well done, Phoebe!

Head Teacher Award 12.05.22

Congratulations to Kevin for receiving this week's Head Teacher Award for resilience. Kevin is a very enthusiastic member of our class. He is always willing to 'have a go' even at the risk of getting something wrong and as a result has made considerable progress this year in all areas of learning. Well done, Kevin!

PE Award 11.05.22

Congratulations to Khaleesi who has been given the PE Award for her brilliant throwing and catching this week. Well done!

Head Teacher Award 06.05.22

This week's Head Teacher Award has been given to someone who has made progress in reading. Our worthy recipient in RSP is Adrian who has made tremendous progress since starting in Reception. He knows all his letters and sounds and is becoming a confident and fluent reader. Well done, Adrian!

PE Award 04.05.22

Congratulations to Billy on being awarded this week's PE medal. Billy worked really hard on developing his throwing and jumping techniques this week. Well done, Billy!

Head Teacher Award 29.04.22

This week's Head Teacher Award goes to someone who follows our School Mission Statement: "Faithfully following in the footsteps of Jesus, we serve, love and learn together inspiring each other to excellence."  Congratulations to Francis who is this week's winner. Francis strives everyday to be the best he can be and we have seen such amazing progress in all areas of his learning. Francis is kind, polite, well-mannered and it has been lovely to see his confidence grow and his personality emerge over the last few months. Well done, Francis!

PE Award 27.04.22

We're lucky to have Neil, our PE coach back with RSP over the next half term. This week we went outside to practise some running races and some hula hoop activities. Neil gave this week's medal to Lottie who showed excellent concentration and focus throughout. Well done, Lottie!

Head Teacher Award 01.04.22

Congratulations to Khaleesi on receiving this week's Head Teacher Award. Khaleesi has really embraced our No Outsider's topic and has shown super understanding of respecting people's differences. Well done, Khaleesi!

Reflection Garden Yoga

Today we took our PE lesson outside to enjoy the beautiful sunshine. We took off our shoes and enjoyed having a go at some flexibility and balancing poses.

Head Teacher Award 24.03.22

Congratulations to Phoebe who was awarded this week's Head Teacher Award. This week our focus was on children who have shown effort and enthusiasm for the wider curriculum. The words "Phoebe" and "enthusiasm" go hand in hand. She is always eager to please and 'have a go' regardless of what we're doing and as a result is making incredible progress in all areas of learning.  Well done, Phoebe!

Support for Ukraine

Thank you for all your generous donations for our Ukraine fund. 

Head Teacher Award 18.03.22

Congratulations to Maria who was awarded this week's Head Teacher sticker. Maria has really embraced the spirit of Lent and has shown great kindness in her words and actions. She always plays nicely with others and is the first one on the scene when her friends need support. Well done, Maria!

St Patrick's Day

We had such fun on St. Patrick's Day! We met our Year 6 buddies for the first time. We played bingo, made hats and decorated biscuits. We also enjoyed a special visit to Church with Father John in the afternoon. 

Henri Matisse, The Snail

This afternoon we had lots of fun recreating our own version of Henri Matisse's, The Snail. We talked about the shape of the collage pieces and how white space is used to break up colour and highlight shape.

Head Teacher Award 11.03.22

This week's Head Teacher Award focussed on Maths progress and our worthy recipient is Layla who is making fantastic progress in all areas of maths. She even spent time at home last night writing her numbers to 100. We love children who take their learning home with them. Well done, Layla.

Smoothies

We had a special visit from the Smoothie Man today. We learned all about healthy fruits and vegetables and then made a delicious smoothies!

Head Teacher Award - 04.03.22

Congratulations to Nellie on winning this week's Head Teacher Award for progress in reading. Nellie, you have worked so hard and it is wonderful to see you blossom into such a confident and fluent reader. We are so proud of you! Well done!

Head Teacher Award - 25.02.22

This week's RSP superstar is our lovely Victoria! This week Mrs Halsall wanted us to choose someone who has worked really hard since coming back to school after half term. Victoria wowed us this week with her incredible reading and independent blending of words. Well done, Victoria! What amazing progress! You have made your teachers very proud.

Head Teacher Award - 11.02.22

Congratulations to Emil who has been awarded this week's Head Teacher Award. Emil showed real commitment to our Children's Mental Health Awareness Week and embraced all of this week's activities.

PE Award - 09.02.22

Well done to Jack for being awarded our final PE award from Neil. Jack loved playing with the parachute and closely followed all of Neil's instructions on how to behave and participate in the games. Well done, Emil! It was lovely to see how proud you were of yourself. We are very proud of you too!

Chinese New Year 2022 - The Year of the Tiger

We have had a wonderful time celebrating Chinese New Year this week in school. The children have enjoyed listening to and writing about the story 'The Magic Paintbrush' by Julia Donaldson. We have listened to some traditional Chinese music as well as making our own Chinese lanterns. On Friday we also had our very own Chinese banquet where children could sample Chinese food including noodles, spring rolls and prawn crackers. Delicious! Gong Hei Fat Choy everyone!

Head Teacher Award 04.02.22

Well done to Halle for being awarded this week's Head Teacher Award. This week Mrs Halsall wanted us to choose someone who shows kindness and is a light in the world, just like Jesus. Congratulations Halle!

Head Teacher Award 27.01.22 and PE Award 02.02.22

Well Done to Leo for being awarded last week's Head Teacher Award and this week's PE Award. Fantastic achievement Leo, you are making lots of progress in all areas of Learning. Your hard work is really paying off. Well done! We are so proud of you!

PE Award - 26.01.22

Congratulations to Lilah for winning today's PE award from Neil. Fantastic concentration and listening as well some incredible balancing of bean bags! Lilah managed to walk around the hall balancing three bean bags on different body parts. Well done, Lilah!

Head Teacher Award - 21.01.22

Today's Head Teacher Award has been presented to someone who has shown resilience when tackling a task or activity they have found challenging. Alana found writing tricky when she started in Reception and it was an activity she didn't particularly enjoy. However one term in and she has become a writing superstar! In the last couple of weeks she has begun writing full sentences with a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop. Well done, Alana! 

PE Award - 19.01.22

Today's winner of our PE Coaching medal is Eddie! Super focus, concentration and effort! Well done!

Head Teacher Award - 14.01.22

This week our Head Teacher Award has been given to someone who shows a strong sense of community within school. Flynn is a joy to have in our class, he makes sure that no one ever feels left out and has built strong friendships with children in his own class but also in other classes too. He has a great sense of humour and never fails to put a smile on his friends' and teachers' faces. Well done Flynn!

Head Teacher Award - 10.12.21 and PE Award - 12.01.22

Sofia has worked incredibly hard lately and has received two awards in the last few weeks! She was awarded the Head Teacher Award before Christmas for being a good representative of our Mission Statement values. Today she has also received our first PE Award from our PE coach after showing super listening skills in our PE lesson. Well done, Sofia!

Head Teacher Award - 03.12.21

This week our Head Teacher Award goes to a child who consistently shows excellent behaviour outside in the playground. Not only that, but our winner is a wonderful friend to others and never leaves any child out of her games. Her behaviour is excellent whether she is in the classroom, in the outdoor area or walking around school. Great job, Isla!

Advent

This week we have begun our Christmas preparations. We have begun making our collage Advent wreaths, decorated our Christmas tree, opened the windows on our Advent calendars and even had a special visitor arrive in class for the rest of December! Say hello to the newest addition to RSP, Patrick the elf.

Head Teacher Award - 26.11.21

This week's Head Teacher Award has been awarded to someone who has shown progress across the wider curriculum and our recipient is Billy! Billy is a super reader and loves to look at all our books in the Reading Corner but yesterday he also explored the Creative Area and coloured in an amazing picture of the Numberblocks. He's also enjoying our Come and See topic of Birthdays and has invited everyone in the class to his house for Christmas dinner.

Head Teacher Award - 19.11.21

Today we enjoyed a Reception Assembly for Anti-Bullying Week where we discussed what it means to be a good friend and shared work we had done in class on this topic. Mrs Halsall wanted this week's Head Teacher Award to go to someone who consistently demonstrates being a good friend and always shows kindness to others. In RSP that little person is Lilah who shows so much care and love to her friends. She is the first to go and check on anyone who looks sad or upset. Well done, Lilah! 

Remembrance Day

On Thursday we honoured Remembrance Day with a one minute silence at 11am. We made sure the children understood the significance of this day and the symbolism of the poppy. We made printed poppy pictures using a cork, paint brush and lolly stick and wrote a short caption to accompany this. We also created a field of poppies collage using oil pastels.

Diwali

This week we have enjoyed celebrating Diwali. We learned all about the story of Rama and Sita and how Diwali is celebrated by Hindus across the world. The children showed amazing understanding of the festival and could remember lots of information on this topic! We made Rangoli patterns from coloured sand and sculpted our own diva lamps from clay (which proved to be a great workout opportunity for our arm muscles) and jewels. Happy Diwali everyone!

Head Teacher Award - 11.11.21

Mrs Halsall wanted this week's Head Teacher Award to go to someone who has made exceptional progress since starting school and RSP's worthy winner is Florence! Florence has worked incredibly hard in all our lessons. She is conscientious, listens attentively and really applies herself when she works independently. We were not surprised to hear she has also been working hard at home too. Well done, Florence!

Recommended Read

Our Recommended Read this week is A Mouse called Julian by Joe Todd-Stanton. We loved the illustrations in this book and there were some unexpected parts in the story that kept us guessing! 

We enjoyed reading Simon Sock as one of our activities on Odd Sock Day. 

 Here are a couple of books we have enjoyed sharing during our work on Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

We had fun counting and recognising number words in this book. 

This is a lovely book we really enjoyed during our Chinese New Year activities. 

The illustrations are beautiful and there is a lot of interesting vocabulary we enjoyed discussing. 

Head Teacher Award - 15.10.21

This week's Head Teacher award has been awarded to someone who has shown perseverance through the week. Today's deserving superstar is Halle who found writing her letters a little tricky earlier this week but she never gave up and kept going to create a lovely final piece of work. Well done, Halle, you kept going when it got tough and produced work that we are all very proud of. I know your family are going to be so impressed with you!

Getting Dressed

This morning we had an impromptu lesson on putting on our jumpers and cardigans as this is something many of the children find very difficult. We practised undoing buttons and pulling our sleeves through so they're the correct way round. Please continue to encourage your child to dress and undress themselves independently at home. This is not only a vital life skill but is also great exercise for the muscles in the fingers which need to be strong for writing.

Head Teacher Award - 08.10.21

This week's Head Teacher award goes to Emilia for her super listening skills and sharing of ideas. Emilia said she found writing hard at the start of this week but has listened carefully to how we form our letters and numbers and her perseverance has really paid off. She did some incredible number 9s on a whiteboard this morning. When I took her photo she said, "You're really proud of me aren't you." Well done Emilia and yes, we are all very proud of you!

World Mental Health Day #hellowyellow

We have had a great day exploring our feelings and emotions in class for World Mental Health Day. We talked about how it's not just our bodies that need to stay fit and healthy but also our minds. We talked about how all our feelings are valid and that it's normal to sometimes have bad feelings as well as good ones. We also discussed how sometimes what we are feeling inside shows on the outside too and we had fun making lots of different emotion faces. The children thought my tantrum was particularly entertaining! Halle brought in a great mental health activity book which she enjoyed sharing with the class and some of the children chose to draw themselves feeling different emotions for their learning journeys. As a class, we made a resilience boat and shared our ideas for what worries, us, what anchors us and what makes us feel safe. We hope the children enjoyed today and also gained some insight into how important it is to talk about our feelings - both the good ones and the bad.

Head Teacher Awards - 17.09.21 and 24.09.21

Lottie and Jack have both been awarded Headteacher stickers over the last couple of weeks. Lottie received her sticker for settling into school and working hard while Jack received his for following our mission statement, "...we serve, love and learn together...". Well done to both children on their super efforts since starting school.

September 2021- Settling In

We have had a wonderful time getting to know the children the last couple of weeks. We have enjoyed playing and taking part in small group activities so the children can begin to make friends. Our Come and See topic is 'Myself' and we have loved hearing all about the children's families, what they like and what they would like to be when they are older. The whole class are doing so well and we are really impressed with how quickly they have settled into school life and our daily routines.