Speech and Language Development

We love talking to children and hearing all of the wonderful things they have to say. That's why it is so important to us to ensure your children are receiving a language rich education. This is primarily done through high quality interactions between adults and children in the setting but we also do the following to further enhance language and communication skills. 

During the first half term all children take part in the Wellcomm screening, carried out by a speech and language therapist, findings are then shared with staff who can help create targets for those children who will take part in targeted therapy in school.

As a school we are enhancing the way we teach vocabulary by using the strategies and ideas from the ‘Word Aware’ program. Word Aware is a comprehensive and structured approach to use throughout the school to promote vocabulary development in all children.

Children need twelve meaningful encounters of a word before they really know it. Word Aware promotes a method called STAR, which stands for Select, Teach, Activate and Review. This process ensures the children encounter the new words many times and many different ways. Be sure to ask your child about Concept Cat!

Chatty Snack is a very exciting part of our day where all children gather together to take a few minutes to enjoy their snack and chat with their friends about that days 'special picture', we make predictions, ask questions and learn how to listen to views expressed by others.

If you have looked through our curriculum overviews you will see that there are many engaging and varied core texts that we share across the year, this is to help promote a love of books and interest all children. These books are discussed in detail and often lend themselves to our weekly English activity. Not only do we have core texts, but each day the children find their 'mini me' to vote for a home time story book.

Hello!

Welcome to the Reception page. 

The Early Years Foundation Stage Team.

Reception teachers: Mrs Thomas, Mrs Duggan and Miss Lee. 

Reception teaching assistants: Miss Mulcahy, Miss Patrick and Mrs Barber.
 

Key information

- PE is every Wednesday. Please remember to send your child to school with their named P.E kit in a bag.

- We change reading books weekly. Please remember to bring your reading bag into school every day and read with your child as frequently at home as you can.

- Keep an eye on 'EvidenceMe' for regular observations of your child. Remember that you can also send us observations!

- Our email is earlyyears@stlaurences.covmat.org if you need to contact us directly. 

How we support your child on their learning journey.

At St Laurence's we want all children to succeed and provide high quality care and education across all areas of the curriculum through well developed pedagogy and practices based on relevant and evidence based research. 

We understand that all cohorts are unique and will adjust our curriculum to suit the needs of each year group. We do this from the first moment we meet your child and have those transitional conversations, to their government baseline assessment, on going assessment throughout the year and most importantly getting to know your child for who they really are. 

We support the development of your child's Personal, Social and Emotional needs through emotion coaching and co-regulatory practices which will help them to learn to self regulate, understand and communicate their own emotions. 

Autumn Term

During the first couple of week's of the Autumn term, we focus solely on settling the children into their new school. The children will spend time with their new class and teachers, exploring their new and exciting classroom. 

Throughout the first half-term, we offer a rich and stimulating curriculum through the topic 'Marvellous Me'. The children will learn about themselves and their families, focusing on how we are all different and special. In the second half term, our topic is 'Superheroes'. This exciting topic enables us to learn about different people who help us. During this topic, we welcome firefighters, nurses and the police into our school, to deliver educational talks with the children.

In English, our core texts compliment our termly topics. Our core texts include: Monkey Puzzle, The Great Big Book of Families, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Supertato, Fire Fighters and The Nativity Story. As well as our core texts, we engage regularly in story time with books of our choice, to develop a love of books and reading.

Spring Term

In the Spring term, we move on to the topic 'Near and Far'. During the first half term, we focus on where the children in Reception come from, our local area, where our school is, how we can travel to different places and different interests that we have inside and outside of school. In the second half term we broaden our knowledge as we explore the world map; focusing on India. We will taste traditional foods, learn to dance to bhangra and explore Indian art and life in a different country.

In English, we focus on the books: Lucy & Tom, Little Red Riding Hood, On the Way Home, The Runaway Chapati, Rapunzel and Festival of Colours. 

Curriculum Overviews

Summer Term

For the final term, our topic's are 'Down On the farm' and 'Curious Creatures'. The children get to explore life on a farm first hand, with our exciting school trip to the farm. We learn about animals we might find on a farm, what living things need to grow and we also investigate the life cycle of chickens! In the second half-term, we continue learning about animals, but we investigate minibeasts we can find in our garden, including watching the amazing life cycle of a butterfly in our classroom, as well as learning about creatures we would find deep in the sea!

Our core texts this term include: Egg to Chicken, Oliver's Vegetables, Jack and the Beanstalk, Twist & Hop, Minibeast Bop, The Bad Tempered Ladybird and Someone swallowed Stanley. 

Curriculum Overviews