Welcome to Reception

Typical Reception Timetable

Key Information

Communicating with your child's class teacher: 

Our direct year group email is reception-class@st-matthews.leeds.sch.uk. As both classes use this email, please make it clear in the subject line who the email is for (FAO Miss Simpson or FAO Miss Stansfield). 

Collecting your child at the end of the day:

We have now learned most parents'/carers' faces which is great for a speedy home time dismissal. If your child is being collected by another person, please ensure that your child's class teacher is aware of this in advance. The best way to do this is by contacting the school office. Due to safeguarding reasons, we cannot release a child to a person without prior instruction from the parent/carer. 

Names in clothing:

Please ensure that your child's clothing is clearly labelled with their name so their clothing can be rightfully returned (should it be taken off). 

PE days:

On PE days children should come to school in their PE kit. They will wear the kit all day.

RHS has PE on Thursday.

RGS has PE on Friday.

Library day:

Every Tuesday the children go to the school library. They have the chance to borrow a book of their choice to enjoy reading at home.

Newsletters 

Our Current Learning - Summer Term 1

Our Topic - Minibeasts

Our Previous Learning - Spring Term 2

Our Topic - Traditional Tales

The Easter Story

We are so proud of how well the children are learning the Easter story. They have learnt the key parts brilliantly. Over the last few weeks, they have enjoyed acting out the story, creating paper palm leaves, making different crosses and understanding the importance of the cross. The children have showed lots of enthusiasm towards this learning. Look at all the wonderful activities we have enjoyed to help us gain a strong understanding of this special story!

Look at our recent wonderful learning!

Some of our recent activities have included: planting sunflower seeds and bulbs, measuring our sunflower seeds using cubes, exploring signs of Spring and playing some egg and spoon races in our outdoor area.

The Three Little Pigs

Our focus this week has been sharing, discussing and retelling the story of Three Little Pigs. This led into some wonderful art activities, a favourite was creating the three different houses using different collage materials and paint methods. We also enjoyed painting the pigs and using cotton wool and paint for the wolf. The writing task was linked to this learning as we carefully wrote sentences about the Big Bad Wolf!

Mother's Day Artwork

Science Week

Wow, what an incredible Science Week we had in Reception! We have loved exploring plants and thinking about what they need to grow. We have been busy looking after our sunflower seeds making sure they get enough water and light. We have created some lovely observational drawings of daffodils and have explored daffodil bulbs. We were great daffodil spotters on our way to church on Monday.

World Book Day

We were very excited for World Book Day and the children loved showing their amazing costumes. They really enjoyed taking part in the ‘book swap’ with their Year 6 Buddies helping them and they loved having Mrs McLean and Mrs Cowling come to read them a story.

Church

Every Monday this half - term we are going to church to share Lent discussions and enjoy singing songs together as a whole school. We are also looking for different signs of Spring as we walk to church e.g. daffodils, sunshine.

Reflection Time

This half term our focus is what the cross means to Christians around the world. We started the topic by looking at different crosses. We then enjoyed going on a cross hunt around school and looking at the different crosses in church.

Chinese New Year

We have learnt about Chinese New Year and the children have been eager to create their own Chinese lanterns and spiral dragons. They were so excited to see one of their classmates’ special clothes for celebrating New Year and they have really enjoyed role playing in a Chinese restaurant. In English the children listened to the story of The Great Race (to explain how the Chinese zodiac began) and then ordered some pictures from the story. They orally retold the story then wrote words and sentences about the pictures e.g. The rat won.

Playdough Maths!

We have had a fantastic time exploring ways to make number 9 using the Numicon shapes and playdough.

Previous Learning - Spring Term 1

Our Topic- Julia Donaldson

Children's Mental Health Week - 5th - 9th February 2024

We kick started the week with an assembly about Mental Health. We discussed the Mental Health Continuum and how different situations may affect how we feel. When feeling overwhelmed, the high 5 breathing technique could be really useful. We ended the assembly by each class receiving a new book to boost self - esteem.

After reading Worrysaurus, we decided to make our own happy bags. We will fill them with items that make us feel happier and we can use this as another strategy to support us managing our feelings.

Cheryl from The Little Book Shop came in on Tuesday to share a story about being brave. We really enjoyed listening to this story read by Cheryl.

Wellbeing Day - Friday 9th February 2024

We're so excited for our whole school well-being day. Photos will be added here from the day...

Stay and Play Sessions

A big thank you to our grown - ups for helping us with our learning this week. We were so proud of how well the children participated in these sessions.

The Gruffalo

We have started our new topic which is Julia Donaldson. The topic has started with a favourite, The Gruffalo. This led into some super Gruffalo paper bags, we thought very carefully about the description and added some super purple spikes on the back!

Reflection Time

This half term our focus is learning about how and why people pray. We've enjoyed looking at and learning about prayer kneelers, rosary beads and prayer mats. 

Ice Explorations

We have enjoyed exploring ice and discovered sea animals stuck in the ice! We thought about different things the animals could be saying e.g. help me!. We then had a go at writing this on speech bubbles for our writing task.

Phonics

We are busy currently learning digraphs in our phonics sessions. A digraph is "two letters and one sound" e.g. sh in shop, ai in rain. We try to link the activities in the provision areas to help children consolidate this knowledge. Some of the activities this week helped the children to retain the digraph ow by drawing and crafting owls.

Christingle 

Reverend Simon delivered a wonderful Christingle service and we enjoyed learning about the different parts and what they represent. We were very excited to bring them home with us!

Music

Previous Learning - Autumn Term 2

Our Topic- People Who Help

People Who Help

Christmas fun!

In Reception we have been enjoying lots of festive activities including our Christmas party, seeing Santa, making cards and colouring as well as a lovely whole school trip to the church for the carol service. 

Getting into the Christmas spirit!

In Reception we have been getting into the Christmas spirit. We started off wearing our Christmas jumpers ready for the Christmas fair. We have enjoyed starting Christmas crafts including our special Christmas cards. We all enjoyed playing out in the snow and loved making snow angels.

A visit to church

Miss Wadwell took the children across to the church as part of their learning about special places. The children enjoyed meeting Reverend Simon and listening to information about the church and Christianity.

A visit from a dentist

The children had a visit from the dentist. They loved learning about how to brush their teeth and were thrilled to receive a new toothbrush and toothpaste. They learnt about foods that were good for their teeth and foods that they should not have as much of. 

Understanding the World

Miss Wadwell does a fantastic job leading this across Reception. Last half - term, she focused on children learning what is special to them, who is special to them and why. They had an amazing time building a map with cardboard boxes to show some of Chapel Allerton. 

Look at us learning!

We have lots of time exploring in the areas of provision. These photos show some of our learning in Reception...

Reflection Time

Each week, we enjoy our reflection time session. This half term, this involves being quite and calm whilst we learn about how different countries around the world celebrate Christmas. Mrs Brown and Mrs Robertson have kindly spoken to us about Romania and Jamaica. 

Remembrance

The children took part in a Remembrance service at the church. Some of them held crosses with the names of some of the soldiers from Chapel Allerton. This service sparked the children's interest in poppies and they created some lovely poppies using loose parts and playdough. 

Odd Socks

The children took part in Odd Socks day as part of Anti- Bullying Week. We celerated our differences and had lots of fun making our own odd socks with our Year 6 Buddies.

Diwali

The children had fun learning about Diwali (the festival of lights). They listened attentively to Mrs Maini talking about how her family celebrate Diwali. The children loved seeing the beautiful clothes the children wore and learning about the different foods that Mrs Maini's family ate. 

Following on from this the children were keen to create their own diya lamps using clay. They used their hands to mould the clay then used tools to add details. The children waited for the clay to dry before painting the lamps bright colours.

Previous Learning - Autumn 1

Our Topic- All About Me

All About Me!

We've started our new topic 'All About Me' by recognising what makes us special and unique with a brilliant book 'Incredible Me'. We've enjoyed creating a self portrait and engaged in various creative tasks to draw / paint / collage ourselves. We will be learning about The Colour Monster and developing our emotional literacy to recognise and talk our feelings. 

World Mental Health Day

As part of World Mental Health day, we read the book 'Incredible You' and shared discussions about what makes us incredible. We then completed an activity to share positive words about ourselves and reflected on what we do well.

Zones of Regulation

Inspired by The Zones of Regulation, we've created our own version to link it with one of our favourite books, The Colour Monster. This is a really useful tool to help children understand their feelings can put them in different zones. Our aim is for children to recognise these feelings and zones and to develop strategies together.

We are creative

We're enjoying a variety of art based tasks with a focus on developing creativity and imagination, enjoyment and autumn. 

Autumn

We are exploring the new season with a variety of activities. We're recognising signs of Autumn and learning to name all four seasons.

Settling in

We are working really hard to learn school routines and rules and the pupils are doing really well with these new changes. Look at the photos below of us enjoying our learning areas...

Mark Making

The children are enjoying mark making both inside and outside. Some children have even tried writing the sounds we have learnt so far.

Daily Prayers

At lunchtime and at the end of the day we do a whole class prayer. The children do not have to join in with this but are asked to be respectful during this time. Below are the words to the prayers. At lunchtime and at the end of the day we do a whole class prayer. The children do not have to join in with this but are asked to be respectful during this time. Below are the words to the prayers.

Keeping healthy

Here is the hand washing video that we have used to learn how to wash our hands properly. Remember, we need to wash our hands when we have used the toilet, before we eat and when we come into a new environment. 

WOW Vouchers

We are really interested in hearing anything that you and/or your child think is an achievement outside of school- things that make you smile with pride. Please print off vouchers from the link below and send them into us at school, so that this moment can be celebrated in class!

Maths

We use the Whiterose Maths mastery curriculum in Reception. This scheme of work was developed to build a new culture of deep understanding, confidence and competence in maths. 

We use the CBeebies Numberblocks to support our teaching of numbers.

Early Writing Skills

Please encourage your child to mark make using pens, pencils, paintbrushes etc. Part of the writing process is children ascribing meaning to marks and children gaining confidence with pencil control.