First Term at ‘Big School’

The children in Reception have now nearly completed their first term in ‘Big School’ and it has been a delight to see them settle so quickly to the new routines and challenges of being a Reception child. Many children join Reception from our Nursery and have some good friendships formed already, and it is such a pleasure to welcome some new faces to Heywood Prep each year from other local nurseries. The first topic for Reception in these early weeks is Percy the Park Keeper; through which the children’s learning focus is upon developing friendships (just like Percy and his animal friends) and working as part of a team. Quickly, the children learn to encourage their friends to join in with them and share their learning; taking great pleasure from not only their own, but others’ achievements too.

It never fails to amaze us how quickly each child’s confidence grows and with daily phonics lessons involving interactive and fun games every child is taking a book home to read to their parents by week 3. With the children learning creatively and through play; hunting for words with metal detectors, making shape pizza with playdough and exploring the natural world at Forest School, children in Reception are engaged with their learning and become curious to find out more. No question is too small, it is just great to be communicating!

At the end of the Autumn Term Reception lead the Early Years Nativity performance, accompanied by Nursery. They are able to showcase just how far they have come by confidently performing the Christmas story, singing and dancing together on the stage- such a fantastic achievement (and still 2 terms learning and progress to go!)

As Development Matters tells us “Children are born ready, able and eager to learn. They actively reach out to interact with other people, and in the world around them. Development is not an automatic process, however. It depends on each unique child having opportunities to interact in positive relationships and enabling environments.” At Heywood Prep, we place our focus on providing the opportunities for our Reception children to do exactly this!

Miss Amy Vernon

Reception Class Teacher and Head of RE