Reception Class

Reception is the first class in school for children at Water Street.   

In Reception, Mrs Roberts is the class teacher and Mrs Busfield is the teaching assistant.  We know that starting school is a very big step for our children and their families.  We work closely with parents, our feeder nurseries and other professionals to make the transition into school as seamless as possible with parents’ open evenings, home visits, nursery visits and ‘stay and play’ sessions for the children in school.  

Our classroom is warm and inviting, organised into ‘areas of provision’, which are enhanced to meet the learning needs of the children.  Children develop the key foundational skills they need in taught whole class sessions as well as focus tasks in groups/individually. We follow planned themes, centred around key stories/vocabulary. We have full outdoor provision too and enjoy many of our activities outside – whatever the weather!   

Each child has an ‘Everything Book’ and an ‘Online Learning Journey’ which both document their progress throughout the year, and these are available for parents to browse at any time.  We encourage parents to contribute to these journals ensuring that school and home are partners in the learning process.  

Our prime approach to developing early reading and writing is through phonics and we are proud to follow the highly regarded Little Wandle systematic phonics programme, ensuring a consistent and high-quality approach.  In addition, we have both group reading practice and whole class handwriting three times a week. Maths is taught daily with lots of opportunities to practise and embed skills during time in provision.  Each day we have a dedicated daily story/language session as well as weekly visits to our class library and planned visits to Skipton library throughout the year. Our daily timetable allows children to spend time practising and embedding their learning through play, where staff can support them in the provision, which is enhanced to meet their changing needs, addressing any gaps in skills and knowledge to ensure all children achieve their potential.  

We are proud that our pupils consistently achieve better than expected outcomes in relation to their starting points and leave our reception class ready for Year 1.  

Table below:  Number of pupils achieving GLD (Good Level of Development) at the end of the Reception year.