Reception at South Lee Prep School March 2023

South Lee Prep School Bury St Edmunds Reception

Amazing Facilities that Enhance Learning Opportunities

A Prep School Education

Trips and visitsintheUK and abroad

It's not just about the small class sizes and innovative and caring teachers...

SPORTS

Termly team sports

Individual sports such as badminton and athletics

Games sessions, clubs, activities

Weekly fixtures and regular tournaments

Pupils are active EVERY day

MUSIC & DRAMA

Innovation Lab

Victory Ground Sports Pitches, Nowton Astro-turf, Tennis & Netball courts

What else makes South Lee Prep special?

Weekly Enrichment Afternoons

Productions and clubs throughout the year

Choirs & Music Groups

Weekly lessons with specialist teachers in both music and drama

Family Service Lunches with children and staff eating together every day

Weekly STEM lessons for all children

Individual lessons in instruments, voice & LAMDA

To find out more or to arrange a visit, contact our admissions team on admissions@southlee.co.uk or visit our website www.southlee.co.uk

Most importantly...

Reception is a year for amazing discoveries, exciting academic developments and new challenges! Before children can engage with all the opportunities presented to them, they need to feel happy, safe and connected with those adults around them.

Every day on arrival, the children engage in a wellestablished routine. They are greeted by their teachers and sign themselves in, adding their face to the feelings board, showing what their mood is today. A useful learning task, this is also important for staff to know so they can keep an extra eye out on an unsettled or tired child.

All staff strive to create connections with the children as quickly as possible. Mrs Gisbey and Mrs Witthuhn welcome the children each morning. One or the other of them is with the pupils throughout the day, even when they have their specialist teaching. We want them to know that they have lots of key people they can rely on and connect with. Happy and secure children learn best.

After the first few weeks, pupils will learn about our safety circles. They choose three key adults that they feel that they could turn to if they ever have a worry or just need a bit of reassurance.

Mrs Macfarlane is our School Nurse & Mental Health Lead. She is always around to support the children, from greeting them at morning dropoff to supporting positive relationships at playtime.

Seven Areas of Learning in Early Years

Personal

Expressive

Art & Design

Early Years

7 Areas of Learning

Mathematics

Communication & Language

We deliver the Early Years Curriculum in a fun and exciting way!

The children are lucky enough to have the best of both worlds: specialist staff teaching specialist subjects and extremely qualified Early Years teaching staff with outstanding practice and nurture.

A Busy and Varied Day

Reception children benefit from specialist Early Years Teachers & Teaching Assistants who are experts in the Early Years Curriculum.

We use an exciting, systematic phonics programme which ensures high quality teaching of phonics and early reading. Every child reads daily.

We offer playful, practical opportunities to explore different aspects of number. We focus on the development of mathematical vocabulary to describe and compare size, shape, length and weight.

We create open-ended, creative learning experiences to encourage children to explore, experiment and reflect. Ongoing observations allow us to support how children learn in their setting.

We want to support them to:

be curious, have ideas of their own, show persistence, demonstrate resilience, be willing to take risks, have the ability to change strategy as needed.

Honing new skills

Learning independence

The Best of Both Worlds

Pupils have specialist subject teachers from Reception in the following subjects:

Highlights of a busy year!