Willow Class (Reception) 2023 - 2024

                                                                           Welcome to  Willow Class

Throughout the year the children will be developing their skills and knowledge through the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. This is divided into two interconnected areas; the Prime and the Specific. The Prime areas of learning are Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development. The Specific areas of learning are Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and the Expressive Arts and Design.

Observing children’s interests is the basis for planning topic themes as this is how young children learn best, through activities that they can make sense of and be inspired by to be curious investigators. This is balanced with teacher directed  topic introductions, such as  celebrations, traditional tales, people who help us. This widens children’s knowledge of their own immediate world.

                                                                                     Term 1

 It has been lovely getting to know all the children in Willow Class, we have been so impressed with how well they have settled into the big school day. They have been busy playing and exploring in their new learning environment and we look forward to having them in class full time next week. I would also like to thank all parents for welcoming both Mrs Tee and I into your homes to discuss your wonderful children.

This Year the Reception team is quite large. To help support the children’s learning we have Mrs Gurung the class teaching assistant. We also have Mrs Davies, Mrs Clubb, Miss Low and Miss Pearce working with children 1:1. We are all very excited and privileged to share the children’s first year at Guston.

Below is some general class information for Term 1.

Reception Base line

 During Term 1 all children will take part in the RBA which became statutory in all schools from September 2021.

The RBA will be an activity-based assessment of pupils’ starting points in:

• language, communication and literacy
• mathematics

The RBA will be a short task-based assessment. Pupils will use practical resources to complete these tasks and teachers will record the results on a laptop, computer or tablet. It will not be used to label or track individual pupils. Schools will be required to carry out the assessment within the first 6 weeks of pupils starting reception. No numerical score will be shared and the data will only be used at the end of year 6 to form the school-level progress measure. However, teachers will receive a series of short, narrative statements that tell them how their pupils performed in the assessment. These can be used to inform teaching within the first term.

Drop off/ Collection

 Drop of is between 8:30 – 8:45am and Collection is 3:00pm at the mobile

Water bottles /snack

Please can you send your child to school with a clean, named water bottle each day. We have fruit to give to the children at story time. If you choose to send in their own snack for snack time it needs to be a healthy option and in a named container.

Reading for pleasure

Each afternoon the children will choose a story book to bring home to share. These books are for you to read to your child. It would be lovely if you could encourage your child to talk about the story.

Naming uniform

Please can you ensure all items of your child’s school uniform including shoes are named. It is very difficult at the end of the day when we have multiple jumpers that are not named. Although the children seem to be able to do the smell test, this does not always work.

PE

This year the children’s PE lessons will be taught by Adventure Sports, supported by the EYFS team. Please send your child to school in their PE clothes every Wednesday.

Contact Information

We try to have an open door policy in Willow Class and we strive to work with parents to ensure all children are happy and progressing at school. Feel free to talk to me in the morning or afternoon. If this isn’t a suitable time for yourself, you can email any questions/information you may have to Karen.powell@guston.kent.sch.uk