Reception

What a superstar start to the school year for our Reception children! They have settled into school life beautifully, quickly becoming familiar with our daily routines and forming some wonderful friendships along the way. It has been a busy, exciting and incredibly successful first half term! The children have loved exploring their new learning environment, embracing new experiences and getting stuck into everything with such enthusiasm!

We have made fantastic progress in phonics, learning lots of new sounds and developing a real love for our reading sessions. A huge thank you for your continued support with reading at home – it really does make such a difference! It was also lovely to welcome so many of you to our live phonics sessions. I am sure you will agree that the children were absolutely fantastic and did us all proud!

We have also been working hard on developing our fine motor skills, taking part in lots of fun activities to strengthen the muscles in our hands and fingers and improve our pencil grip. The children have been busy practising writing in our areas of provision, and it has been wonderful to see some brilliant early handwriting beginning to emerge. 

Drawing Club is now in full swing, and what an adventure we have been having! We have explored a range of exciting stories, using our imaginations to bring them to life. This week, we have been completely immersed in the wonderful story of Pumpkin Soup. Our imaginations took us on a magical journey to Pumpkin Castle, following a mysterious trail past the Secret Tree, across the Wobbly Bridge and through the Mysterious Cave, encountering all sorts of magical creatures along the way! The children created some fantastic drawings and put their developing writing skills into practice by adding special secret codes to their creations. What wonderful storytellers and illustrators we are becoming!

We have certainly been a sporty bunch this half term too! The children have thoroughly enjoyed their PE sessions, embraced the mud and adventure during our OPAL playtimes, and shown fantastic enthusiasm and determination during both our handball tournament and cross-country event. I was particularly proud of how sensibly everyone walked over to the school field and how brilliantly they all joined in. Their positive attitudes, teamwork and willingness to have a go were wonderful to see!

To bring our Pumpkin Soup adventures to life, we have also been busy in the kitchen making our very own pumpkin soup! It filled the classroom with a delicious aroma, and lots of the children were keen to tuck in and give it a try!

Our pumpkin theme continued into our creative activities, where we had great fun painting and decorating pumpkins. We also learnt about the famous Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who is well known for her bold, colourful artwork and her love of pumpkins and polka dots! Inspired by her amazing creations, the children became little artists themselves, experimenting with different painting techniques and using cotton buds to create colourful dotty pumpkin masterpieces. We had so much fun getting creative, and the results were fantastic!

What an incredible first half term it has been! I am so proud of how well the children have settled, the friendships they have made and everything they have already achieved. They have approached each new experience with such excitement, curiosity and enthusiasm, and it has been a real joy to watch their confidence grow.