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Welcome to Reception

Hello everyone and welcome to Sandbach Primary Academy Reception class. We are so excited to work with you and your children and get to know all about you and your family. The Reception team are;  

Ms Cobb - I have worked in education for almost 25 years and as Vice Pincipal and Early Years Lead at Sandbach Primary Academy since 2021. I am excited to be back with Reception this year in our very own classroom!

Miss Fletcher - This is my 6th year of being a teacher at Sandbach Primary Academy and I am so excited to be teaching in Reception for part of the week! 

Miss Shatwell - This is my third year at Sandbach Primary Academy and the second year of my Primary Teaching Degree. I am so excited to be part of the Reception team!

Miss Holdbrook - This is my third year at Sandbach Primary Academy. I have previously worked across the year groups and am really excited for my first year in Reception! I enjoy working in the outdoors and am excited for our first 'Welly' walk!

Miss Wakefield - This is my sixth year at Sandbach Primary Academy, I have worked across all year groups in the school with a focus on speech and language development. I am excited to be back with Reception this year.

Miss Vernon - I am passionate about my role at Sandbach Primary Academy and ensuring all children achieve their goals and dreams. I love any kinds of arts and crafts and you will often find me hiding in the forest!

Autumn term  

We are so excited to begin our learning in Reception. Our first topic is 'All About Me!'

We are excited to hear all about, 'Who lives in our homes?' and find out about how are families are the same and different in so many ways! We will also learn about 'New Beginnings', starting off with the feelings and emotions of starting school and meeting our new friends in our new classroom. This will be a big change for some children and we will be ready with lots of stories and activities that will help the children to feel happy and safe at this time. We will share a variety of books including our main text 'The Colour Monsters'. During this term, we will also look at who are 'Superhero Helpers' are at school and in the community, how to keep our bodies healthy and safe and how our actions make other people feel. 

In week 2, we will begin our Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics programme, starting of with the graphemes s, a, t, p, i and n. Please look out on our 'This week in the classroom' area on our Reception page. This will be updated every Wednesday with the phonemes, mnemonics (rhymes) and letter formations that we have learnt that week with resources to support the children at home. There are further information and resources here to help support your child at home. On a Monday, the children will have the opportunity to change their 'Reading for Pleasure' book (a book to share together with your child) and decodable 'Big Cat' book (a book that your child will be able to read to you). Please ensure your child has their book bags with their reading books and reading records every Monday so that we can celebrate our home readers!

During our Mastering Number sessions, we will build on previous experiences of number from their home and nursery environments, and further develop their subitising (recognising 'how many' there are in small amounts without counting) and counting skills. They will explore the composition of numbers within 5 (spot smaller numbers ‘hiding’ inside larger numbers) and begin to compare sets of objects and use the language of comparison. Children will develop counting skills and knowledge, including: that the last number in the count tells us ‘how many’; to be accurate in counting, each thing must be counted once and once only and in any order; understanding that anything can be counted, including actions and sounds.

We will make the most of the last of the summer weather as much as possible - please apply sun cream before school on hot days and send sun cream into school in a named bottle which staff will apply during lunchtime or when needed. Please also send a sunhat and a water bottle so we can safely continue our learning outdoors. On the days when the weather is cold, wet or frosty, please send your child with a warm coat, hat and gloves. It would be really helpful if your child could have a pair of boots or Wellingtons left in school for wet, snowy days or when we do our field 'welly' walks. This will help keep our school shoes from getting wet and muddy! It would also be really useful for your child to have a full set of spare clothes including pants and socks at school, these can be left in a small bag on your child's peg. PE will be on Monday, on this day, your child is asked to come into school in their 'Fit Kit' (purple polo shirt, plain black shorts or plain navy joggers, school fleece, pumps or trainers).

We hope you and your child are all as excited as we are for the start of the Autumn term. If you have any questions, Ms Cobb or Miss Fetcher will be at the door every morning from 8:40am to welcome the children as well as at the end of the day to say goodbye at 3:15pm.  

General Reminders

• Drop off and pick up; your child will enter through the Reception class door on their own, they will hang up their belongings onto their individual peg and then go into class to begin their morning activity. Children's lunch bags and spare clothes will be stored outside of the classrooms and their daily coats, hats and boots will be stored inside the classroom so the children can access them independently. We kindly ask for adults not to come through the classroom doors as we encourage children to be independent and come inside without their adult. At home time, Miss Cobb or Miss Fletcher will dismiss children one at a time to their parent or carer. If there is a change to which adult will be collecting your child, you must inform the school office.
• Please read with your child at home as often as possible, we celebrate children who have read 4 times a week at home - or more! This is a great time to bond with your child and create a love for books and reading.
• PE will be every Monday with our sports coach, so please ensure children come to school in their 'Fit Kit' on that day.
• We encourage all children to bring in their own refillable water bottles from home which they can access and refill throughout the day - please only fill these bottles with water.
• All children will receive free snack each day. This will consist of fresh fruit, milk and water. In addition, children can purchase school hot snack which is priced at 20p - 30p per day. Please click here for more information relating to our healty snack policy. Money can be sent into school termly, weekly or daily however it is easier to send this in termly or weekly and we will inform you when your child's balance becomes low. A gluten free option is available.
• READING - your child will come home on a Monday with a 'Reading for Pleasure' book to share together at home. This is book for you to read and share with your child at those special times. They choose books from our classroom or school library which interests or excites them. We hope you enjoy this special time together. They will also bring home a decodable 'Big Cat' reading book. This book will match the graphemes and tricky words that we have learnt in group reading and phonics and as the term progresses, the children will start to independently blend the graphemes together to read words like sat, pin, sit, pan and spot the tricky words that they recognise like is, I, the.