Miss Gettings is very pleased to welcome your child into Reception and looks forward to supporting them as they begin their school journey.

This half term, our Reception children are exploring the theme “Celebrating Our World.” We’ll be finding out about special occasions and traditions from around the globe and thinking about what makes celebrations meaningful to us.

In Phonics, the children will continue to build confidence with their Phase 2 sounds and begin to learn new Phase 3 sounds such as ch, sh, th, ng, and qu. They’ll use these to blend and segment words like cat, ship, and ring. Reading books will be coming home this half term, please enjoy sharing them together!

Through our stories in Literacy — So Much by Trish Cooke, Kipper’s Birthday by Mick Inkpen, and The Most Exciting Eid by Zeba Talkhani — we’ll be talking and writing about special people, family traditions, and the ways we celebrate. Families are encouraged to chat at home about your own celebrations, whether it’s Eid, Christmas, Chinese New Year, Diwali, or another special event.

In Maths, we’ll be focusing on numbers 1 to 5, recognising them, saying how many we see without counting (subitising), and finding one more or one less. We’ll also explore 2D shapes, with a special look at rectangles and triangles, and hunt for these shapes in our classroom and outdoor spaces.

Our topic work will help us understand how people celebrate in different ways. The children will think about events that are important to them, such as birthdays, weddings, Diwali, Christmas, and Eid. They’ll enjoy experimenting with light, colour, and pattern as they create artwork inspired by these celebrations.