Welcome to Reception

Hello and welcome to Reception. We look forward to working in partnership with you throughout the year and value the important role you play in your child’s learning.

In Reception children learn best from a curriculum that offers practical play-based learning opportunities, where children are encouraged to investigate, explore, experiment, ask questions and be imaginative and creative.

We recognise the uniqueness of each child and value every child’s interests.  We aim to deliver learning through a combination of adult led and child initiated play, based on prior experiences and interests of the children. We teach children how to make considered choices in their learning and most importantly, the skills needed to be independent, lifelong learners. We value autonomous learning, so that the children reach their full potential while at the same time setting high attainment targets and making behavioural expectations clear and consistent.  By the end of the year, children should be able to listen attentively, express themselves well and have resilience in the face of a challenge.

How you can help at home?

Encourage your child to be independent in things like getting themselves dressed, putting on their coat, eating with a knife and fork or organising themselves before leaving the house.

Please read with your child every day. Your child will bring home a weekly phonic book in their book bag. Please record any reading at home in your child’s reading record. Please get your child to practise reading and writing the sounds of the week, high-frequency words and tricky words that are sent out in our weekly home learner.

 At Hillbrook, we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme.  If you would like to learn more about how we teach phonics please visit the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised website. Here you can find lots of resources to support your child.

Encourage your child to practise writing in purposeful ways, such as writing a shopping list or a letter, writing diaries over the holidays, writing a birthday card or party invite.

Please keep us updated on ‘Evidence Me’ about your learning at home. We love to see photos of what you have been up to and hear about fantastic experiences. We really enjoy seeing you comment on what your child has been learning at school.

Transition to year 1

At Hillbrook we work closely with the Year 1 team in the Summer term to get our children ready for the big move into Year 1.  Whilst Year 1 is not part of the Early Years curriculum, it is delivered using an integrated day which draws on elements of the Early Years curriculum. It is designed to produce active, engaged, learning behaviour for all pupils. A range of activities are seen across the classrooms with children taking ownership of their learning. The environment is initially set up to reflect the Reception classroom with a range of learning choices for the children to access.

Click here for our welcome presentation.

Click here for our Reception booklet, where you can find useful information about your child starting Reception at Hillbrook.