Life in Reception

Reception

At Valley Road we understand how important the Reception Year is in building a solid foundation for your child’s education. We follow the Foundation Stage Curriculum, which allows the children both structured, adult led time and time to learn through child led play and exploration. The curriculum is split into seven areas of learning and development. These areas include Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Physical Development, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. The areas of learning are delivered by setting up appropriate provision both inside the classroom and outdoors. We cover topics such as celebrations, family, life cycles, people who help us and seasons every year. At other times we follow the children’s interests and current learning experiences when planning, as these interests can often lead to the most powerful learning.

We have a literature rich curriculum, choosing a focus book every week in addition to our core curriculum books and our ‘Red Ted’ initiative, which focuses on reading for pleasure. We have daily phonics lessons and daily guided reading sessions to ensure your child has access to a wide range of books and opportunities to read and be read to. Through our computer based ‘Phonics Bug’ scheme you will also have access to age appropriate readers individual to your child at home.