Welcome to Reception
Home of the Foxes and the Owls!
What can I expect in Reception at SMITH?
Check out our Reception Passport!
Autumn 2
‘Animal Antics: Marvelous Minibeasts!’
This half term, our focus will be on the tiny but fascinating world of minibeasts and animals in our local environment.
Our main text focus is ‘I’m going to eat this ANT!’ Over the three weeks we will:
- Join in with alliteration.
- Explore non fiction texts to learn about insects and bugs.
- Make shopping lists and menus.
- Explore animals and their habitats.
- Learn and perform ‘When the ants go marching in’.
- Explore the habitats of living things on our school playground.
- Discuss questions like ‘Should we ever squish an ant?’
And of course that magical time of year is approaching us … we will be fully immersing in all things Christmas! From creating decorations, being involved in a wonderful Christmas performance and going on a trip to our local church.
Here is our Topic Web for Autumn 2.
These are the phonics sounds that we are learning this half term. Your child will have taken home their 2nd Monster Phonics homework book so that you can work in this daily or weekly with your child as we learn the new sounds.
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Here is our learning so far this half term…
To celebrate World Nursery Rhyme Week, the wonderful Miss Rachel (tribute) will be coming to visit us to sing lots of nursery rhymes with us.
Autumn 1
‘All Together Now!’
Our main text focus will be ‘The Gingerbread Man!’
- Here we will join in with rhyme and repetition.
- We will make gingerbread people and talk about our uniqueness and individuality and our families.
- We will create obstacle courses to explore different ways of moving.
- We will create a healthy meal for the gingerbread person.
- We will also be focusing on building relationships and learning all about our feelings and how to manage our emotions.
Click here for our Welcome Newsletter
and our Autumn 1 ‘All Together Now!’ topic web (as below)
These are the phonics sounds that we are learning this half term. Week 1 commences 22nd September 2025. Your child will have a Monster Phonics homework book that you can work on daily or weekly with them as we learn the new sounds.
Take a look at the photographs of our fabulous little ones in action… (come back soon to see our photos)
| Communication and Language | Physical Development | Personal, Social and Emotional Development |
| Literacy | Maths | Understanding the World | Expressive Arts and Design |
Phonics in Reception
In Reception we teach daily phonics. Phonics is all about how the alphabetic system works and exploring how to apply it in reading and spelling. Here at S.M.I.T.H. we follow Monster Phonics: a systematic approach, meaning that we teach in a logical progression, starting with single letter sounds to enable children to read and spell simple words, leading to consonant digraphs and vowel digraphs and longer words.
How Monster Phonics Works | Monster Phonics
For more information on our phonic scheme please follow the links below!
If you have any questions regarding phonics please see your child’s class teacher.
Early Reading
Here at S.M.I.T.H we want to develop a life long love of reading.
We want our pupils passion and engagement with books to start from an early age. Keep your eyes peeled for our reading challenges – this is where we capture our pupils and their families love of books and reading. It is a lot of fun!
Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA)
This is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school. It is statutory for all schools from September 2021. Your child will be participating in the reception baseline within the first 6 weeks of starting reception.
PLEASE DON’T WORRY: You do not need to do anything to prepare your child for the assessment. Your child is unlikely to even know that they are doing an assessment when they are completing the tasks.
For more information the link below takes you to the government information for parents pdf. If you have any further questions please speak with your child’s class teacher.
Keeping You Informed
Class Dojo
This is where you will find messages from your child’s class teacher. This updates most frequently and will let parents know about things happening in class such as; day trips, enrichment activities, special events and visitors. This is the most effective and responsive communication tool with your reception teacher.
Please also keep an eye on the school story, on here you will find messages, competitions and school events.
Other ways of Communication
Please register with Parent App, as we will keep you up to date via the app and emails.
Parent Pay is used to make payments for all trips, wrap around care and donations etc. Please see the school office to register.
We also have a school Instagram account where class teachers post pupils work, videos and positive messages for our community.
If you need to contact school the email address: ao@smhsch.co.uk these message will be answered promptly or forwarded to the relevant staff.
Other Activities to Help your child at Home
Helping your EYFS child at home with Maths
Helping your EYFS child at home with Maths
‘Teach Your Monsters To Read’ FREE online reading activities