Eglinton
Welcome to our Reception
The aim of our Reception is to provide a caring and stimulating environment which inspires our children to learn and explore. Our Reception reflects the rich variety of cultures within our school, and we value everyone, giving each other the chance to fully develop.
We hope that you and your child enjoy working with us throughout your child’s reception year.
Why an All About Me meeting?
If you are new to our school, you and your child will be invited to an ‘All About Me’ meeting in the Summer Term, in order to make your child’s transition to school a calm and supportive experience. During the meeting there will be the opportunity for you to share information with your child’s teacher with regard to their prior learning and experiences and also to ask any questions that you may have prior to your child’s first day. The more we work together the happier your child will be and the more progress they will make with their learning.
Visits to Reception Provision and your child’s first week in September
During the Summer term before your child is due to start at Eglinton, you and your child will be invited to see the Reception indoor and outdoor provision and to meet the Reception staff team. When your child joins Eglinton in September, their first few days will be staggered, this will support their transition to us. The hours your child completes during these days will be confirmed in your child’s welcome pack.
During the term before your child is due to start School, you will be invited to a meeting at the school to discuss settling your child, to see the classrooms and to meet the staff. We will also be inviting yourself and your child to open sessions to enable your child to begin to feel more comfortable in our environment and with our staff prior to their start date. You are welcome to attend all or some of the sessions.
Safeguarding and Child Protection
Children need to be brought to Reception main entrance and welcomed by a member of staff each day before saying good-bye to their adult. In order to keep you informed of any accidents or injuries staff will use accident forms as a record and a copy will be given to you should this occur. Similarly, if your child has an accident or injury at home or on the way to school please let a member of staff know so that we can support your child if necessary.
In the event of any concerns around child safety or welfare, the school will use the local authority procedures in order to follow up on concerns.
Please note that we only allow adults aged 18 or above to settle and collect children from Reception.
The Reception Day and Times of Sessions
9.00am-3.30pm
Ensuring that your child arrives on time for school every day will ensure that your child has a calm and purposeful start to their school day. Research suggests good practices around attendance and punctuality have a positive impact on children’s educational experiences.
Upon arrival your child will be encouraged to self-register; initially by reading and recognising their name and later by writing their name. They will then engage in a class phonics session which is usually initially 20 minutes long building gradually up to 30 minutes over the first term. After which the children in small groups, will practice the sound of the day in their phonics books. Then the children have access to a range of activities that have been carefully planned to inspire the children to learn and explore in all the areas of the curriculum and support the children’s interests. To support children to learn it is important that they have access to high quality resources that are interesting, challenging and exciting. The classrooms are designed and set up in various learning zones which are resourced to promote curiosity and thinking skills. Inside and Outside you will see specifically designed areas which include: role-play which includes a home area, mud-kitchen, small world, music and dance, writing and mark-making, physical – fine and gross motor skills, maths, creative, transient art and construction.
In the areas the staff work alongside children in order to support and extend their learning through introducing and modelling new vocabulary, by observing their interests and planning activities to further support their learning and through asking questions to promote thinking. Throughout the week children are also given the opportunity to engage in activities which introduce new skills and learning to the children. There is open access to milk, water and fruit throughout the day and children are taught to understand the importance of making healthy choices around food and exercise. At the end of the morning the children participate in another group session before lunch which usually has a Literacy focus, and then another session after lunch which has a Maths focus. At the end of the day the children engage in a singing or story session. Through our choice of high quality texts, the children are introduced to new vocabulary which support and extend their learning and story language which will later support their narrative writing skills.
Parents receive a weekly newsletter which outlines the learning for the week and also provides ideas for how parents could support and extend the children’s learning at home.
