Welcome to Reception and to St. Christopher’s
Catholic Primary Academy,
For parents who don’t know me, my name is Miss Lister and I will
be teaching Reception in September. I have been working in
education for nearly fifteen years now and even attended St.
Christopher’s myself many moons ago!
I love outdoor learning, sensory play and teaching phonics and RE
and I hope that your child has a wonderful first year at St.
Christopher’s.
The Reception Journey
The Reception journey is a big one as within just one academic
year your child will have the opportunity to learn how to read and
write, develop language and social skills, grow in physical strength
and resilience and of course independence.
Reception is the last year of the ‘EYFS’. EYFS stands for Early Years
Foundation Stage and the EYFS begins from the age of 0 until the end
of Reception. At the end of Reception, your child will move into Year One
and will begin learning under the National Curriculum but for now in
Reception your child will learn under seven Areas of Learning:
1. Communication and Language
2. Personal, Social and Emotional Development
3. Physical Development
4. Literacy
5. Mathematics
6. Understanding the World
7. Expressive Arts and Design
A lot of our planning will be based around what we observe your child
doing in school. We may notice a new skill that your child has acquired
and pop that into our planning or notice that your child has a
particular interest. Your child will be at the centre of our learning and
of course, the power of play. Play is learning and learning is play.
Attached is some information about Reception. There is a lot to take in!
However, don’t worry. We are here to assist and I always find it
amazing how quickly little children can settle into new routines,
expectations and environments.
Top tips and useful information 🙂
Coming to school
When you arrive at school, please encourage your child to say goodbye at the red
Reception gate as we do not have space in the cloakroom for multiple adults plus the
children.
At home time, parents/carers come onto the school playground and your child will be
dismissed out of the Reception gate one at a time. Please do not call to your child to
come to you; Reception staff will dismiss safely one at a time.
Staff will be asking for a list of adults who you give consent to collect your child
before the first day. Please include mothers/fathers/carers on this list as well as any
other adults who you give consent to collecting your child such as grandparents,
childminders etc. Please bear with us for the first few weeks as dismissing the
children at first may take a while as we learn the many, many new faces! Thank you
in advance for your support with this!
If your child is being collected by someone who is not on your designated adult
list, please inform the school office in advance as we will never hand a child over
to someone who we have not been told about by yourselves.
Book Bags and other belongings
Please make sure your child brings his/her book bag to school every day. We use the
bags to send home reading books, letters and other important information as well as
paintings and drawings that your child does at school. Please check the book bag
every day.
We do not encourage children to bring toys or books from home in their book bag
unless specifically requested, as these can easily get lost.
Please bring a water bottle to school each day. This must be filled with water only.
Please also bring to school on your first day a bag with spare clothes. Even though
your child is toilet trained, accidents can happen and these accidents can include
slipping over in the mud or accidentally spilling something on themselves. These
spare clothes do not need to be school uniform.
Please do not buy your child a rucksack. We do not have room on the pegs so a book
bag is perfect thank you.
TOP TIP: Attach a big, colourful keyring to your child’s bookbag. That way they can
find it quickly amongst the sea of identical navy-blue book bags!
Reading
Your child will bring home word cards/books home each week. Please read these at
home with your child. Your child will also have a reading diary which needs to be
signed each time you read with your child. 10 minutes a day is all that is needed and
the more you read with your child, the more progress your child will make. We will
be hosting a phonics meeting, early in the new term, to help parents/carers and if
you ever need to support with home reading, please do not hesitate in speaking to me
at school.
TOP TIP: Over the holiday, why not talk to your child about their name card? Can
they identify any of the letters in their name? Can they spot any letters in
shops/road signs etc. You could hide plastic letters/post its with letters/short words
around the house to practise reading.
Religious Education
As a Catholic school, our faith and Catholic values play an important part in
our day to day life at St. Christopher’s. We will say prayers during the day,
take part in RE lessons and will attend masses at St. Christopher’s Church.
You are very welcome to join us at school masses.
Uniform and Labelling Clothes
Please do not send your child in with laced/buckled shoes if they cannot tie them
up by themselves.
Children should not wear jewellery to school and hair which is longer than shoulder
length must be tied back. This applies every day, although is particularly important
on PE days (see below).
Please make sure your child’s clothes are clearly labelled, especially
jumpers/cardigans, coats and shoes. Please could you also make sure book bags and
water bottles are clearly labelled too.
TOP TIP: Over the summer, help your child to practise recognising their name. We
will send your child off to fetch their bottle, bag etc and if they cannot recognise
their own name this may mean they become worried. By practising over the summer
will mean that your child comes ready for their new challenges!
TOP TIP: Buying your child a school jumper that is a size-too-big can be a good idea
as this means it is easier for your child to take their jumper on and off by
themselves. Please make sure that your practise over the summer taking your
jumpers on and off by yourself 😊
PE
Our PE uniform is: navy/blue shorts or plain dark blue jogging trousers (depending
on the weather), a white T-shirt, school jumper/cardigan, trainers (without laces
please). Please adhere to the school uniform guidelines for PE – no other T-shirts /
sweatshirts / football kits are allowed.
The children should wear their PE kit on their PE days. However, please ensure that
your child continues to practise getting changed by themselves at home as we
will eventually start asking your child to come into school in their normal uniform
and then change themselves into their PE kit.
Outdoor Play
We have a lovely outdoor learning area which we will be using as much as possible,
so please send your child with a suitable coat for playing outside every day,
especially as the weather becomes cooler. Please help your child learn to put on and
take off their own coat, including zips.
There is a fabulous saying: There is no such thing as poor weather, just poor clothing!
Mealtimes:
You do not need to send your child in with a morning snack. We have fresh fruit
every morning and milk.
For school lunches, all Reception, Y1 and Y2 children are entitled to free school meals.
Please take advantage of this 😊
TOP TIP: Over the summer, practise carrying items on a little tray as the school
dinners are on trays and the children will carry their trays themselves to their table.
Please also practise using cutlery as we encourage the children to be as independent
as possible at lunchtimes.
If you have not done so already, please let us know if your child has any allergies (or
any other medical needs) before September.
Website/Facebook
We have a private school Facebook page where we post photos and news of things
that are happening in school. This is a super way to see what is going on in the
classroom so we encourage you to become a member. Search for ‘St Christopher’s
Catholic Primary School Codsall’ and you should find the page. As it is a private
page, most parents are happy for photos of their child to be posted but please let us
know if this is not the case for you. Thank you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. If you have any questions or
concerns at any time, please don’t hesitate to speak to us and we will do our best to
help.
We are looking forward to a super year.
Yours sincerely,
Miss Lister
Reception Teacher
