Welcome to Reception! 

Miss Mitchell, Miss Brennan and Miss Shields are looking forward to working together with you for the rest of the year and getting to know your child, their interests and all of the things they can do.

As parents or carers, if there is anything you are concerned about we hope that you will feel comfortable approaching us to discuss such matters. As an Early Years Foundation Stage team, we want you and your children to feel happy and comfortable with our setting and if there are areas that you have concerns about we want to work with you to rectify these.

A few little reminders, please ensure that your child has the correct uniform, a book bag and a PE kit. These can be purchased from the main office. Please ensure that everything is clearly labelled to avoid any confusion. 

We have started PE lessons which run on a Monday afternoon and so for health and safety reasons it is vital that all children have the correct PE kit, this consists of a red PE top, navy shorts and indoor pumps.

Book bags are important for all children to have as we have started sending home conversation books, and will be sending home number activities and words to learn. We aim to change books on a Friday. Having a book bag means that everything is contained in one place and that all children feel part of our school.

We look forward to working with you all as the year progresses.

Miss Mitchell, Miss Brennan (TA) and Miss Shields (TA)

Other Faiths Week: Islam

At school this week, we have been learning about Islam. We discussed that Muslim people have special objects that are precious to them. We had a ‘show and tell’ in class and told our friends about our very own special objects. We then made these special objects out of modelling clay and labelled them.

Miss Randa from Nursery class joined us in Reception to show us the Islamic call to prayer. She brought in her spcial prayer mat and Quran for us to look at. Miss Randa demonstrated how Muslims pray and we were able to join in with some of it. 

Reception then made their own prayer mats and book covers to keep the Quran clean. 

Collective Worship with Parents

We would like to say 'thank you' to all the parents that joined us for our class Collective Worship. This was a lovely opportunity for parents to see how the children gather, listen to scripture and respond by praying together. Our focus was 'wonderful me'. The parents and children said one thing they loved about themselves and thanked God for making them wonderful. Reception finished by singing, 'if I were a butterfly'. The parents enjoyed singing along too! 

E-Safety!

In Reception we have been learning all about how to stay safe on the internet. If a picture pops up we will ask an adult or grown up for help. 

Reception’s Winter Walk.

As it is Winter and beginning to feel very cold outside, Reception wanted to go on a Winter walk. We niticed the grass was very frosty and even saw some frosty footprints. I wonder who could have left them? We also noticed some water on top of the water tray had frozen solid! We had a little feel but not for long as it was too cold! Finally, we noticed some decayed plants and flowers. We realise that this is only because it is too cold and dark for the plants to grow but we can’t wait until Spring and Summer to see all the beautiful green leaves and colourful flowers again. 

Make it Count. 

Some of Reception’s parents and grandparents have been invited into school to take part in ‘Make it Count’. This is a fun and creative morning which allows the school to make links with home life. The grown ups and children are given the opportunity to work together to design and create a variety of pictures and models using shapes. They also play games and enjoy having a chat too! 

Role-Playing a Baptism 

For our Come and See lessons, Reception have been learning about welcoming people into our school, our classroom and into God’s family. Reception listened to a story about a baptism and role played it including all the key parts. First, the Priest pours holy water over the baby’s head saying, ‘I baptise you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’. The Godmother then wraps the baby in a white garment and the Godfather gives Dad a white candle to take home. Everyone then claps to welcome the baby into God’s family. 

Pirate Party!

Reception have had an amazing day, celebrating the end of our topic with a Pirate party! Reception dressed up in their best pirate costumes and played lots of pirate games such as walk the plank, pin the eye patch on the pirate, digging for buried treasure, making pirate maps and making pirate jewellery. A big THANK YOU to all our parents and guardians for putting such a big effort into the children's costumes and for coming along to join in our party fun! 

Chester Zoo Ranger Visit.

Reception have had a very exciting visitor in class. A ranger from Chester Zoo arrived to teach us about the Rainforest and Rainforest animals. The children were able to touch some Rainforest animal skin and bones and smell some of the really stinky food that the animals enjoy the most. Reception also acted as Rainforest trees and discussed the effects of the falling Rainforests on some of our most loved Rainforest animals. 

Collective Worship

Prayer and worship are an important part of Reception’s daily routine. Reception helped to plan their own class collective worship about how we are all precious to God. Each child chose a name of a classmate and hung it on our worship tree, while the rest of the children responded, “God loves you”. 

Year 2 School Fayre 

Year 2 have put on an amazing school fayre, especially for Reception and Year 1. Reception loved playing the various games and taking part in different competitions. Some of the children even won special prizes! Reception played games such as hook a duck, pin the tail on the donkey, bowling, guess the name of the teddy and they even watched a puppet show. What a great morning! 

How we became Pirates! 

Reception have really enjoyed our Pirate topic this half term. We read many Pirate stories such as ‘How I became a Pirate’, ‘Winnie’s Pirate Adventure’, The Night Pirates’ and ‘Pirates love Underpants’. Reception enjoyed making and decorating their own Pirate hats and eye patches and using them to role play with their friends. We have made our very own Pirate den in class, where the children can look for treasure, read Pirate maps and even create their own treasure maps! 

Self-registration

Each morning, Reception self-register by finding their name in the classroom, writing and decorating it, then hanging it on our registration tree. This helps our teachers know who is in school that day. This alos helps us to recognise our name and write some of the letters in our names. Some children can write their names all by themselves!