Reception Information

Welcome to Reception
The Reception Staff are as follows:
Mrs McLeish – EYFS Lead
Mr Day – Class Teacher
Mrs Shenton – Class Teacher
Mrs Harris – Teaching Assistant
Mrs Follows – Teaching Assistant
Mrs Wilkins- Teaching Assistant


What is the Foundation Stage?
The Foundation Stage begins in Nursery and continues through to Reception. We help the children to learn through playing, exploring and being active. This means children will take part in a range of fun, practical activities; some of which are adult led, some guided by adults and some will be child-initiated.
We follow the EYFS Framework and Reforms and through our creative curriculum, based on skills and knowledge, your child will receive the best possible early year’s education.
7 Areas of Learning
Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning:
Prime Areas
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Communication and Language Development
- Physical Development
Specific Areas
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
Reception Timetable:
8.45am: Children arrive, put away coats/book bags and self-register.
9.00am: Fabulous Fingers – fine motor activities to support writing development.
9.20am: Mathematics.
9.45am: Learning Time – Includes adult led & child-initiated activities.
11.15am: RML – a phonetic, reading programme.
11.45am: Lunch Time.
12.45am: Literacy.
1.20pm: Topic/Child Initiated Time – Includes adult led & child-initiated activities.
2.50pm: Story time.
3.05pm: Home time.

School Uniform
- Navy blue skirt, pinafore dress
- Navy blue or grey trousers
- Pale blue shirt
- Navy blue jumper/cardigan
- Navy blue tie with pale blue stripe
- Black shoes with flat heels (no labels)
- White or navy socks / navy or black tights
- Royal blue or yellow PE polo top *
- Royal blue shorts
- Black pumps
- Swimming costume / trunks and cap (KS2) **
- Navy blue track suit
All children need sensible shoes for playing outside and climbing. Children will need a coat every day and we also ask you to provide the children with a waterproof all in one suit and a pair of wellingtons. Can I also ask that you provide the children with these items in a draw string pump bag. Please do not send your child with a large back pack as we cannot get them onto the pegs and they can then become a trip hazard in the cloakroom.


Information:
Lunch
All children are entitled to a FREE school meal during their time in Reception, this is a universal offer for all children up to the age of 7. However, if your child would prefer to bring sandwiches we ask that you clearly label the outside of their lunch bag please.

Book Bags
These are an important part of school life as they help to bring home books, pictures and letters. Please provide your child with a named school book bag. These are available to buy from nursery on your child’s first day. We would like them to have their book bag in school every day. Please check it regularly for letters.

Snack Time
We have fruit daily, and will encourage all children to try different fruits. We also have a selection of crackers, biscuits, rice cakes and toast at a cost of £1.00 a week. Please let us know about any food allergies. Children also have milk or water. We monitor who has had their drink and snack every day.

Magic Moments
We are really keen to know about anything exciting or any achievements that occur for your child outside of school. They can share these with us and the class. We will provide a section on the parent prompt sheet for you to add your child’s Magic Moments.

Toys
Please do not bring toys into the nursery as they can easily get lost or broken. The children may, on occasion, be asked to bring in a toy as part of a topic. Again, to avoid their toys getting lost or broken, they will be shared with the class but not played with during choosing time.

Topic
We will send home termly topic information. We will also send a newsletter home, with key dates and any topic items that we would like you to bring in, if you can.

Dojo
We use Class Dojo at school as a means of commination between school and parents. You can message class teachers directly and they have a class news feed where you will be able to see all of the lovely activities that the children are doing in school. Staff also use Class Dojo to keep you up to date with events and meetings. Please download the app and sign up!

Staff Carpark
Please do not use the staff carpark when dropping off or collecting from school. When walking to the Reception classrooms please use the foot path to ensure the children are not walking in between or behind parked cars. Thank you.

Holidays
Please apply to Mr Mills in writing if you would like to request a holiday.

Illness
If your child is unwell and cannot attend nursery, please inform the office on tel: 01543 452197 or use your ParentMail app to notify us.

We hope that this page has answered some of your questions but if you would like any further information – we will be very happy to help. Please tel: 01543 452197 or email: office@st-johns.walsall.sch.uk