Reception

EYFS Guide for Parents

Welcome to EYFS

I recognise and appreciate that starting school is a big step for both you and your child so here at St. Bernadette’s we aim to make this a really happy and positive experience. 

We aim to provide high quality standards of education and care, alongside laying the sound foundations on which the children’s future learning depends. We have high expectations and aim to help all our children fulfill their full potential regardless of their gender, ethnicity or ability.

We aim to:
•    Create an environment in which children feel safe, happy, secure, valued and confident.
•    Provide well planned purposeful activities that stimulate and challenge the children.
•    Build on what children already know and can do.
•    Encourage the children to think and talk about their learning and develop independence.
•    Ensure that each child is given the opportunity to reach their full potential.
•    Invite parents to be involved in their children’s education.

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Play

Play underpins the delivery of all the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and the development and learning for young children. Child-initiated and planned play, both indoors and outdoors, is important as young children learn with enjoyment and learn many new skills from being involved in purposeful play.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum 2021

In the Foundation Stage your child will be taught under the governments Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. This helps to support children's learning, development and welfare from birth to the age of five. From September 2021, there is a new statutory EYFS framework and to support your understanding of the changes please click on the link provided. Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework - GOV.UK

At St Bernadette’s the development of our EYFS curriculum is an ongoing process of planning, reflecting and adapting- enhanced by continued professional development. Whilst flexible and ever-changing to meet the needs of our children, our curriculum is underpinned by our Catholic faith and our desire that it should do the following:

• ensure that children know God and understand that they are part of His family and that they are familiar with the life and teachings of Jesus
• recognise that our children have different backgrounds, varying prior educational and cultural experiences and a range of abilities and interests
• provide wide-ranging, dynamic opportunities to support children’s learning, consolidate and deepen their knowledge and ensure that they all make progress from their starting points to meet the ELGs
• provide an enabling environment which encourages and celebrates curiosity, questioning, investigation and wondering
• strives to find opportunities to provide new experiences for children – and so increase cultural capital
• be language rich- recognising the immense value of books, stories, songs, role play, peer to peer conversations and adult/child interactions
• ensure mastery of number skills
• ensure mastery of phonics skills so that children can read 
• ensure that our children perceive school as a safe, happy and often exciting place

In short, we want our curriculum to encourage independent thinkers and happy learners who thrive in school and reach their full potential whatever their starting point.

At St Bernadette’s we meet the welfare requirements laid down in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and actively safeguard and promote the welfare of all of our children.

Our curriculum is based around themes which are enriched with classroom enhancements, trips and visitors. Themes are supported by quality key texts. These are chosen carefully to encourage children's speech, language and communication development. Whilst we have an overarching plan of themes for the year, all planning is flexible and responsive to children’s needs so plans can be changed and adapted depending on children’s interests and other factors.

Our EYFS indoor and outdoor space is a source of constant reflection and review. We strive to create an enabling environment- where resources are carefully selected and laid out and areas developed to support children in all aspects of their learning. There are lots of opportunities for physical development. Children spend time outdoors in all weathers. They enjoy wonderful, exploratory, sensory experiences using our outdoor area which has a range of equipment- larger static structures such as the climbing frame and balance trail, enhanced by other resources, for example, different construction resources, crates, fabrics.  Activities to develop fine motor skills are part of the children’s daily routine- explicit teaching of how to use different tools and materials builds a repertoire of skills with which they can express themselves creatively. The progression from mark making through letter formation to writing is a source of great excitement! Within our Continuous Provision children develop independence- choosing what they want to do, how they want to do it and who they might want to do it with. In addition, our adults spend time in CP with the children – facilitating play and supporting children to work together, manage their feelings, ask questions and develop language.

We create a ‘language rich’ environment with a focus on oracy. The children enjoy daily songs, rhymes and stories. We prioritise time for quality interactions between children and adults and between peers. Staff interact thoughtfully; talk is positive and progressive- language; vocabulary and structure, is modelled constantly and gently to enable children to gather words at pace. Vocabulary is also taught explicitly using a structured approach- this implicit and explicit approach helps all our children to become confident communicators. 

Children are encouraged to become early readers through the systematic teaching of phonics alongside the enjoyment of books. Phase 2 and Phase 3 sounds and Tricky Words and the skills of blending and segmenting are taught daily in a fun, systematic way. Children develop these skills to read words, captions and sentences. They are provided with books to read at home and in the classroom that are closely linked to their phonics learning in class to ensure they build fluency and confidence.

The children develop their mathematical thinking through direct teaching and exploration. We want our children to become confident mathematicians who can apply what they have learnt to real life experiences. Mathematics learning includes the use of songs, games, number characters and interactive display.

Parental engagement is key and a strong partnership between home and school is important. We are warm and welcoming. Parents are informed of what their child is learning each half term and given ideas of how they can support this at home. 

At the end of the year; the EYFS Profile provides an assessment of each child against the Early Learning Goals. These judgements are made on the basis of observations and in-depth knowledge of the children acquired through ongoing assessment. In additional to our baseline assessment, these ongoing assessments are used to inform planning and next steps in teaching and learning for all children throughout the year. The summative EYFS Profile is used to inform parents of progress and to inform the Year 1 teacher about each child’s learning during their Reception year.

Reception Documents

Little Wandle Phonics

Why learning to read is so important

• Reading is essential for all subject areas and improves life chances.
• Positive attitudes to reading and choosing to read have academic, social and emotional benefits for children.

How children learn to read

• Phonics is the only route to decoding.
• Learning to say the phonic sounds.
• By blending phonic sounds to read words.
• Increasing the child’s fluency in reading sounds, words and books.

Reading fully decodable books

• Children must read books consistent with their phonic knowledge.
• It is essential not to use other strategies to work out words (including guessing words, deducing meaning from pictures, grammar, context clues or whole word recognition).  
• Books must be fully decodable and follow the Little Wandle scheme
• Children need to read books in a progressive sequence until they can decode unfamiliar words confidently.

The role of Parents’ and Carers’ 

• Have a positive impact on their child’s reading.
• Should model the importance of reading practice to develop fluency.
• Children take home books they have read at school to re-read at home to build fluency.
• There are two different types of books that pupils bring home: reading practice and books to share for pleasure.
• Reading at home encourages a love of books, along with developing vocabulary and discussion.
• Parents should use voices, expression, discuss unfamiliar vocabulary, talk about the pictures, and predict what might happen next.
• Give positive yet informative feedback in the home reading diary at least 3 times a week

Supporting your child with reading

Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home.

 There are two types of reading book that your child may bring home:

A reading practice book.

This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently.

 A sharing book.  Your child will not be able to read this on their own. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together.

Reading practice book

This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading.

Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.

Sharing book

In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book they have chosen for you to enjoy together.

Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read this alone. Read it to or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!

Programme Overview

• Programme Overview

Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 1

This Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 1 video is designed to be shared with families by schools using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.

Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 2

This Phase 2 sounds taught in Reception Autumn 2 video is designed to be shared with families to help them to support learning at home.

Phase 3 sounds taught in Reception Spring 1

This Phase 3 sounds taught in Reception Spring 1 video is designed to be shared with families to help them support the learning at home.

How we teach blending

This How we teach blending video is designed to be shared with families by schools using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.

A quick guide to alien words

This Alien words video is designed to be shared with families by schools using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised complete phonics programme.

How we teach tricky words

This Explanation of tricky words video is designed to be shared with families by schools using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised complete phonics scheme.

Resources for Home

• Glossary of Terms
• Grapheme Mats - Phases 2, 3 and 5
• Grapheme Mats - Phases 2 and 3

Handwriting and Pronunciation

• Pronunciation Guide - Autumn 1
• Pronunciation Guide - Autumn 2
• Capital Letter Formation

   

Reception 2024-2025

What a year we have had together in Reception. Thank you for a wonderful year, you have ALL been amazing. Have a lovely Summer. 

We had a lot of fun at our first school sports day. The children cheered each other on as they went around the different events on the field. We threw beanbags, ran an obstacle course and even tried to see how much water we could carry whilst running. 

Our final reception trip was to Fleetwood Beach. The children loved walking up Red Bank Road to the tram stop, travelling by tram to Fleetwood and enjoyed a wonderful day playing on the beach. We stopped for a picnic break on the grass and got an ice cream with sprinkles. The children enjoyed collecting shells, building sandcastles, turning into mermaids and jumping onto the sand hills. What a fabulous day to end our amazing year together!

Back in Spring the children planted some potatoes, when they were ready to harvest they pulled out 22 potatoes of different sizes and colours. The children chose to make chips with them. They washed the potatoes, cut them up, mixed them in oil, salt and pepper and cooked them in the oven. Then they all enjoyed tasting them - they went down a treat with every single chip being eaten by the children! Super growing and cooking reception!

We enjoyed celebrating VE Day whilst wearing red, white and blue. We learnt about VE Day in our classes and enjoyed a party as a school outside including cupcakes and juice!

This week we started with football skills in our PE session with Mr Williams. Controlling the ball with small kicks, moving around obstacles and stopping the ball with our foot. We ended our week partaking in Beep Beep day with the Brake charity. Through many different activities the children learnt the importance of wearing a seat belt in the car, holding hands with an adult near roads and how to cross roads safely at a zebra crossing. The children enjoyed a lovely afternoon in outdoor learning making potions, dens, problem solving and investigating the pond. In Maths, we have been looking at one more than a number, building towers and working hard in phonics. 

On Thursday we visited the Sealife centre in Blackpool. We got on the number 7 bus outside school an travelled into Blackpool. We enjoyed a lovely walk along the promenade, stopping outside Blackpool Tower to have a quick snack before continuing our walk to the Sealife Centre. The children had a fabulous time and couldn't wait to see all the amazing Sea creatures they have. From Peter the starfish, to the beautiful stingrays, the elegant turtle and scary sharks, the children couldn't believe it and were extremely excited at everything they saw.  Afterwards we enjoyed our lunch on the promenade as it was such a beautiful day in the sunshine before heading back to catch the number 7 bus to school. 

We started our week participating in Science Week activities. With our arrival of caterpillars we looked at how caterpillars change and adapt during their life. The children hid different coloured 'caterpillars' for the other team to find. They role played being birds looking for food in the grass. The children then made paper chain caterpillars with wings to explore how they transform into butterflies. Also this week, we have enjoyed looking at signs of Spring. We have painted daffodils, planted sunflower seeds and looked at new life happening with our tadpoles. We went for a walk in our local area exploring the many different shops, house and roads just around the corner. The children enjoyed talking about the shops they had been in, what they had brought and who they go with. We are looking forward to replicating our local area in class with our construction area. 

This week the children have enjoyed getting the climbing frame out in gymnastics and exploring the equipment. We enjoyed pancakes on shrove Tuesday and learnt about why we have pancakes before lent begins. Our caterpillars arrived in class and the children have loved watching them and can't wait to watch the changes over the coming weeks. We ended the week celebrating World Book Day. Wow....the children got stuck in retelling their favourite stories from the Three Billy Goats Gruff to Goldilocks and using the puppets to make up their own stories and putting on a show. This week also marked the start of our Lenten walk for CAFOD. Over the coming weeks we will be walking the equivalent of 10,000 miles from school to the Vatican in Rome as a whole school. 

What a busy first week of Spring 2. We have been bringing our vehicle designs to life using junk modelling. The children got stuck in using boxes, tubes, lids and lots of sellotape and masking tape! We had a lovely afternoon in outdoor learning making bird feeders, dens and digging for bugs. The children helped make a wormery in our garden. They filled it with rotten fruit and covered it with soil before finding worms to put in. We can't wait to watch the worms wriggle around, munching on scraps to turn into compost. In maths, we have been looking at mass, comparing objects being heavier and lighter. We also put on our wetsuits and wellies and made a bubbly 'swimming pool'. Oh what fun we had! 

Take a look at our photos from our school trip...

What a wonderful, relaxing day we had in support of Children's Mental Health Week! To help the children understand how important it is to look after yourself, we gave them a pampering and nibbles morning. They each had their own foot spa, cucumber for their eyes and a glass of orange juice. We gave them foot massages with cream, hand massages and painted nails. They had nibbles of cucumber, tomatoes, oranges, breadsticks, cakes and chocolates. We all enjoyed slowing down and enjoying the soft music and quiet time. 

In our RE lesson, we heard the story of Jesus feeding 5000 people using only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. We made our own fish to represent us being followers of Jesus. Fr David joined us for our lesson and blessed our own fish and bread before we ate it.  

Over the week we have been celebrating Lunar New Year in class. We read the story The Great Race, explored Chinese numbers by going on a number hunt, making them with playdough and practiced painting the numbers. We made Chinese Lanterns, learning that the red symbolises good luck and brings happiness into homes. We handpainted a dragon and made dragon faces out of boxes and craft materials ready for our dragon dance in the hall where the children explored making music to go with the dance using drums and cymbals. The children loved trying different types of food including, spring rolls, rice, noodles and curries.  

Reception have been working hard in maths - finding different ways of making 5. We have explored the part whole model and use five frames to find the missing part. Super mathematician work!

In outdoor learning the children have been making bird feeders to encourage birds into our garden. We have been observing the birds we can see flying around and landing in the trees. We used pine cones, covered them in peanut butter and dipped them in seeds. Some of us planted pumpkin seeds, some of us found worms and some of us enjoyed the muddy puddles and obstacles created around the garden. 

The children are very excited when we take part in pen disco each week. Doing this encourages the development of pencil grip and fine motor skill. Each week we focus on different patterns to aid letter formation and to music we create the patterns on paper using different coloured felt tip pens. 

Such a lovely last day we had before we broke up for Christmas. We all had so much fun on the Elf run raising money for Brian House and then we enjoyed a Christmas dinner with all our friends in the hall. It was delicious!

The children had a great morning catching a bus into Blackpool Town Centre to go to Gruffalo Clubhouse. The children loved meeting the Gruffalo himself, stickman and the witch from Room on the Broom. The children watched the Gruffalo show and got to dance with him before going to explore the amazing play area based on Julia Donaldson's famous books. 

We had a great afternoon walking to Moor Park Library and visiting Adele the librarian. She made us feel very welcome and let us all choose a book to bring back to school. Adele then read a story to us. We can't wait to go back again. 

We love our Tuesday outdoor learning afternoons. This week the children were building dens, making ponds and getting creative in the mud kitchen. 

The school had a special visit from an Olympian Athlete - James Dasaolu. He delivered a whole school assembly about his career and took questions from the children. The children then went outside and took part in a fitness circuit session with James himself. All the children joined in and had a wonderful afternoon - it certainly inspired some of the children who said they wanted to have a gold medal one day.  

The children explored Diwali - the festival of light. 

For Remembrance  Day 2024, the children heard and learnt a poem called Poppy Poppy. Over the poem the children used watercolours to paint Flanders Fields, after learning all about how the poppies grew after the war ended. The children made their own poppy and placed it in the school Prayer garden and had a moment of quiet to think of all those men and women who sadly died. The children were very respectful and showed peace as we placed our poppies in the ground. 

Remember Remember the 5th of November! The children had a great time exploring fireworks and bonfire night in school. They created their own fireworks using chalks, made rockets out of 2D shapes and we made an edible sparkler. The children dipped a breadstick in chocolate, covered it in sprinklers and took it into our outdoor learning session. We talked about the safety of sparklers and how to hold them safely before eating them. 

We took advantage of the school being at church and we went on a number hunt around school, going in the other classrooms. The children found lots of different numbers around the classrooms and found groups of objects, counting them and representing them on their fingers. 

The children had a great time being bakers, baking butter biscuits. We discussed the importance of hygiene and ensured we washed our hands and we wore aprons to protect our clothing. The children watched as the ingredients were measured out and they each had a turn at kneading them altogether in a bowl. When the ingredients were mixed into a dough they each got a ball of dough to roll out before choosing a cutter of their choice. They each made two biscuits to enjoy and they went down a treat! We can't wait to do more baking together. 

A snippet of our first week in Reception. The children have enjoyed exploring the classroom and our outdoor area.