Welcome to Reception

Hello and welcome to our Reception page. We are a kind, friendly and hardworking year group who love to learn new things each day. Reception is a magical place to be which is full of exciting new adventures helping our children to become happy, independent and curious explorers.  

Key information  

• Our school day starts at 8:40. Home time is at 3.10pm.  
• Reading books are changed weekly. Please ensure your child brings their bag to school daily with their reading book and diary inside.  
• Children are expected to read at least 5 times a week at home. 
• Children are encouraged to bring a water bottle into school for them to access during the day. 
• Toast is available to children every morning as they come into school. Fruit is provided for the children every afternoon.  
• Milk is free for children who are 4 years old.  
• Children will receive green points when they are following the Maple value and expectations. When your child has received a set number of green points, they will receive a certificate!  

Literacy
In Reception, we have a significant focus on developing our communication and language skills. We use the Talk for Writing approach in our English lessons where we create story maps, learn and rehearse many stories and use actions to help us retell stories. We use our oral rehearsal to help us write sentences for the beginning, middle and end of the story. This year, we will be focusing on the texts below as well as exploring some non-fiction texts. 

Autumn Term
The Busy Little Squirrel
The Little Red Hen
Owl Babies
The Three Little Pigs 

Spring Term
The Way Back Home
Elmer
Handa’s Surprise
Three Billy Goats Gruff 

Summer Term
Peace at Last
Whatever Next
The Night Pirates

PE 

Our PE lessons take place on Friday mornings. Please make sure your child has a red PE top, black shorts/joggers and black pumps in school ready for PE. Any earrings must be removed. Please help your child to practise getting changed for PE independently.  

Topics
This year, we will be exploring the following topics: 

Autumn Term
Why Do Squirrels Hide Their Nuts?
In our first topic, we will be learning about the changing seasons focusing on autumn and lots of the different celebrations that happen during autumn including harvest, Diwali and Bonfire Night. 

What Happens When I Fall Asleep?
In this topic, we will be learning about the night-time world. We will learn about nocturnal animals, people who help us and space. We will learn about Neil Armstrong and things that he did in the past as well as learning about Van Gogh and his famous painting ‘Starry Night’.  

Spring Term
Let’s Be Friends!
In Spring 1, we will look at what makes a good friend. We will explore similarities and differences between ourselves and people in other countries. We will also learn about people who help us in the community and have an exciting week exploring some Chinese New Year traditions, tasting Chinese food and joining in with a Chinese dragon dance. 

Do Cows Drink Milk?
In this topic, we will be learning about animals that live on the farm, life cycles of animals and we will even have some very special visitors in our classroom that will needs lots of love and care! 

Summer Term
Sunshine and Flowers
In Summer 1, we will learn about plants and what they need to survive. We will also be learning about lots of different minibeasts, creating minibeast hotels and going on minibeast hunts! We will watch as our class caterpillars grow into butterflies.  

Are We There Yet?
Our final topic, is all about the world we live in. We will learn about transport and how this has changed over time as well holidays from the past. We will also explore pirates, learn a sea shanty and learn about Grace Darling as a significant person from the past.

Communication  

Maple Court uses Class Dojo as a way of communicating with parents.  

​For any help or assistance with using Dojo, please speak to a member of the Reception team who will be more than happy to help!