Reception w/b 5th September
Date: 9th Sep 2022 @ 4:37pm
What a truly wonderful week we have enjoyed in Reception! Mrs North, Miss Toft and I are so proud of how confidently the children have settled into routines and how beautifully they have played together as wonderful friendships begin to blossom.
This week, our focus has been ensuring that the children feel settled and secure at school. We have therefore allowed lots of time for children to explore their environment and choose their own activities, demonstrating their interests and things they enjoy doing at home. We have concentrated on establishing routines, including tidying up, taking the register, washing our hands for breaktimes, putting away our things as we arrive and collecting them again for home time. We are now seeing lots of superb sitting and listening, confidence to tidy things away into their correct space and increased speed to complete routines as they become familiar. This is absolutely fantastic and will set us up wonderfully for a great year with lots of familiar routine and smooth transitions.
The Reception class impressed us all as they attended two collective worship assemblies this week. The rest of the school thoroughly enjoyed the chance to welcome the new cohort and it has been lovely to see children chatting to each other over our outdoor fence during break times. The children were also offered the opportunity to attend a Diddi Dance session alongside our Teddy Bears tots. Many children decided that they would like to take part in this session and, as the photos show, it was such great fun! This morning, we talked about our Queen and the wonderful reign and life that she enjoyed. We said a prayer of thanks and asked God to look after her in Heaven. We then enjoyed watching the video of the Queen with Paddington Bear from the Platinum Jubilee; we agreed with his final statement: "Happy Jubilee, Ma'am... and thank you for everything."
It has been an exciting and busy week and I am sure that the children were very tired this afternoon. They have done ever so well and have certainly earned a rest! Next week, the children will begin full days in school and so will finish at the same time as Key Stage 1 (between 3:05pm and 3:20pm). This week is usually the hardest for the children and they become very tired but please be assured that we will be taking the week easy and having time for quiet moments with pillows and cushions if needed. Next week, we will be completing our baseline activities, showing us children’s existing knowledge of number, letters, sounds and language as well as their fine motor skills, including pencil grip. This will help us to plan our work going forwards so that we can best support all of the children. We will then be able to begin phonics teaching in the following week (week 3).
Next week will also bring our first Forest School and PE sessions of the year. Please ensure that children come to school with their wellies and a weather appropriate coat on Forest School days (Tuesday and Thursday) and that they come to school in their PE kit on Friday.
If you have any further questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Yesterday, I sent a Dojo message containing lots of key information. If you have not already done so, please connect to Dojo; the instructions can be found on the letters that were given out on Thursday morning.
Mrs North, Miss Toft and I have thoroughly enjoyed our first week and we look forward to watching the children learn and grow together as the year progresses. I hope that you enjoy a wonderful weekend (with lots of rest!) and we shall look forward to seeing you all on Monday morning.
With many thanks and best wishes,
Miss Witham
