Welcome to Reception at Latchmere School for you and your child. We have enjoyed welcoming your children into Reception. The autumn term is an exciting and busy first term of the Reception year. The team are really looking forward to working in partnership with you to ensure your child’s first year at school is a happy and successful one.
This letter is designed to give you some helpful information about the coming term. Please refer to the Latchmere Starter Pack for more detailed information about the Reception year or see your child’s teacher if you have a specific query.
Reading
Our goal is to create confident, fluent, independent readers. We prioritise reading at Latchmere School and have very carefully chosen the texts your child will study this term. We focus on word reading to develop fluency and encourage the whole class to join in through strategies such as choral reading (the whole class read together) and echo reading (the teacher models the reading and the class echo back). We also have the Latchmere Reading skills. In Reception these are based on decoding, prosody, comprehension and vocabulary.
In Reception, here are some of the texts we will be looking at inautumn 1:
We start teaching the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics programme on Monday 9th September. Initially this involves daily teaching of phonics and moves on to three reading sessions per week for every child focussing on decoding, prosody and comprehension.
Please see the separate phonics letter for further information. You can also look at the ‘Phonics and Reading Scheme’ page on the school website.
Maths
Our curriculum is based on the NCETM Mastering Number and White Rose Maths programmes. These research-based initiatives ensure that the skills and concepts children taught are fully embedded before moving on.
This half-term we will be focusing on:
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building on previous experiences of number from their home and nursery environments.
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developing their subitising and counting skills.
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exploring the composition of numbers within 5.
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begin to compare sets of objects and use the language of comparison.
Curriculum Highlights
The half term very much begins with “settling in” and “getting to know you”. We will initially focus on the topic of “All about Me”. In autumn 2 we will be learning about different ‘Celebrations’ including Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas.
You can find more information about the autumn term learning by looking at the Reception medium term plan and knowledge organiser on the school website.
We hope you have found this information helpful. We aim to keep parents as involved and informed as possible. Please do not hesitate to ask your child’s teacher or other members of the Reception team if you have a question or just wish to have a chat about any of the above.
Best wishes and thank you for your support
The Reception Team
Miss Davison and Miss Khiytani
Updates and reminders
Get to Know Your Teacher meeting
Our ‘Get to know your teacher’ meetings will be held on Tuesday 24th September. This gives you an opportunity to be given information about class routines, the curriculum, teaching strategies and the school year. You will also be given the chance to ask the teachers questions.
Foxes & Owls – Tuesday 24th September at 2.45pm
This meeting will be held in the drama hall and slides from the meeting will be emailed out afterwards.
Parent Representatives
Each class will be inviting parents to volunteer for the 2 to 3 Parent Rep roles who will act as liaison between class teams and parents.
Class Notice Boards
Each class has its own notice board for messages. The weekly curriculum highlights will be put up each Monday giving you a brief outline of the learning for the week.
Snacks
In Reception, we have two snack times each day: mid-morning and mid-afternoon. In keeping with the wider healthy eating policy of the school, we would ask you ONLY send a small portion of fruit, vegetables, crackers or breadsticks for each snack. No other kinds of snack please. We feel that this not only helps promote a positive attitude to healthy eating but also encourages good eating habits. Please do remember, however, that school fruit and vegetable snacks are available in class for all children daily.
Bookbags
We send letters and important information regarding your child’s learning home in their school bags. Please ensure they are brought to school daily and check them on a regular basis.
Next week we will start our new phonics programme – Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. Please check your child’s book bag for daily flashcards.
Class PE
PE starts Wednesday 18th September for both classes and will be on Wednesday afternoon each week. We ask that all children come to school in their PE kit on their PE day - PE shorts, T-shirt, plimsols/trainers and a school jumper/cardigan. In colder weather track suit bottoms (ideally as plain as possible and in a dark colour such as blue, black or grey) can be worn instead of shorts.
End of day pick up
If your child is being collected at the end of the day by someone different, please inform the class teacher and write it in the message book which will be attached to the class noticeboard. You may also email or phone the school office to inform us if there are any changes to pick up. We can only send children home with confirmed adults.
Toys from home
We ask that children do not bring in toys from home, as we cannot guarantee they will not get lost or damaged.
School Bags
In the Reception classes we do not have space for backpacks/rucksacks so please send your child with all their belongings in the blue Latchmere school book bag.
Parent Pay
You will be sent details for a parent pay account in the next few days. Please sign up ASAP as you will be sent correspondence from school through this account and be able to book school lunches.
Labelling
Please remember to label your child’s cardigan, jumper and coat and any other items they bring into school e.g. water bottle, snack pot, book wallet.
Key dates
Wednesday 18th September 2024- PE starts
Tuesday 24th September 2.45pm 2024 - Get to know your teacher
Friday 8th November 2024 - Foxes cake sale
Friday 15th November 2024 - Owls cake sale
13th February 2025 – Foxes assembly
27th February 2025 – Owls assembly