New to Reception

The Foundation Stage Curriculum encompasses

• Personal, social and emotional development
• Physical development
• Communication and language
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

The curriculum content is presented in a way that is appropriate to how very young children learn. It includes adult directed and child selected activities and is closely monitored to ensure that your child takes advantage of the broad curriculum that is offered to them.

The Foundation Stage environment provides stimulating, exciting and well-organised resources for your child to use and explore at their own pace. The resources are easily accessible and presented in areas, which are referred to as Continuous Provision areas.

The Continuous Provision areas provided are, role play, water, reading area, malleable/ creative, construction, writing, mathematics, writing, mathematics, small world and outdoor play.

Play is an effective and valuable approach to learning and children put a great deal of effort into it. They often become totally absorbed and display high levels of concentration. Through their exploration, experimentation and discovery, various concepts are developed and formed. The curriculum is therefore planned and adapted to fit the needs, interests and learning styles of the children.

Your child’s first task is to become independent. 

There are many things you can do to prepare young children for school. Many things parents do automatically from birth, but following are activities which Reception children particularly enjoy.

• Dress and undress themselves, coping with clothes that may have become inside out.
• Practise fastening buckles, buttons and zips.
• Begin to use the toilet properly, be able to wipe their bottom and flush the toilet.
• Wash and dry hands properly. Practising good hygiene.
• Help tidy up toys after playing.
• Recognise their full name.
• Begin to use a knife, fork and spoon to be able to eat their school dinner.
• Practise using manners daily, saying Please, Thank You, Excuse me.

From a very early age, children enjoy having books – to look at themselves and to have stories read from. 

• Use books with lots of pictures and discuss them – try not to just read the text and then move on to the next page. This helps your child with understanding.
• Many books produced nowadays introduce a further dimension to the idea of storytelling requiring the listener to participate (i.e. lifting flaps, pulling tabs etc.) Children particularly enjoy this activity.
• Encourage children to respect books, always turning pages carefully etc.
• Read to your child as often as possible.
• Show them how to handle books correctly.
• Join the local library.
• Look at lots of different prints/lettering within the environment.

So many opportunities arise when it is possible to extend a child’s vocabulary and understanding of our language, not only on special outings but also in the home where daily routines are carried out. 

• Discuss interesting words and sounds.
• Re-tell and teach nursery rhymes and poems to your child so that he or she begins to hear words that sound the same (rhyme).
• Use television SELECTIVELY with your child and discuss programmes afterwards.

Your child may want to learn to write his/her name before they come to school. If you want to teach him/her please use small letters not capitals (except at the beginning of the name of course e.g. Rebecca, John). Children must be shown the correct letter formation from the very beginning otherwise bad habits form. 

Most parents begin preparing their children to be receptive to the concepts of number without realising it. They point out things, which are the same and therefore go together (sorting), for example a pair of socks or two red flowers and things that match such as a cup and saucer or knife and fork. These concepts must be understood before any formal number work can be introduced. Counting is great fun for young children but it is important that they grasp the idea of ‘one number for one item’.

When shopping, discuss the fact that money is used to buy things but don’t worry about the value of coins at this stage. Perhaps you could save empty packets and play shops, or save used stamps and envelopes to play at Post Offices. 

Children adore making things however simple the task may seem to an adult.

• Provide your child with things such as paints, crayons, pens, felt-tips, chalk, pencils, and large sheets of paper, card and glue. Use these opportunities to discuss colours, shapes and patterns.
• Teach your child how to use and be sensible with scissors. E.g. how to hold the scissors when passing them to someone else.
• Show him/her how to hold a pencil.
• Experiment with clay, plasticine, sand and water. Talk about concepts such as more/less/few, empty/full, heavy/light etc. 

Many daily activities can be the start of a discussion concerning scientific concepts e.g. baking, making jelly, growing plants (cress, carrot tops etc.) Talk about different seasons, the weather, animals, day/night – the list is endless!

At Chantlers we have adopted the ‘focus child’ approach to assessments. 

Our staff work closely with each child, observing their particular interests and planning activities for them based around those interests which help to promote their learning and development. We use observation and questions to make sure that we have a clear understanding at each child’s stage of development in all areas of the curriculum and how we can best support their further development.

We work with parents to celebrate achievements and any life events that children are experiencing. This approach allows us to plan and adapt provision according to each child’s individual need to ensure we are supporting them to reach their full potential.