Welcome to Class R 2024 – 25
We are super proud of our reception children who have settled beautifully into ‘big school’. We have already had so much fun getting to know each other and exploring our classroom and outside space. Our learning this term has been based upon Marvellous me where we have been finding out all about each other, our likes and dislikes, our families and homes. We have had many first experiences such as our first yoga lesson, our first forest school session, our welcome service in the church and a beautiful Autumn walk through the village collecting an array of seasonal objects. We can’t wait to see what next term brings…
Class R 2023 – 2024
Terms 5 and 6
What a fantastic year Class R have had! As we start to welcome our new September starters with induction visits we reflect on the wonderful year our current class have had and all that they have achieved. It’s been a couple of terms of ‘firsts’ with our first class assembly, our first class trip and our first sports week to name but a few. Experiencing a sound bath during our yoga lesson was a firm favourite during sports week and we thoroughly enjoyed our special sports morning where children and parents were able to celebrate together.
Always willing to dress up and get into character, we had a great time becoming pirates and mermaids for the day. Walking the plank became a little risky although fortunately no one actually got eaten by a shark!
Basing our learning this term on the books ‘The Snail and the Whale’ and ‘The Pirates next door’ has inspired so much fantastic writing including stories, lists and information. We have learnt so many interesting new words and phrases that have really enhanced our knowledge and understanding of life in and under the sea.
Term 4
We have had a brilliant Spring term and hopefully there will be a little more warmth and sunshine as we look forward to ending the term with our Holi and Easter celebrations.
We have been brightening up the classroom with spring flowers and Mrs Dyminski has been helping us create some beautiful clay wall hangings with a spring theme. Arthur correctly informed us that we were “doing pottery.”
Our Stay and Share phonics session was a great success and we hope you all found it useful and enjoyed having an insight into your child’s learning. The children certainly enjoyed having family members come and watch their phonics lesson as well as sharing their superstar writing books with their families. Thank you as always for your support.
Gaining an insight into the past by learning about castles and dinosaurs has been great fun. We have created our own castles, learnt about life in castles and enjoyed playing with and constructing castle role play. We even made a castle in Forest school.
Through our key texts ‘Stomp, Dinosaur, Stomp!’ and ‘The girl and the Dinosaur’, we have entered the Jurassic period (according to our palaeontologist Eddie!) and have immersed ourselves in all things dinosaur!
We have a worship area in Class R where children can have a moment or two of calm. Using a prayer space activity we learnt how to use our hands to help regulate our breathing to calm us and enable us to have a quiet few minutes during our busy day.
Learning to reflect on any wows, ows or nows is also important to us in Class R.
Term 2 Update
This term has been full of fun packed learning. We have enjoyed Class R’s first bedtime story session. Children came back to school in their pyjamas as it was getting dark to listen to stories and have hot chocolate and cookies by the fireside. Our favourite teddy bears came too. Not only did we listen to stories read by the teachers but we also had the chance to share books our with our parents.
We have had so much fun in forest school – a highlight was burying Mr Jackson completely in leaves!
Our themes this term have been autumn and festivals of night and light and we have fully immersed ourselves in both. We’ve learnt about the moon, stars and planets and how to be an astronaut. We also learnt about the importance of a healthy sleep routine with the help of Michelle the sleep expert. Of course, we have continued to learn lots of new phonemes and we are well on the way to becoming super readers.
A huge thanks to all families who donated towards the Hospital Pyjama Appeal. With the huge help of Olivia and her Mum Class R were able to support this fantastic charity. We were overwhelmed with the amount of donations received – thank you!
Our term has finished with a festive focus where we have learnt all about the nativity story. Our nativity show was a triumph, full of super singing, dancing and sparkle. Well done Class R!
Welcome to Reception 2023 – 2024
What have we been up to in Term 1
After a short but successful settling in time which included home visits and visits to school we quickly got on with the business of being in Class R! We have made lots of new friends, played in our role play areas, explored sand, water and construction large and small. We have painted, drawn, created and started to learn to read and write. We have loved listening to and talking about stories especially ‘All are welcome’, Elmer’, ‘Giraffes can’t dance’ and ‘Super Duper You’.
Our buddies have been a great help and we always look forward to seeing them at playtimes. Our weekly PE lessons with Mr Tanner are great fun and we play games to keep us moving and learning new skills. We have been to the church for Harvest festival, had a visit from the Wiltshire Ambulance Service, enjoyed our first Forest school session and had a visit form the Life Education team who introduced us to Harold the Giraffe.
Welcome to Reception 2022 – 2023
Summer Term 5 Newsletter
Term 6
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What a fantastic year Class R have had! As we start to welcome our new September starters with induction visits we reflect on the wonderful year our current class have had and all that they have achieved. It is always the last two terms where we see all aspects of the children’s learning come together and the children successes can be celebrated.
It’s been a couple of terms of ‘firsts’ with our first class assembly, our first class trip and our first sports week to name but a few. Making healthy smoothies on Mel Tim’s smoothie bike was a firm favourite during sports week and we loved the chance to create them, mix them and, of course, drink them!
Always willing to dress up and get into character, we had a great time becoming pirates and mermaids for the day. Walking the plank became a little risky although fortunately no one actually got eaten by a shark!
Basing our learning this term on the books ‘The Snail and the Whale’ and ‘The Pirates next door’ has inspired so much fantastic writing including stories, lists and information. We have learnt so many interesting new words and phrases that have really enhanced our knowledge and understanding of life in and under the s
Term 5
Mostly animals this term! Our classroom as been home to 6 eggs which successfully hatched and gave us 6 chicks; 5 caterpillars which after a patient wait became chrysalises and then after another patient wait to our delight, 5 butterflies emerged.
Our class trip this term was to Roves Farm and, thanks to the sunny dry weather and the lovely staff and animals,we had a fabulous time.
End of Spring Term 4
We have celebrated and learnt about the meaning of Shrove Tuesday, enjoyed dressing up for World Book Day, had a fruity time during Fair trade fortnight and found out about the colourful Hindu festival called Holi. We wrote a class poem with a visiting poet and heard all about being a doctor from Harry and Lewis’ Auntie…..
And of course we have been continuing to make great progress in learning to read and write. One way we do this is through our daily phonics lessons and this term we gave our parents the opportunity to join us for a taster lesson. It was lovely to share and celebrate our progress in reading with so many parents and carers.
End of Spring Term 3
We have had another busy term which started with an exploration of ice, finding about about the coldest parts of our world, and learning about the animals that live in those harsh conditions.
Celebrating the Chinese and Lunar New Year was great fun with opportunities for dressing up, learning about the animals in the Great Race , and preparing and tasting Chinese style food at our banquet.
Our Monday mornings are full of energy as we have our PE lesson with Mr Tanner. This term we have been exploring the apparatus, trying to control our bodies and use our developing balancing skills.
The final 3 weeks of term saw Class R becoming familiar with traditional tales such as ‘The Magic Porridge Pot’, ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ and of course the ever popular story of ‘The Gingerbread Man’.
In Wellbeing Week we thought about our connections to others. Hearing the story of ‘The Invisible String’ inspired us to value those connections no matter how near or far they are. We created our own representations of our invisible string.
End of Autumn Term 2
Class R’s term began with a trip to Westonbirt to inspire our learning about Autumn. We explored and learned about leaves, seeds and trees and even created some beautiful natural art. Climbing, crawling, balancing and jumping were skills practised when we played on the adventure park built from tyres and tree trunks. It was a great first trip.
The following week we enjoyed Class R’s first bedtime story session. Children came back to school as it was getting dark to listen to stories and have hot chocolate and cookies by the fireside. Our favourite teddy bears came too. Not only did we listen to stories read by the teachers but we also had the chance to share books with our parents.
Our themes this term have been autumn and space and we have fully immersed ourselves in both. We’ve learnt about the moon, the planets and how to be an astronaut. A big focus for this term has been practising writing our names clearly and with correct letter formation. This has been a real success and we are really proud of the progress made by all children.
Our term has finished with a festive focus where we have learnt all about the nativity story. Our Nativity show was a triumph, full of super singing, dancing and sparkle. Well done Class R!
Class R are fast approaching the end of their first term at AK! Here’s a taster of what we have been up to…
We have had lots of visitors to our class including Big Ted from Wiltshire Air Ambulance, Harold the giraffe from the Life Education Centre and best of all, Mrs Saville and Ted!
Here’s a selection of what else we’ve been doing.
In the early part of this term, we based our learning on the book ‘It starts with a seed’.
We talked about what seeds need to grow and thrive and created some fabulous representations of our understanding of this concept.
Archive posts 2021-2022
Reception Annual Curriculum Overview 2021-2022
Reception Term 1 Autumn Newsletter
Term 5 & 6 Update
The last two terms in Class R have flown by and we cannot believe the children have come to the end of their first fantastic year at Ashton Keynes school.
Just like the caterpillars we watched transform into butterflies, the children are ready to fly into the next stage in their school lives.
Reading and writing are an important part of our learning in Class R and during Term 6 we started using our new Phonics scheme. All children in our class have made super progress during the whole year and are entering Year 1 with a strong set of literacy skills.
Twice weekly we celebrate being ‘Marvellous Me’ A child is chosen to take home the much anticipated ‘Marvellous Me’ box in which 3 special items are placed. The box and contents are then brought into school to be shared with the class. Tahlia finished off this year’s round of ‘Marvellous Me’ which we all enjoyed. Jasper’s turn included a very successful magic trick!
Like the rest of the school we had a great time during sports week. We played cricket and basketball, we danced, we watched the staff vs Yr 6 team netball match, made smoothies on a bike, and of course participated in a hugely successful sports day. We thank Mr Tanner for his brilliant PE coaching over the past year but had possibly had one of the best lessons this term when he introduced us to the sport of cup stacking! Pure joy!
A highlight for us was performing our first class assembly for the rest of the school and our families. Although we were a little nervous, we made our voices heard and we were so proud of ourselves. We shared experiences from our trip to Westonbirt and our Spring Walk; two occasions where we were able to get into the great outdoors and enjoy learning away from school.
We’ve celebrated the Queen’s jubilee, created a sculpture for the sculpture trail, learnt all about life under the sea, grown our own veg, listened to countless stories, learnt new and exciting vocabulary, have become confident with numbers, and above all have had a lot of fun!
Class R you have been fantastic. Keep shining brightly!
Class R have had a busy couple of terms (3&4) enjoying their learning through the themes of Winter wonders, Once upon a time and An egg is quiet. We were out and about in the village in January enjoying the crisp, sunny weather on our winter walk.
Celebrating Chinese New Year was a highlight for us with dancing, dressing up and a wonderful Chinese banquet. We learnt all about the traditions and festivities associated with this festival.
We had great fun exploring and experimenting with bubbles during science week. We created bubbles of all shapes, sizes and colours and investigated which bubbles lasted the longest.
Unfortunately, the Evil Pea has been up to his usual tricks creating havoc in the classroom, hiding and freezing our vegetables and leaving us cheeky letters. Luckily Class R came to the rescue, and laid traps to catch the Evil Pea. We decided to blitz him into some yummy pea soup, he certainly won’t be bothering us again!
Term 2 in Class R has been filled with light and dark. We started off learning about Diwali, the festival of light, and then celebrated bonfire night with a spectacular display that many of us attended and thoroughly enjoyed.
Our space theme was fantastic and we found out lots about the moon, the stars and the planets. Just like baby bear in Jill Murphy’s story, ‘Whatever next’, we made our own rockets and travelled all over the galaxy! Some of us spotted a few aliens lurking around our classroom and some made it to our homes as well.
Home learning has been a feature this term and we thank you for your support with this. We are pleased to see all children and staff in Class R fit and well again.
We’ve enjoyed our Forest school sessions and especially loved our first pond dip!
Learning the songs for both iSingPOP and our nativity has been great fun and we look forward to the iSingPOP concert when it happens.
We hope you enjoyed our nativity; it’s always a highlight and we were so pleased to be able to share it with you as a ‘live’ event.
The children took part in their first school trip with a visit to the pantomime which hopefully all have recovered from! It was a fabulous experience and Class R did us proud.
On top of all these amazing experiences the children have been making great progress with their learning. We are especially proud of the steps they have taken in beginning to become readers. It is a fundamental aspect of their learning and we are really pleased with their achievements so far.
ARCHIVE POSTS 2020-21
Reception Annual Curriculum Overview 2020-2021
Our lovely new learning environment:
