Welcome to our Reception Provision
At Greenfields we are very lucky to have a vast open provision. Our children enjoy learning both indoors and outdoors through our free flow provision enabling our children to become the explorers of their own learning.
Our teacher in Reception is Miss Love and our teaching assistants are Miss Melrose and Miss Gillespie.
The children take part in ‘plan, do, review’. This process is used throughout our Early Years and by Reception this helps ensure play becomes more purposeful and focused. Allowing the children the chance to review their learning, ensures we help the children take pride in their achievements, raising their self confidence, self esteem and in turn their self belief by providing the time to talk in a small group and acknowledge what they have done, providing continuous positive reinforcement.
Reading in Reception
We also encourage our children to read throughout our provision inside and outside, during their child initiated time. All staff at Greenfields recognise the importance of reading and we use every opportunity to read and enjoy stories, poems and non- fiction texts with the children. We want all of our children to learn to read so that they can read to learn.
We have developed a reading spine with books that we want your children to enjoy, learn and retell as they move through our school. Alongside our reading spine we also plan a varied list of story books to share during a daily story time. Each half term we ensure we are exposing the children to a Classic text, a Rhyming/repeated refrain story, a wellbeing/growth mindset book, a diverse book, a poem/nursery rhyme and a traditional tale.
We continue the use of the Over and Over approach used in Pre-school and nursery, as an intervention for a small group of children to close the gap between children who readily engage with stories and those who do not. Repeated reading of high quality texts and stories is extremely important in building early reading
skills. Knowing books well secures vocabulary and builds story language. “Familiar books provide children with repeated opportunities to pull together information from language, the meaning of the story and the print” (Clay, 2016, p111).”
Phonics and Writing
At Greenfields we recognise the importance of developing early reading skills. We teach the children using Read Write Inc in a daily phonics session. Our youngest children have daily immersion in phase 1 to develop core pre-reading skills. This allows the children when they begin learning sounds to work through each sound systematically and at pace.
Phonics teaches the children to read accurately, fluently and develop good comprehension skills.
In Reception, reading books are sent home weekly, and these match the children’s phonetic knowledge, allowing them to apply skills of decoding and blending as they become more confident in their reading.
Outdoor Learning
Within our extensive grounds at Greenfields, we have our very own Forest. Not only do all our children from Early Years to Year 6, have one afternoon per week, throughout the school, of dedicated time for outdoor learning, they also have access to a block of sessions at Forest School, led by a trained professional.
The philosophy of Forest Schools is to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through an innovative, long term, educational approach to outdoor play and learning in a woodland environment. Our children learn real life skills such as how to manage risk, problem solve and collaborate with others whilst taking apart in a range of activities including; using tools, climbing trees, cooking on a campfire and building dens.
Trips and Celebrations of Learning
Linking with our values, all our children experience four visitors or trips each year. Our visits and are carefully planned to ensure our children see the very best our local area has to offer and our visitors into school provide high quality teaching of specific skills and knowledge. When we are able to take the children on trips in line with government regulations, parents are always welcome to join us.
Each term we invite parents and carers into school as we hold a celebration of the children’s learning. We really value the role parents and carers play in their children’s education and we want to showcase your child’s learning with you. This is a fun occasion to become immersed in our learning and take part in a range of opportunities alongside your child.
Community Links
It is important to us that your child has a sense of belonging within their local area. We have been working hard to develop strong links within our local community to give your children a sense of pride.
We want our children to be proud of where they come from and as they grow into our next generation, understand that with change comes effects, with rights comes responsibility and that the world is waiting for them.
Communication With Parents and Carers
Your child will get up to some truly amazing things, each and every day they attend Reception. Don’t just take our word for it.
As part of our school/home communication with parents we use Seesaw.
Seesaw is an app which allows parents/ carers to see photos and videos of their children. It allows our teachers to share your child’s learning and development on a personal level and share real WOW moments during the day.
You can also visit the Reception Twitter page: @GCPSReception