A warm welcome to Reception at Bloxwich Academy.

Reception is such an exciting year for children as for many it will be their first year in full time education, filled with many exciting experiences and memories for them to share with you at home. As we welcome your little ones into our classroom, we teach the children how to use the resources in our setting and set boundaries, so the children are aware of the golden rules in our classroom. The children become aware of their timetable and begin to understand the expectations within school.

During the autumn term Reception will be introduced to our first topic; ‘Me and My Community’ which helps the children to understand the new rules and routines of school. The topic is designed to build the children’s confidence, to motivate them to work hard and make new friends. It also teaches children how they are special and unique and how the people who are important to them can help them. The children will also be ‘Exploring Autumn’ and learning about the changes we experience during the autumn and winter months. We will discuss changes in weather, the nature around us and how animals prepare for the winter months.

After half term the children will continue their learning on ‘Exploring Autumn,’ as more seasonal changes continue to take place. The children will go on an autumn walk around our school outdoor area. The children will also begin our ‘Sparkle and Shine’ topic. This topic teaches children all about the celebrations that different people take part in during the Autumn and Winter months, with a focus on the celebration of light. This gives the children great opportunities to get creative and make beautiful decorations. During this half term we will be very busy planning, preparing and performing our Christmas nativity play.

After Christmas the children will be learning all about ‘Starry Nights’ and the importance of a good night sleep! We will be learning all about nocturnal animals and what they get up to at night. Our second topic is ‘Winter Wonderland,’ this teaches the children all about the changes we experience in winter and the places in the world that experience cold weather all year around.

Following on from this learning we will begin our “Dangerous Dinosaurs’ topic. We aim to foster many children’s keen interest in dinosaurs, teaching the children about the animals that roamed the earth millions of years ago. The topic ‘Puddles and Rainbows’ will also engage the children through the exploration weather in spring and rainbows, something that children are naturally fascinated by.

We will begin the summer term with our ‘Sunshine and Sunflowers’ topic. As part of this learning, we explore growing, planting our own sunflower seeds and observing what happens to them over time. The children will understand the conditions a seed needs to grow. We will become garden explorers, hunting for minibeasts in our outdoor area. To support this learning, we will take a visit to a local farm to explore growing in an alternative environment.

During our last half term in reception, we will begin our ‘Big Wide World’ topic. The children will develop an awareness of other countries around the world. As part of this topic the children will begin to develop an understanding of the lives children in other countries experience. As the children prepare for their transition into year 1, we will begin our ‘Moving On’ topic. This topic will allow the children to transition into their new class more smoothly. The children will be given the opportunity to explore their new classroom, meet their new teacher and overcome any concerns or worries they might have.

Our focus texts this year:

Autumn 1- The Little Red Hen

Autumn 2- Stickman

Spring 1- The Gruffalo’s Child

Spring 2- The Dirty Great Dinosaur

Summer 1- Jack and the Beanstalk

Summer 2- We’re Going on a Lion Hunt

All of the topics that we have chosen will hopefully awaken the children’s curiosity and instil a love of learning that will be fostered as they move through their years at Bloxwich Academy. With so much to learn, we look forward to the coming months with our little superstars!