Welcome to Reception 2026-2027

Oranges are currently out of plain rice cakes, if you are able to donate some, it would be greatly appreciated.

Key dates for this term:

• Phonics workshop: 8th October, 9am

The Reception teachers will introduce our phonics programme, including the sounds your child will learn and how you can support their phonics development at home.

• Coffee Morning: 23rd October, 9am 

Miss Skinner (EYFS and Year 1 Lead) and Mrs Kierzkowski (School Business Manager) will be at this coffee morning. This is an opportunity to ask questions about the school day and receive information about clubs, lunchtime arrangements, and other aspects of school life. Please note that this coffee morning will focus on general school matters rather than individual children’s progress.

Reception Baseline information

Over the next few weeks, your child will complete the statutory Reception Baseline Assessment. It is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school. For additional information, see leaflet below. 

Reception_baseline_assessment_information_for_parents

Little Wandle Reading Books

In Reception, we start reading books after October half term. Your child can access their reading books either as a hard copy or as an eBook via the Collins Hub using their individual login.
If you would like your child to borrow a hard copy of their reading book, we ask for a £10 deposit, payable through MCAS. This includes £2 for a zippy wallet to help protect the books, with the remaining £8 held as a deposit to cover any books that are lost or damaged. Any remaining balance will be refunded when your child completes the Little Wandle programme.
To help us keep our books in good condition, please read the Book Borrowing Agreement on MCAS before paying the deposit.

Other Key Information:

Home School Partnership Presentation

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend our Home School Partnership evening. We hope you found it useful. If any questions do arise, please come and speak to a member of the Reception team.

Home School Partnership 2026 updated

Snack

As part of our afternoon snack we ask that you please kindly donate plain rice cakes for the whole class snack. Due to identified allergies we are no longer able to accept breadsticks.

Home School Communication Book

You will have received a Home School Communication Book. This book is intended to be an additional way for parents and school staff to communicate information. If you have something that you would like to tell us, please write in the Home School Book and hand it to the member of staff who is on the gate. We will read your comments and reply either in writing or in person. Please note that this book is not for communication about going home arrangements.

Show and Tell – TBC

The children are encouraged to bring in something for Show and Tell during the week that they are on the rota.  This will then be shared at some point during that week.  It could be a memento of a trip, a photograph of a special outing or a favourite object or toy.

	Library day	PE day
Apples	Monday	Wednesday
Oranges	Monday	Thursday

Please could both Apples and Oranges all bring in book bags on a Monday.  They will ALL be returned on Tuesday.

Children should come dressed ready in their PE kit on the day that their class has PE.

Learning for week beginning 5th October 2026:

 

Our focus learning this week is:

Phonics:

• Learning to recognise the graphemes g, o, c, k and say the sound to match
• Listening to sounds in words including finding the initial sound

Maths:

• Practise counting each object, action or sound once and only once
• To find out ‘how many’ objects there are

Fine motor:

To practise using pincer grip with the following activities:

• Using pegs to show a bucket filler or dipper
• Create a picture using pegs and boards

This half term we are learning to:

• Build relationships – getting to know our teachers, adults and new friends.
• Settling into Reception – becoming familiar with our classroom and new surroundings.
• Learning our routines – practising where to put our belongings, lining up, tidying up and getting ready for different parts of the day.

 

Things you can do at home to support your child:

• Encourage independence – let your child have a go at getting dressed, putting on their shoes and coat, and managing their belongings.
• Practise turn-taking and sharing – through games and play.
• Encourage your child to talk about their feelings – reassure them that it is normal to feel a little nervous when starting something new.
• Talk about being in school for a longer day and reassuring them that their adult will be coming back, linking with prior learning of the story Invisible String

Reading for pleasure books

As part of our focus on reading in school, we would like to develop the lending library of books within each class. This will enable the children to foster a passion and love of reading at Belmont and ensure that they have access to high quality texts.

Please find links to the book list that has a variety of books that we would love to have in class.  Once you have donated a book, please tick on the spreadsheet for your child’s class to show we now have it.  Please check the list to ensure that the book that you would like to donate is one that we don’t already have. These books will be stamped to show who has generously donated them and shared with all the class.

The books come from the Recommended Books for Reception List which can be found below:

Apples class list

Oranges class list

 

 

Think Equal – more information coming soon

Think Equal is a global initiative that seeks to end the discriminatory mindset across our world and ensure positive life outcomes for our children. Together with world experts Think Equal has designed a programme to teach social and emotional learning to early years (3-6-year-olds). Think Equal’s vision is a safe, free, equal, cohesive and sustainable world. Through the power of narrative we provide young children with a profound grounding in social and emotional skills and competencies including: equality, empathy, and peaceful conflict resolution. We provide the concrete tools with which to build a strong foundation for individual and societal progress, making communities safer, healthier, more equal and just.

This complimentary resource has been put together to help you to support your child’s social and emotional development in the home in fun and engaging ways. It  is to be used alongside the Think Equal programme and stories being used in school.

The Home Kit serves as a platform to reinforce topics covered in the classroom, fostering meaningful conversations at home. Through a variety of resources, games, and exercises, you can nurture your child’s growth and help them become empathetic, compassionate, and resilient individuals.

 

Autumn Learning Tree

Please see the Autumn Learning Tree for more information about our learning this term:

Reception Autumn tree

 

 

 

Teachers this year:

Apples: Miss Skinner         Oranges: Miss Masters

Early years practitioners: Mrs Pullen and Miss Buckles

Teaching assistant: Ms Pasebani and Miss Porter (Friday PM)