Our teacher is Mrs L. Egan

Teaching Assistant is Mrs M. Harrison

Our Class Link Governor is Sarah Roberts and Sara Keaney

We also have a place for physical development outside and lots more; there will always be lots of different activities to aid our learning. Come and have a look what a wonderful place reception class is to learn.

Our topic this half term is ‘Pirates, mermaids and the seven seas’ We will be learning all about the ocean and sea life, Mermaids, pirates and the seaside past and present.

Dough disco is an activity used with the children in our class to prepare them for writing. Dough disco involves using playdough to music, copying the specific hand movements of the teacher on the interactive whiteboard focusing on different areas of the fingers and hands. Manipulatingplaydough helps to strengthen hand muscles and develop control over the fingers. Snippingplaydough sausages helps develop scissor cuttingskills. Ask the children to show you how we do dough disco in reception class. Click on the picture link for more information or on YouTube  dough disco – Shonette Bason!

We will continue having a PE session on a Tuesday morning with City in the Community.

This year we have a new behaviour policy in place which will be shared with you. Good behaviour and good learning are encouraged on a daily basis and are rewarded in a number of ways.

Children will always receive positive praise and may receive stickers and certificates. In class we have a behaviour system which encourages fabulous learning behaviours. The children are split up into Team Point groups. They will either be in Dovestone (Blue), Indians Head (red), Pots and Pans (Green) or Alphin Pike (Yellow), Every child in school is part of one of these Team Point groups. If the children are placed on our ‘Recognition wall’ for following our SCARF Principles, then they will get a pebble/team point for their team. If a child gets an ‘over and above’ they will get 5 team points/pebbles for their jar! You may also hear the children and staff talking about ‘giving 5’. This is our way of encouraging children to be ready for their learning during our whole class ‘carpet time’. When we ask the children to give 5 we expect to see their eyes looking, ears listening, mouth quiet, body still and mind awake and ready for learning. In Reception we are also learning to use our ‘thinking thumbs’ when we’re on the carpet rather than shouting out.

Book Bags will be used throughout their time at St. Mary’s to send letters, children’s learning and later reading books home. In order to facilitate this please ensure that your child brings their bag with them every day and puts it in the relevant box in the classroom. Please do not put water bottles in book bags as these are too big to fit in the box, they often spill and ruin the things in the book bag like reading books etc. and the children don’t have access to them during the day. We ask that you check your child’s book bag each evening for any notes etc. and empty it on a regular basis. We are working on helping your child to recognise their name, in order to help with this, we ask that you do not put any keyrings on your child’s book bag as these help them to recognise their book bag and they aren’t looking at the names on each bag. We appreciate your support in this matter.