Welcome to the Reception class page!  Our Reception class is taught by Mrs Lancashire (Mondays and Tuesdays) and Mrs Burley (Wednesday morning, Thursdays and Fridays). Miss Hellier will teach the class on a Wednesday afternoon.  Miss Becconsall and Miss Thomas are our teaching assistants.

The children learn through a mixture of child initiated learning (play based) and direct teacher led learning which may be whole class, group or individual. 

  

The Reception class is the final year of the Early Years Foundation Stage and the children learn through the three prime areas that filter into every lesson:

• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development

There are also four specific areas of learning:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

You can find out lots more about what we do by looking at our long-term plan, the plan for the current term and by clicking on the links below to help support your child at home.

Phonics

Phonics and early reading at Godstone Primary and Nursery School

At Godstone Primary and Nursery School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. Phonics is the sound of each letter or group of letters e.g. b, sh, oo, igh.  The children learn these sounds (phonemes) and the corresponding letter or letters (graphemes).  Then they can start to say the sounds for each letter and blend them into words e.g. b-u-s = bus.  

We start teaching phonics in Nursery and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Godstone Primary and Nursery School, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

Every teacher in our school has been trained to teach reading, so we have the same expectations of progress. We all use the same language, routines and resources to teach children to read so that we lower children’s cognitive load.

 

Daily phonics lessons in Reception

• We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.
• Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in the second full week of the Autumn term.
• We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress.  Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.

 

Daily Keep-up lessons ensure every child learns to read

• Any child who needs additional practice has daily Keep-up support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.

 

Teaching reading: Reading practice sessions three times a week

• We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These:
  • are taught by a fully trained adult t small groups of approximately six children
  • use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments
  • are monitored by the class teacher, who works with each group on a regular basis.
• Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:
  • decoding
  • prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
  • comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.

• In Reception these sessions start towards the end of the first half term. Children who are not yet decoding have daily additional blending practice in small groups, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books.

 

Home reading

• The decodable reading practice book is taken home to ensure success is shared with the family.  A second decodable practice book is also taken home so that children have two books to read each week.  Children are encouraged to read each book at least three times.

• Please see the  Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised parents’ resources for more information.
• Children also take a ‘reading for pleasure’ library book home each week for parents to share with their child.

 

Ensuring reading for pleasure

We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy.

• We read to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at Godstone Primary and Nursery School and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.
• Children have access to the reading corner every day in their free flow time and the books are continually refreshed.
• Children have a home reading record. The parent/carer records comments to share with the adults in school and the adults will write in this on a regular basis to ensure communication between home and school.
• The children visit Oxted library to experience the range of books available for them to borrow.  The librarians read some of the books with the children and share their passion for reading.

 

Things to do at home

Here are some websites that you might like to explore at home:

https://abcdoes.com/abc-does-a-blog/2020/03/14/at-least-50-fantastic-ideas-to-try-at-home/

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/numberblocks

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/3-5-years

Here are some activities that you might like to do as a family at home: