Reception 2025 - 2026

Welcome to Reception 2025-2026!

During the Autumn 1 Half Term, our first topic is My Fabulous Feelings and our second topic will be Exploring my senses. The two texts we will be reading as part of our ‘Talk for Writing’ approach are: ‘Owl Babies’ by Martin Waddell and ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ by Michael Rosen.

In RE, our topic for this half term (Autumn 1) is 'Creation and Covenant.' The children will also participate in a 'Celebration of the Word' each Friday focusing on the Sunday Gospel. 

More information about our EYFS curriculum can be found here St Paul's Catholic Primary School: Reception (st-pauls-hyde.tameside.sch.uk)

Reception Staff

Mr Rothwell is the class teacher and Miss Bower will teach Reception on a Monday afternoon. Miss Cocking and Miss Coverley are our teaching assistants. Mrs Elsmore is also our lunchtime organiser. 

Notices

Our class page will contain documents to support your child's learning at home, such as half-termly key instant recall facts in Maths, reading book information and phonics resources. You will find all documents and files below. Please also take a look at our reception gallery where we may post images of your childs learning. Each week I send home a 'Reception Newsletter' which contains information and pictures about all of our learning for the week as well as some pictures of the children's work.

Please can all parents ensure that their child has the correct uniform. Please can parents label each individual item of uniform, footwear and P.E kit as it is much easier to return lost items if their name is in it!

Daily snacks such as fruit and raisins, as well as milk are provided by school. Children should only be bringing healthy snacks such as fruit, breadsticks or crackers etc. Please can children bring in a water bottle with their name on everyday, this can be refilled in school if necessary. Water bottles should not contain juice. 

Please inform me before school or by ringing the school office if a different adult will be picking your child up, so that we can keep everyone safe. The school office email address is below if required.

PE

During this term we will having PE on Thursday's with the sports coach and they will need to bring their PE kits every Thursday. Jewellery, including earrings, should not be worn. 

Learning Journeys

The learning your child does in school will go into an observation on Evidence Me which will be sent home via the app or into their individual Learning Journey, along with photographs, notes, observations and weekly Focused Tasks. Any home learning or significant achievements can be recorded and sent into school and we will add them to your child’s Learning Journey. 

Homework

Some of the homework will be set on purple mash and each child will receive a log in for this. These tasks will help you see what the children are learning in school as well as allowing you to support them at home and build their confidence in developing new skills. Some homework will be detailed in our weekly reception newsletter although it will not be set weekly. Please make sure you are reading with your child regularly, at least a few times a week, including your 'read with me' and 'I can read' books.

Reading Books

There has been a slight change to how we operate reading books this year. Previously, we used to hand out 2 reading books: a ‘read with me’ and an ‘I can read book.’ This year, we will only hand out the decodable phonics ‘I can read books.’ However, these will only be changed on a Monday or Thursday rather than previously being changed once read. The reading books will have a number on the back e.g., 2.1a, 2.1b, 2.2a etc. These reading books will contain words that your child has been taught previously in their phonics sessions. Your child should try to read this book independently, but you are more than welcome to help your child sound out words. Please try to read as often as possible - every little helps! Parents are welcome to record comments in your child’s reading record when they have read their book. The books are only changed twice weekly so the children should be re-reading the book several times before returning it.

Class Fund

We welcome all donations to our Reception class fund every week, with a suggested donation of £1. This is purely an optional donation, If you wish to donate termly, that is fine too! Our fund pays for lots of little extras to enhance your child's learning, such as a choice of snacks, ingredients for cooking and any additional learning resources for our classroom. Thank you all for donating to this, it is really appreciated by staff.

How to contact us

If you do have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask a member of staff. I will be on the gate every day before and after school. You are more than welcome to arrange an appointment with me if required. Alternatively, please ring or email the school office email address admin@st-pauls-hyde.tameside.sch.uk where a member of staff will respond during school hours. Thank you for your support.

Kind Regards,

Mr Rothwell.