Welcome To Reception Class (Owls)

Miss McQueen is the class teacher and is supported by Mrs Sealey.

Our Owls class is for our Reception children. The Owls follow The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and have lots of fun inside and outside of the classroom. We have a large safely fenced outdoor area which allows free flow learning. There is a sand pit and large water tray to allow children to explore different activities daily. Inside the classroom there is an arts and crafts table which is open every day and allows children to develop their creativity through junk modelling and building or painting. There are lots of role play areas in and outside which are changed to match the topic in the classroom. Activities and topics are planned from the children’s interests. Teaching takes place in small adult led focus groups, whole class carpet sessions and through children’s play.

Forest School takes place every Thursday morning. Lots of exciting activities happen at Forest School. We have camp fires and hot chocolate, climb trees and make rope swings and go fishing in the brook. The children learn so much from their weekly Forest School sessions in a natural environment that challenges them and teaches safe risk taking.

PE is taught every Tuesday and Friday. Throughout the year we have specialist sports teachers working with the children in school. Friday is an inside PE lesson and Tuesday is an outside games-based lesson with our specialist PE teachers.

The children are taken on off-site educational visits to support their learning in school. In previous years we went to Hatton for a Christmas experience and All Things Wild for a Summer Trip to support our learning on Dinosaurs and Animals.

In Owls, children begin their phonics journey, firstly by learning to listen for sounds and then learning the sounds the letter shapes make. Children will learn to blend these sounds to start reading and segmenting words to start writing. Phonics is taught daily as a whole class and in small adult led groups to match children’s developmental levels. We are following Little Wandle for our phonic sessions and to begin our reading journey.

Write Dance is an activity that happens daily to support pencil grip and control. Children move to music using all parts of their bodies and then draw to music. There is a range of different types of music used.

Children will learn to count, add and subtract with numbers up to ten and beyond in Mathematics. Time and money, temperature, shape and measure is taught through a range of activities throughout the year.

Our four core Christian values are taught from the start of Reception and the children learn about these through their play and in discreet teaching of Religious Education and PSHE.

Our values are Wisdom, Community, Hope and Dignity. These values have great importance at Feckenham CE Primary School and help the children to understand how to behave, follow rules and build strong friendships while working as a whole school community.