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Reception is the first class in school for children at Water Street.  In Reception, Mrs Roberts is the class teacher and Mrs Busfield and Mrs Balderstone are the teaching assistants.  We all know that going to ‘big school’ is a very big (and sometimes daunting) step for our children.  We work closely with parents and our feeder Nurseries and other professionals to make the transition from Nursery into school as seamless as possible with parents’ open evenings, home visits, nurseries visits and ‘stay and play’ sessions for the children in school before the new school year starts. 

Our classroom a bright and inviting learning environment, organised into ‘areas of continuous provision’, which are enhanced every week to link with our themes.  We follow themes for two or three weeks at a time and these are led by the children’s interest and also driven by the seasons and festivals.   We have full outdoor provision too and enjoy many of our activities out of doors – whatever the weather!

Each child has an Everything Book and an Online Learning Journey which both document their progress through year, and these are available for parents to browse at any time.  We encourage parents to contribute to these journals as they watch their children’s achievements and to ensure that school and home become real partners in the learning process. 

Our prime approach to developing early Reading and Writing skills is through phonics and we have a phonics session every day.  This is followed up enhanced provision in the class library and the phonics area for children to learn independently too. 

As you can see the children are at the heart of everything we do in the Reception Class, but this is closely followed by parents and we put in much effort to ensure that you are fully informed of everything that goes on in school.  We send out a weekly email to explain the learning for the week as well as other school notices or information.  We also have plenty of sessions throughout the year when parents can come and be a part of it, including ‘stay and play’ sessions, parents’ evenings and videoed sessions for you to watch. 

Finally, we are very proud of our fantastic ‘buddy’ system in school, where the Reception children are paired up with a Year 6 mentor who is their ‘buddy’ throughout the first year at school.  Having an older child on hand to work and play helps ensure the children’s first experiences of school are positive and happy!