Reception 2023 - 2024

EYFS (Foundation Stage 2) 2023 - 2024

Miss Thwaite

Autumn Term 2023

Hello and welcome to autumn term at St Mary of the Angels Foundation Stage 2! Here you will find everything you need to know about what your child is learning at school.

My name is Miss Thwaite and I will be your child's teacher this year. Our teaching assistants in EYFS are Mrs Christian and Ms Jones.

We are so excited to get to know your lovely children and to help them settle into school. We have lots to look forward to in our autumn term and are going to be very busy!

Religious Education

In RE this term we will begin the year by learning about the meaning of our school mission statement - Love Jesus, Love Learning, Love Life. We will also learn about 'God's World' and how God cares for each and every one of us, and 'God's Family', learning that God made all the people in the world to be part of his family and what it means to be a member of it.

Phonics and Literacy

The children will be introduced to the level 2 sounds of the Twinkl phonics programme. They will learn to recognise sounds and letter names, identify the intial sounds of words and objects and will practise letter formation. They will also learn to segment and blend CVC words, e.g. cat, dog, mum, dad, etc, and will practise recognising and reading tricky words that cannot be sounded out, e.g. 'the' and 'to'. 

We will read the books 'The Gingerbread Man' and 'The Three Little Pigs', amongst many others related to our topics, and will talk about stories and characters in order to develop a good understanding of what we have heard and read.

Mathematics

In Maths we will practise recognising, matching and comparing numbers, counting sets of objects accurately using one to one correspondence (touching each object as it is counted), and subitising (identifying how many objects are in a set without counting). We will also learn to find one more and one less than sets of objects and numbers, will add and subtract small sets of objects, and will explore size, weight, capacity and 2d and 3d shapes and patterns.

Topic Activities

Our autumn term topics will be 'Ourselves' where we will learn about our bodies, growing, the senses, favourite foods and healthy eating, homes and familes, pets, favourite toys and special events. During our 'People who help us' topic we will explore the jobs of people who help us through a range of visitors and activities and will also learn about machines and how they can help us too.

During the autumn term we will also take part in fabulous weekly Diddi Drama sessions every Monday.

Supporting your child with their learning

There are many ways in which you will be able to support your child with their learning during the year. Every Friday Google Classrooms will detail what we have been learning during the week and will contain activity ideas you can complete with your child. You will be provided with log in details in order to access this. I will also send home additional games and activities.

Your child will be provided with a phonics book which will contain the sounds they have been taught each week. Please help your child to practise recognising the sounds and their letter names regularly as this is so important for the development of their reading and writing skills. Later in the autumn term your child will bring home simple reading books. Please listen to your child read every night, talk to them about the stories and characters and write a comment in their reading record. Books will be changed by a member of staff on a regular basis.

PE Days

Our PE day is a Tuesday. Please make sure that your child comes into school in their PE kit on this day and  remove earrings if your child has their ears pierced.

Forest School Dates: Our Forest School dates for this year are as follows:

2nd November 2023

11th January 2024

7th March 2024

9th May 2024

4th July 2024

Please ensure that your child comes into school on these days dressed accordingly to the weather forecast in old clothes which you don't mind getting dirty! During the winter months it is important that children are wrapped up with multiple layers. If they are wearing an all in one they will need a coat for the afternoon along with a change of shoes. Please ensure that additional clothing your child brings in to school is clearly labelled with their name.

Open Invitation

You are always welcome to chat with me after school, or to make an appointment. Thank you for your ongoing support and we look forward to working with you and your child this year.

Miss Thwaite