Welcome to Reception

We are excited to be working with your child as they begin their learning journey with us.  

At Courthill Infant School we deliver an exciting and enriching curriculum that inspires them to be lifelong learners. Our aim is to ensure that your child gets the best out of these early stages in their school life. On this page you will find general information about Reception but also ways you can help at home. At the bottom of the page you will find learning updates and topic webs explaining what your child will be doing every half term. 

We understand that you may have questions regarding your child’s learning.  If your question is not covered in the page below, please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher or email the office at office@courthill.coastalpartnership.co.uk.  

During their time in Reception, every child will be given the opportunity to ‘Believe, Achieve and Shine’.

P.E day (Tuesday or Wednesday) and Fun Fit Friday (Friday)  

On your child’s PE day they will need to come to school wearing their PE kit. Please see your P.E day below: 

Dragonflies and Ladybirds - Tuesday 

Bees and Butterflies - Wednesday 

Every Friday your child will come to school wearing their own sports clothes. Throughout the day there are increased opportunities for children to be active, both within and outside the classroom. As a result of our learning ethos, children go on to thrive emotionally, academically and socially.   

Typical Day in Reception - Summer Term 

8.35 – 8.45	Arrive at school and complete morning jobs
8.45 – 8.55	Registration (language development around the date and weather)
8.55 – 9.10	English Input
9.10 – 9.30	Phonics
9.30 – 10.15	Curiosity Time (Teacher directed task for 15 minutes then child initiated learning- staff observing and working with individuals and/or small groups of children)
10.15 -10.30	Maths Input
10.30 - 11.15	Curiosity Time (Teacher directed task for 15 minutes then child initiated learning- staff observing and working with individuals and/or small groups of children)
11.15 - 11.30	Getting ready for lunch (washing hands)
11.30 - 12.30	Lunch
12.30 - 12.40	Phonics
12.40 - 12.45	Movement Break (Yoga Bugs, Gonoodle or Stormbreak)
12.45 - 1.00	Handwriting
1.00 - 1.15	Drawing Club or Foundation Subject Topic input (e.g. R.E, PSHE, Courthill Values)
1.15 - 2.15	Discovery Detectives - Directed Child Initiated focusing on vocabulary development, social skills and emotional understanding.
2.15 - 2.30	Tidy and get ready for playtime (independence skills focus - coats)
2.30 - 2.45	Playtime with fruit and milk
2.45 - 3.00	Snuggle Read - get ready for home time
3.05	End of the day - home time

Reception attends whole school singing assembly every Wednesday and Golden Assembly every Friday. 

Summer 1 Topic Web - Everyday Heroes

 

 

Home Learning Grid

• Summer 2 Home Learning Grid

Must Reads 

At Courthill, we have a selection of books named our ‘Must Reads’. These are books that have been carefully considered and chosen by teaching staff and they are the books that we ensure children are exposed to and enjoy during their time at Courthill. These high-quality texts have been selected to reflect the wonderfully diverse community we have at our school, as well as take the children on a varied reading journey.  

Our list of ‘Must Reads’ have been split into each year group to ensure a progressive reading curriculum. Below you will see the books selected for Reception. By the end of Reception, all of the children will have heard and enjoyed these books in class, but they may wish to add them to their own collection at home.  Re-reading and discussing favourite books is a highly valuable part of the reading experience and something that can also be enjoyed as a family.  Happy reading! 

How can I help my child at home?

Phonics

How to pronounce pure sounds - Oxford Owl

Learn how to pronounce all 44 phonics sounds, or phonemes, used in the English language with these helpful examples from Suzy Ditchburn and her daughter.

Phonics: How to blend sounds to read words | Oxford Owl

Suzy Ditchburn explains how letter sounds can be blended to read words, and gives tips on how to practise phonics with your child.

Maths Number Formation

• number-formation-rhyme-cards

Department for Education (Dfe) support for parents

 

• What to expect from Early Years.pdf
• Early Years Foundation Stage profile 2023 handbook.pdf
• EYFS Early Learning Goals parent hand out.pdf

• NHS Learning to Talk

Reception Baseline Assessment

• 2024 Information for parents reception baseline assessment.pdf

 

 

 

 

Reception Updates 2024 - 2025

Summer 1 - Everyday Heroes

This half term, the children have thoroughly enjoyed our ‘Everyday Heroes’ topic. We’ve been learning all about the emergency services and the many ways they help us. A particular highlight was a visit from two police officers, who brought along their police car for the children to explore — an experience they won’t soon forget!
We were also fortunate to welcome a range of other visitors, including psychologists, mechanics, and wildlife conservationists. It has been inspiring for the children to learn about such a wide variety of important jobs, and we’d like to say a big thank you to all the adults who were able to join us and share their expertise.
The children continue to make us proud with their enthusiasm for learning. They’ve been working hard to write sentences independently, read many of their common exception words by sight, and demonstrate their understanding of numbers using a range of different representations. 

Spring 2 - Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots

The children have immersed themselves in our ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’ topic this half term. We began by learning about the different signs of spring and the children enjoyed going on a walk through the woodland area looking for signs of the new season. They commented on the differences between winter and spring within the environment, resulting in some brilliant independent writing about the different changes they saw. The children have also enjoyed reading the stories of ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’, ‘The Gigantic Turnip’ and ‘What the Ladybird Heard’. They have engrossed themselves within each story learning about story settings, characters and questioning the similarities and differences to the world around them.

There was further excitement when the children gained five new ‘hairy’ members in their classes: caterpillars! We have enjoyed watching the life cycle of the caterpillars and they have all been very responsible looking after them.

Thank you to all the parents who attended our spring themed Fab Finish, we had a fantastic time listening to stories, designing our own imaginative flowers and exploring the spring activities available. Seeing the smiles on the faces of the children was a lovely way to end our half term.

Road Safety

The children received a visit from BCP Council, who came to talk to them about how to stay safe while walking on the pavement and crossing the road. They practised walking along a pretend street, pressing the button at a crossing, and waiting for the light to turn green. Everyone learnt the key safety message: “Stop, Look, Listen, Think.”

 

Spring 1 - Once Upon a Time

Our ‘Once Upon a Time’ topic is unfortunately drawing to a close and what adventures we have had! Each week the children have arrived to a find a different fairy tale character visiting their classroom leaving clues linked to their story. This has helped capture the children’s imagination and support their learning. We have had the sounds of goats bleating, Chinese dragon dancing, wolves howling, scattered straw, escaping gingerbread men with CCTV evidence and most recently a missing chair and a very rude letter. These inspirations have resulted in fantastic role play and independent writing to go on display. The level of independence and what the children are producing has increased significantly. The children love to look back at what they were doing in September and compare it to what they can do now, seeing what a huge journey they have been on. The children have also loved making and trying a variety of foods linked to each themed week. This has included jam sandwiches, porridge, gingerbread men and even a Chinese banquet!

 

Chinese New Year 

The children loved learning about Chinese New Year. They tried yummy food and practised the traditional dragon dance!

 

Autumn 2 - Let's Celebrate 

This half term, Reception have been learning about different types of celebrations. We have found out how people celebrate birthdays, weddings, Diwali, Hanukkah and we are currently learning about Christmas. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this topic and have been full of curiosity, showing great interest in the stories and customs. Last week, we celebrated the end of our ‘Let’s Celebrate’ topic by inviting families back to school to search for hidden letters by torchlight. The children were delighted to find all the letters, collect their prize and even ate an evening snack in the hall. Thank you very much to everyone who came, we were able to make over £200, which will be spent on new resources for the children. 
 
This week has brought mischief and mayhem to the Reception base, courtesy of the cheeky elves. They have been very mischievous by hiding in a Christmas tree and turning over all of our classroom chairs! We are also very proud of all our children for taking part in their first Christmas Singing assembly. They performed beautifully and worked very hard to remember all the actions to our Nativity story. 

 

Autumn 1 - Magical Me

This half term, the children have been thinking about routines, friendships and understanding their emotions. We have loved talking about our family photos in class, even learning about families in Kenya linking to our story ‘Handa’s Surprise’. We talked about food the children liked and disliked, and we went on to taste fruit from Handa’s basket (the mango was a particular favourite!).

The children also had a lovely surprise when their previous nursery key workers came into school to see how well the children had settled. It was delightful to see the children’s excitement and enthusiasm when they gave personalised tours of the Reception base, pointing out what they have been doing in their new school (please see the pictures below). 

This week we have been learning about pets and have loved meeting lots of new animals in class. We have been very lucky to learn about dogs, cats, hamsters and guinea pigs! Some of you may have already met our new class pets (cuddly toys) who will be spending time in each child’s home - we cannot wait to find out what they get up to!

 

Nursery Stay and Play

On Thursday 10th October 2024 the Key workers from our local nurseries were invited to a ‘stay and play’ session at Courthill. We feel the children have settled in to school life beautifully and we wanted to celebrate that with the people who they began their childcare journey with. The children were very excited to show their old Key Workers where they hang their coats, play with their toys and enjoyed talking them through their new daily routines. It was wonderful to see the children confidently giving tours of the Reception base and showing a sense of pride of their surroundings.