How to help your child to prepare for Reception

Starting Reception is a great adventure and begins with a smooth transition from Pre-School. The children will have previously experienced opportunities to have worked within the Reception Class environment and amongst the staff, making for a seamless move.

In Reception your children will be encouraged to pursue their own interests supported by enthusiastic, caring adults in an enabling environment.

We use the scheme Pearson Rocket Phonics to teach the sounds of letters. Children are taught to learn the letter sounds rather than the letter names. The sounds are taught in a systematic pattern to support their early writing and reading skills. Children learn to form letters and hold their pencil correctly from the beginning. We enjoy writing such things as stories, poems and non-fiction but strongly believe in writing for a purpose, providing a more meaningful experience. From the beginning children are encouraged to mark make and write within their play and learning, anything from a label, short caption, shopping list, recipe, invite, cards etc.

Reading begins with wordless books concentrating on developing the early reading skills that children need to become competent readers. The children are taught how stories work, including the order and direction in which they are read. By telling stories in their own words they learn to use the information derived from the illustrations to develop their oral skills. Reading is seen as an enjoyable experience and only introduced when the child is fully ready. Children’s reading abilities emerge at very different rates and there is no right or wrong time for your child to begin to read; they will progress in their own time and should be individually encouraged. Our aim is to begin to foster a life-long love of reading.

Maths is not restricted or defined as only individual sessions but seen as a tool to use everywhere and this is what we model and encourage. Our aim is for the children to gain a deeper understanding of number and maths concepts. The majority of maths activities are practical and linked across the curriculum, for example during forest school activities the children create 2D shapes pictures from sticks, they learn about shape properties as they realise their square needs four sticks of the same length. Water play and cooking provide great opportunities for capacity, weight and measures and setting a table, or sharing a snack provides super problem solving skills.

More formal recording comes as their skills grow. The Reception class aims to provide a happy and secure environment where each child can develop to their full potential, however it manifests. We believe that this development is best helped when teachers and parents are working together.

Many of your children will have had lots of experiences either within our Pre-School or other Nursery and preschool environments; however parents often ask what they can do to further prepare their child for starting Reception. We hope the suggestions listed will help.