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Reception

(4-5 years old)

The Reception year is part of the Early Year Foundation Stage. This crucial year is about developing key learning skills such as speaking, listening, concentration, persistence and co-operation. It is also about developing communication, literacy and numeracy skills.

 

When parents actively engage, examination results go up

Professor Charles Desforges (2003) carried out one of the most influential literature reviews. He concluded that parental engagement matters even more than schools in shaping the achievement of young people. He also determined that the more parents and children talk about meaningful subjects, the better students achieve.

At The British Online School, we follow the National Curriculum for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). We know that children learn best when they are happy and when they are actively taking part, therefore, where possible, in our curriculum we ensure that learning is accessed through exciting experiences and opportunities. We encourage the children to make decisions, take responsibility and collaborate in their learning.

Phonics

The foundations for reading and writing at the British Online School are taught through Letters and Sounds. The phonics programme that is taught in Reception class comprises of Phase 2 to Phase 4.

Phonics is a powerful tool that will empower students to be better readers and spellers for the rest of their life.

Here is a breakdown of what will be learnt throughout the year:

Phase 2:

In Phase 2, letters and their sounds are introduced one at a time. A set of letters is taught each week, in the following sequence:

Set 1: s, a, t, p
Set 2: i, n, m, d
Set 3: g, o, c, k
Set 4: ck, e, u, r
Set 5: h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss

As soon as each set of letters is introduced, children will be encouraged to use their knowledge of the letter sounds to blend and sound out words. For example, they will learn to blend the sounds s-a-t to make the word sat. They will also start learning to segment words. For example, they might be asked to find the letter sounds that make the word tap from a small selection of letters.

Phase 3:

By the time they reach Phase 3, children will already be able to blend and segment words containing the 19 letters taught in Phase 2.

Over the twelve weeks which Phase 3 is expected to last, twenty-five new graphemes are introduced (one at a time).

Set 6: j, v, w, x

Set 7: y, z, zz, qu

Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng

Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

During Phase 3, children will also learn the letter names, although they will continue to use the sounds when decoding words.

Phase 4:

When children start Phase 4 of the Letters and Sounds phonics programme, they will know a grapheme for each of the 42 phonemes. They will be able to blend phonemes to read CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and segment in order to spell them.

Children will also have begun reading straightforward two-syllable words and simple captions, as well as reading and spelling some tricky words.

In Phase 4, no new graphemes are introduced. The main aim of this phase is to consolidate the children’s knowledge and to help them learn to read and spell words which have adjacent consonants, such as trap, string and milk.

Mathematics

In Mathematics, your child will cover the following topics:

  • Counting up to 20 everyday objects
  • Saying and using the number names in order
  • Finding one more or less than a number up to 20
  • Starting to use the language of addition and subtraction; counting on and back
  • Sorting and matching objects and shapes
  • Comparing quantities and shapes
  • Finding and recreating simple patterns
  • Beginning to do some simple measuring, comparing lengths and quantities
  • Talking about things like size, weight, distance, time and money to develop correct vocabulary

The Practice pages encourage children to practise the new skills they have learned in their Maths lessons.

Reflect gives children an opportunity to demonstrate their depth of understanding at the end of each week. At the bottom of each page, you will find prompt questions. 

Strengthen questions support children who are not sure where to start.

Deepen questions encourage children to develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts.

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