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Reception Class Page

Welcome to our class page for Reception.

We hope you and your child will visit our page regularly so that you can keep updated with what’s going on in our classroom.
If you have any questions, comments or ideas about our class page, please let us know.

Your Teacher is: Francesca Cole

Your Teaching Assistants are: Ellie Dillion, Francesca Dugdale and Nicole Smith

At St Barnabas, we follow the Development Matters document to assess the progress and attainment of our pupils. Alongside Literacy and Mathematics, we deliver the International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC). Through this curriculum, children make connections with their learning. The more connections children make, the better they learn! This year we will be studying the following units:

Autumn: Healthy Habits, Weather Wonders

Spring: Dinosaur Detectives, Ocean Treasures

Summer: To the Rescue, The Brilliant Bug Ball

Please refer to the ‘Parents Letters’ below for more information.

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Shine at St Barnabas

Here at St Barnabas, we are fully aware that children learn and develop from birth to 5 years more than at any other time in their life. Therefore, we are invested in providing the best possible start for our littlest children, to support them in their education and success in the future.

We know that Early Years is a journey and recognise the important role that parents and carers play in helping our children thrive and the significant impact that they can have on their learning.

At St Barnabas, we aim to encourage all of our parents to talk, play and read with their children. We are so grateful for the Shine Trust in supporting us to  provide meaningful opportunities for our Early Years staff to share the EYFS framework with families and provide ideas and resources to support and continue their learning journey at home.

We understand that parents can face barriers, such as time and understanding what more they can do to help their child. Therefore, our parent hub sessions are going to be a fantastic opportunity where we can all learn together, and build strong connections with our families.’

Supporting your child’s Literacy

At St Barnabas, we aim for all our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading.

Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds! More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners.

We use the Read Write Inc (RWI) Programme to get children off to a flying start with their literacy skills.  RWI is a method of teaching reading and writing that is centred around learning through phonics.

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling.  The programme is designed for children aged 4-7, however at St Barnabas, we continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.

How will RWI be taught?

RWI sessions happen daily at St Barnabas.  All children are assessed half-termly and put into appropriate groups designed to challenge them and help them progress in their reading and writing skills.  The children work with other children who are at the same level as them in order to allow complete participation in lessons.

Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc, sessions:

Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about

Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning

Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability

Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning

Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally.

Login to your child’s Class Dojo page to get regular links of the sounds and books your child is learning in school.

 

Supporting your child’s Mathematics

At St Barnabas our intent is to develop confident mathematicians, who can reason, problem-solve and apply their knowledge and skills across a range of contexts in the real world.

We use Power Maths across school.

Power Maths is a UK curriculum mastery program designed to spark curiosity and excitement and nurture confidence in maths. It is:

  • the only mastery program perfectly aligned to the White Rose Maths progressions and schemes of learning.
  • written specifically for UK curriculum classrooms by leading mastery experts from around the world and recommended by the UK’s Department for Education.
  • an enriched approach that cleverly combines interactive teaching tools, rich and quality textbooks and practice books.
  • a continuous and embedded approach to teacher support and professional development throughout.
  • built around a child‑centred lesson design that models and embeds a growth mindset approach to maths and focuses on helping all children to build a deep understanding of maths concepts.

For further information and support check out our Mathematics page under Learning.

More ways we support your child! Speak to the Class Teacher or the Office for login details.