Reception
Your children start their education at Falcons Primary with us in their Reception year. In Reception we strive to develop active, independent learners who question and care for the world around them.
We have two Reception classes. Each class is led by a teacher and supported by a teaching assistant. The classes have separate areas for carpet times such as register, phonics, storytime and maths but then share an open-plan classroom and outdoor classroom/playground. The Reception Team are lead by Ms Southward.
Our Reception Curriculum
We believe that our children learn best through a fun, play-based approach to learning both indoors and outdoors and we plan and develop exciting and stimulating activities and opportunities to achieve this.
You can find out more about our approach to learning her in our Reception Intent, Impact and Implementation statement here: Reception Intent, Implementation and Impact statement
You can find out more about the our curriculum in Reception here: Our Reception Curriculum
You can see example topic overviews below:
Children are assessed at the end of Reception to see whether they have achieved their GLD (Good Level of Development), this is assessed across 12 areas of learning against the Early Learning Goals. Our results have always matched or most frequently exceeded the average Leicester outcomes.
One of the ways we share your children’s learning is via Class DoJo. We send out ongoing photos and updates about our activities in class. On Friday's we sent a 'This week in Reception' post all about our learning and with lots of photos. Ms Southward also sends phonics videos explaining how to read and write our sounds.
Our Indoor Classroom
We are situated in George Hine House, a listed building, with attached playground. The classroom is a series of rooms which create an open-plan learning environment. The classes have separate areas for carpet time but then share an open-plan reception classroom and outdoor classroom. We are continually re-developing our space to meet the current learning needs of the children however we always have key areas such as a creative area for art and design, malleable area for materials such as playdough, a construction area, reading area, independent maths and literacy areas and much more. We also have two role play areas: a home corner and an additional area based on children’s interests or topical relevance. Our second role play has been: shops, doctors, a vets, a café, a baby clinic, an ice cream parlour, a castle, a dinosaur dig and much more!
In addition to our independent access maths and literacy areas we encourage maths and literacy throughout the classroom in all areas offering different opportunities for the children to develop and highlight their skills across the classroom and curriculum.
We also have a block of toilets specifically for use by the Reception children.
Our Outdoor Classroom
Outside we have our own playground, our ‘outdoor classroom’. All of the children usually spend at least a part of each day outdoors, it’s why we have welly boots as part of the Reception uniform! Like our indoor classroom this area is in constant development but offers the children the opportunity to be active, artistic, mathematical, messier and more on a bigger scale! This year we are also further developing our gardening skills: we have planted trees and are beginning to plant flowers and vegetables. We have also created a new texture kitchen which the children are really enjoying.
In addition to our outdoor classroom this year our school has seen the beginning of our wildlife garden at the front of the school. This area offers the children the chance to explore nature with trees and bushes, grassed areas, a planted bulb labyrinth, living willow tunnel, bird watching area, bug hotels, planting areas, log circle and more. We have even had a securely fenced area created where we have dug a pond. We look forward to incorporating this area into our learning throughout the year.
You can also get an insight into a school day at Falcons with Phonics Fred:
Read the full Fred book below:
