Reception

Welcome to Reception

Our Provision

Reception Parent Meeting

New Parent Meeting 2023

Reception at Howe Dell School

Phonics

At Howe Dell we teach phonics using Little Wandle resources to teach early reading and writing. We begin teaching this within the second week of starting Reception. The children begin by learning one sound a day, focussing on the pronounciation - phoneme and the written representation - grapheme. We teach phonics every morning as part of our daily routines.

Reading practice begins in Autumn 2 after children have had a half term of exposure to Little Wandle phonic sounds. Children participate within group reading with a text that is phonetically matched to their stage. Children read this text three times within school and also have this provided to them online to access at home.

At Howe Dell we promote life long learning and value the importance in reading for pleasure. All children choose a sharing book weekly to take home. This book is one that the child has chosen themselves and is for adults and children to enjoy and read together; discussing pictures, predicting what might happen next, using different voices for characters or explore facts in a non-fiction book.

To find out more information please visit Little Wandle website for Parents

Maths

Within Reception we explore mathematical concepts daily, applying and discussing them within our everyday setting. We believe that it is important that children not only find out how to achieve the correct answer, but also fully understand what they have done and why. We teach Maths through learning sequences, focussing on small step progression throughout the year, deepening understanding and mastering concepts.

In Reception, your child will learn to:

Count reliably with numbers from 1 to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number.
Use quantities and objects to add and subtract 2 single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer.
Use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time, and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems.
Recognise, create, and describe patterns.
Explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.

Literacy

As well as our daily phonics lessons, we also have weekly texts which drive and motivate our Literacy lessons. Within our lessons, we focus on applying our learnt phonic skills of reading and writing and begin applying these within a variety of different contexts. Within Reception, we begin this by hearing initial sounds in words and attempting to write the grapheme. We then build on this by writing simple CVC words. We continually follow our children’s progress and work towards writing simple sentences independently by the end of the year.

In Reception, your child will learn to:

Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary;
Anticipate – where appropriate – key events in stories;
Use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems and during role-play.
Write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed;
Spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a letter or letters;
Write simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others.

Our curriculum

At Howe Dell our curriculum begins in the foundation stage where children first join our journey into lifelong learning. We deliver a wide and varied curriculum. At Howe Dell we use CUSP resources to support the teaching and learning, as well as having ‘flexible weeks’ to ensure that we are able to follow the interests of the individual cohort. Our curriculum has been divided into half termly topics including opportunities for enrichment.

Our child-initiated learning allows children the freedom to explore and learn areas that they have natural interests within. Teachers plan and organise enhancements to ensure that children are constantly learning. The adults within our setting support learning by modelling and using targeted questions. Our curriculum is vocabulary rich and this is encouraged and extended through high quality adult interactions. We offer a free flow provision between both Reception classrooms and the outdoors.