Our Reception provision offers an inspirational learning environment in which children develop as confident and skilled learners. Our new Leadership and teaching teams have brought a wealth of experience and masses of enthusiasm to our Foundation Stage, planning even more creative and exciting opportunities so that children are always motivated to learn and love joining in with (and leading!) activities! 

Last year, our children made good progress in Reception, building on their progress and achievements in Nursery – we love to keep learning! In addition, 72% of children who attended our EYFS setting achieved GLD compared to 72% National.

Reception is the year in which all children blossom into their personalities.  At King’s Oak Primary, we enjoy celebrating everyone’s skills and talents so that children develop and grow individually in our setting. We offer real-life experiences and opportunities for children to explore and investigate so that we instil their love for learning through their interests.

We begin Reception year with a home visit, with you and your child, when we share information such as interests, strengths and things that you or your child may feel worried about. It is important to us that children have a smooth transition and there is good communication between home and school.

We use an online journal to capture all the ‘light bulb’ or ‘Wow!’ moments that your child has in our setting and, via this journal, you can also share things that your child does at home and comment and communicate with their teacher. Teachers share a variety of photos and videos of your child’s activities with you, to keep you informed of what your child is learning at school. We offer parent meetings termly, so that we can share next steps and targets that your child needs both academically as well as personally, in addition to the daily contact we have with you before and after school.

A day in Reception begins with free-flow, inside and then outside, which enables children to really practise the skill of sustaining engagement in an activity for a long period without being interrupted. Children have access to fruit and milk throughout the session. At 11:00 a.m., we have ‘phonics mat time’ which is followed by lunch. After lunch, children have a ‘maths mat time’ and free-flow until the end of the day when we share a story or reflection on what we have done during the day, before going home.

At King’s Oak Primary, phonics is taught through a programme called SoundsWrite. Children will be practising their skills of blending, segmenting and fluency on a daily basis. During this phonics session, there will also be a focus on handwriting. The session is very structured and allows children to build confidence in this area. We hold a workshop for parents/carers to share how we teach reading, to enable you to support your child at home with this, too.

Maths is taught using ‘Number of the Week’; children and their teachers explore numbers in a variety of forms such as money, time, shape, measure etc. We have found that teaching in this way enables children to really master numbers and to think flexibly about numbers, both inside and outside the classroom.

Our setting offers time for learning through play; phonics and maths are presented as challenges within play and through quality interactions with highly skilled staff which means children do not realise how much they are learning! Our environments are carefully planned to encourage children to persevere, take risks and problem solve safely (we teach children that mistakes are a springboard to their next learning opportunity) and we focus on our key ‘learning habits’ to prepare children for an enjoyable and successful educational journey at King’s Oak Primary School.