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Reception curriculum 

At Grange we want children to be happy, confident and to develop a real thirst for learning, and this starts in reception. We provide them with a safe and stimulating environment in which to learn and explore and aim to foster children’s individual wants, needs and interests in order to enable them to get the most out of their experiences. Children have lots of opportunities to facilitate their own learning through carefully resourced provision areas and adults support children through high-quality interactions that challenge thinking and extend learning. Through our interesting and engaging topics we endeavour to provide each child with a range of opportunities which stimulate their creativity and support their development based on their likes and interests. We value the importance of the outdoor environment in order to enable children to develop their thinking, problem solving and collaborative working skills. 

We have fully implemented the 2021 EYFS framework into our daily practise. There are seven areas of learning and development which shape education in early years settings. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected and are split into 3 prime areas and 4 specific areas of learning as follows:

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Prime areas:

  • Communication and language: ​listening attention and understanding, and speaking. 

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  • Personal, social and emotional development: self-regulation; managing self; and building relationships.

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  • Physical development: gross motor skills and fine motor skills.

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Specific areas:

  • Literacy: comprehension; word reading; and writing.

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  • Mathematics: numbers and numerical patterns. 

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  • Understanding the world: past and present; people, cultures and communities; and the natural world. 

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  • Expressive arts and design: creating with materials, and being imaginative and expressive.

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The reception teachers think carefully about planning to ensure that all areas of the early years curriculum are covered. Please see the documents below, which show what the children will learn during their time in reception. 

All children in reception are assessed against the Early Learning Goals at the end of their year in reception. The Early Learning Goals are split into the same areas as set out above and children work towards and are assessed against set statements and criterion. You can find the statements that children are assessed against below. 

Phonics

At Grange Primary School we follow the Little Wandle scheme for phonics and begin teaching phonics early on in reception. Children are taught to recognise individual letter sounds and the sounds that groups of letters make (phonemes). It is important that the children learn the 'pure' sound in order for them to blend sounds together to read words. The videos below explain the importance of using 'pure' sounds and let you hear what each letter or group of letters should sound like. 

Tricky words

Some words cannot be sounded out and blended as the letter patterns do not make the sounds heard in the word. These words are taught as 'tricky words' and children learn which part is tricky and become familiar with them. The video below shows how the tricky words are taught in phonics. 

Early reading

Once the children have learned the first set, or phase, of sounds, we will send them home with a book which they will be able to read. The children should be able to use their knowledge of each sound to 'blend' the letters together to read each word. The video below shows how you can help your child to blend the sounds together to read words. 

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