Reception - Rhodes Avenue Primary School

Class Teachers: Kirsty Spittle, Myrtle Saldanha Caldeira, Stephanie Capper

Welcome

Welcome to the Reception classes at Rhodes Avenue Primary School. The Reception year is the conclusion of the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) which is the time in a child’s life between birth and age 5. There are three Reception classes at Rhodes Avenue Primary School: Kingfisher, Owl and Robin class.

Reception Teaching Team

Year Group Leader	Kirsty Spittle
Class Teachers	Myrtle Caldeira (Kingfisher)
	Stephanie Capper (Owl)
	Kirsty Spittle (Robin)
Early Years SENDCO	Kate McAulay
Nursery Nurses	Maria Ktorou
	Anna Milic
	Donna Cade

Teaching Assistants
Teaching Assistants

Curriculum / Learning

Our school values are:

We will act with cooperation because we are a community

We will use creativity to learn and grow.

We will show consideration as everyone is of equal value and importance.

We want our children to:

Know who they are.

Respect others for who they are.

Never stop learning.

Our EYFS Vision

In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) at Rhodes Avenue Primary School, our mission is to provide an enabling environment which promotes a love of life-long learning for every child attending our setting. We want to work in partnership with our parents and families so that our pupils can be happy, confident, resilient and independent learners. We strive to make sure our children feel safe, supported and nurtured at every point of their journey in the EYFS with us. The curriculum is based on the understanding that children develop rapidly during this stage of their learning – physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially. We strongly believe it is the basis on which children build the rest of their lives and it is not viewed as simply a preparation for the next stage of development. We understand our young learners are influenced by everything in their indoor and outdoor learning environments and we want to support them to use their senses to explore and make sense of the world around them. We believe children learn best through imaginative and meaningful play where they are immersed in a language rich environment with high quality interactions. We feel that this should be achieved through practitioners providing experiences that build on and extend their interests and experiences. Therefore, we strive to deliver an inspiring, ambitious and well sequenced curriculum. We have a holistic approach to learning and want it to be systematic, creative and carefully designed to reflect the interests and needs of our pupils. We celebrate the unique child and look forward to working in partnership with our families; so that all our children can thrive, feel joyful about learning, reach their full potential and transition successfully to Key Stage One.

Your child’s class teacher, or their key person (if this is not the class teacher), is your first point of contact.

Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development which form the EYFS curriculum.

Children should mostly develop in the 3 prime areas first. These are:

Communication and Language;
Physical Development;
Personal, Social and Emotional Development.

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.

As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:

Literacy;
Mathematics;
Understanding the World;
Expressive Arts and Design.

These 7 areas are used to plan your child’s learning and activities. The staff teaching and supporting your child will make sure the activities are suited to your child’s unique needs. Please click below to view the curriculum for the whole academic year.

Children learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outdoors. The curriculum is led by play, both ‘planned’ play opportunities and also by child-initiated activities. Children in Reception have access to their main classroom, the two parallel classrooms, an outdoor space and a large learning corridor called the ‘Activity Street’.

Parents/carers can track their child’s progress and experience by logging on to https://tapestryjournal.com/. Usernames and passwords are shared with parents at the beginning of the Nursery or Reception year so please remember to activate your account and log on regularly.

Guidance for the EYFS can be found in the documents below:

EYFS Statutory Framework

Development Matters (non-statutory guidance)