WELCOME

A very warm welcome to Tadley Primary School. We are looking forward to getting to know you and your child. This page is designed to offer you all the information you will need to support your child starting school with us in September.

If you have any questions or queries please email the admin team on adminoffice@tadley.hants.sch.uk.

A day in the life of a Reception child

at Tadley Primary School

This year we have two Year R classes starting with us in September 2023!

Reception is the final year of the Foundation Stage, where children work towards achieving their Early Learning Goals. 

Here at Tadley Primary, our children follow a play-based and child-led curriculum. We listen to your child’s curiosities and interests to plan our lessons. Along with having many opportunities to play, we also have more formal lessons that take place on a daily basis. Lessons include; Phonics, Reading, Writing and Maths.

Each foundation stage area is also incorporated within the areas we set up around our environment - the Discovery Room, our classrooms and our fully enclosed outdoor space.

During Reception, your child will become increasingly involved in daily school life, such as having lunch in the school hall, participating in whole-school assemblies, trips, whole school events, Sports Day and being a part of a Nativity.

A typical day in Reception:

8.40  ~ Doors open and early morning tasks

Our doors open to our children where they independently walk into school, hang their belongings on their pegs and place their books into the relevant boxes inside the classroom. The classroom will have a variety of ‘Early Morning Activities’ ready for them to choose from.

8.50 ~ Register 

During our register time we talk about the day ahead, choose what we would like to eat at lunch and complete our calendar. We discuss the days of the week, months, year and seasons. We count how many children are present and take away those who aren’t; encouraging our number skills. We share what we have been up to during our weekends and evenings, developing our speaking and listening capabilities.

9.00 ~ Phonics

Children are introduced to reading through our phonics program, Little Wandle, which helps children to link letter names to sounds. We play rhyming and listening games, alongside being introduced to key words. We teach whole-class phonics and have various phonics activities and challenges throughout our continuous provision. Children will learn four sounds a week and are blending sounds to make words by October half term.

9.30 ~ Dough Disco and fine motor activities

To help develop our children’s ability to write and handle tools with ease, we provide many opportunities to strengthen their gross and fine motor skills. We complete ‘Dough Disco’ and fine motor activities daily, which the children thoroughly enjoy!  

10.00 ~ Free flow and snack

We allow our children to ‘free flow’ between the two classrooms and the outside and indoor areas. Children will find carefully planned activities that cover all areas of the Early Years Curriculum. Activities are enhanced to challenge our children and are adapted to reflect their interests. Adults will support children’s learning in this time, take observations or lead ‘adult-led’ tasks.

11.30 ~ Maths

During our maths sessions, we focus on key counting skills, basic number knowledge and shape, space and measure. We follow the Mastering Number Program developed by the NCTEM Maths Hub. We introduce new concepts as a whole class and then provide follow-up activities within the environment and 1:1 sessions with an adult. Children will be encouraged to complete independent tasks which will be tailored to their own abilities in order to help them make good progress.

11.45 ~ Story time and singing

We finish our morning with story time and a few songs. Stories are an integral part of our curriculum and we are passionate about developing a love for reading and storytelling. Our carefully chosen texts will often lead on to further activities within our zones.

12.00 ~ Lunch time

Reception use the school hall to eat their lunch and have a slightly earlier lunch than the rest of the school. Children are supported by adults who serve food and support the children throughout their lunch time. A variety of nutritionally, well balanced meals are offered for lunch; including a meat, vegetarian, jacket potato and picnic option. Some parents also choose to send their child in with a packed lunch. The Reception children then play in our own outdoor area for the remainder of their lunch time.
 

1.00 ~ Writing

Children should only start writing when they are physically ready to. The first half term is focused on strengthening these muscles in order to support their writing ability. The children are offered plenty of writing opportunities around our environment and write for a purpose. Some examples might include writing a letter to the Forest Fairies and posting it in the post box, writing a postcard to Bear in ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’, asking him if he would like to play hide and seek with us, or simply writing our own name stickers at the beginning of term to help our class friends get to know each other. We teach grammatical concepts and skills through whole-class teaching and during 1:1 sessions.

1.30 ~ Free flow (1.30-2.45):

Children may also participate in Forest School type sessions either down at our local forest (just a short walk away) or on our school site. Sessions usually take place in the afternoons. During our sessions we get to jump in all the amazing muddy puddles, build dens, go on bug hunts, climb and explore the forest area, build shelters for our forest animals and create magical potions for our Forest Fairies!

2.45 ~ Yoga and Mindfulness

Supporting our mental wellbeing is very important to us here at Tadley Primary School. We take part in regular mindfulness activities, circle time and yoga. We learn how to manage our feelings, promote loving, healthy relationships, discuss what we are grateful for and develop our resilience and perseverance.
 

3.00 ~ Story time and reflection

At the end of the day we often reflect on what we have learnt, achieved and enjoyed during our day. We share experiences and set challenges and goals we would like to achieve the following day. We often read another story before going home.
 

3.20 ~ Home time!

The children are encouraged to independently gather their belongings ready to head home. We sing our ‘Goodbye’ song and tell each other we’re looking forward to seeing everyone and exploring again tomorrow.