Starting school.

A new national definition of school readiness has been launched by a coalition of leading education and early years organisations to help parents, carers, and educators better understand what it means for a child to be ready for Reception.

This is the first time that such a large group of organisations involved in education, parenting, and early years have come together to define school readiness and offer practical guidance to parents and carers. Currently, there is no official definition, despite increasing recognition of its importance in a child’s early development.

The Starting Reception definition provides an agreed set of skills and activities that families can use to help their children feel confident and prepared for school. It is designed to close the gap between teachers’ and parents’ understanding of school readiness.

To address this, the Starting Reception website has been launched, offering easy-to-access guidance for parents, carers.

What Does School Readiness Look Like?

The new definition groups recommendations into four key areas that support children’s early development:

• Growing independence – Encouraging children to manage tasks like using cutlery, putting on their coat, and using the toilet independently.
• Building relationships and communication – Developing social skills such as sharing, taking turns, and talking about feelings.
• Physical development – Ensuring children are active for at least three hours a day, can hold a pencil, and enjoy creative activities like drawing and painting.
• Healthy routines – Encouraging good habits such as brushing teeth twice a day and limiting screen time.

Each category includes links to expert organisations providing practical advice on how to build these skills into everyday routines at home.

https://startingreception.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Starting-Reception.pdf

A copy is also available to download below.

Current Reception Stay and Play dates 2025/ 2026.

Parents, Grandparents and younger siblings are all welcome to our Stay and Play sessions.

Our first Stay and Play session of the year is on Monday 20th October 2.30 - 3.30pm

Then on the following dates:

Thursday 12th February 2.30 - 3.30pm

Wednesday 25th March 2.30 - 3.30pm

Friday 22nd May 2.30 - 3.30pm

Monday 13th July 2.30 - 3.30pm (This will be a picnic on the field)

Welcome to Reception

Our teachers are Mrs Earl, Miss Woods, Miss Carlton and Mrs Jones. 

We are all very excited to begin our first term at Aughton Town Green and being in Reception means we have lots of fun and do lots of exciting activities. It will be an action packed term as our topics include learning all about Ourselves, Healthy Eating, Autumn, People who help us and Christmas.

Take a look at some of the work we will be completing this term:

English - We do phonics everyday and this term we will be learning our Phase 2 sounds. We will learn how to say and write these sounds and how we use these sounds to blend words to read and then segment the sounds to write. We will learn some  'tricky' words and  use these words in our reading and writing. Everyday we share stories - these can be 'big books', books we have brought from home or books from our class library. We will begin to write lots of words and short sentences.

Maths - This term, we will learn about all about numbers, counting,  subitising, comparing and ordering numbers and thinking about how we make our numbers to 10.  We will use all these skills in different activities around the classroom.

Important days to remember:

Reading - We will read in school 3 times each week. We will bring home 1 book for you to read to us, our bedtime reading book,  and our school guided reading book will be accessed online. We will also bring home a shared, mostly decodable, book but we will  still need some help with this book as it may have sounds and tricky words in it that we haven't learnt yet. We bring home tricky words to learn each week. Please can you make sure you read with your child for 5 minutes each night and practice their tricky words.

We need to return our Shared reading book every week - we will let you know which day to return your book.

ASH class will change their bedtime story book on a TUESDAY.

ELM class will change their bedtime story book on a WEDNESDAY.

News Homework - Given out on a Friday and is to be returned by Monday. 

Maths Homework - Given out on a Friday and is to be returned by Wednesday. 

PE - FRIDAY this term. We will be doing dance skills this term and learning a dance based on the Lion King. The children will need to have their PE kits in school and will get changed in school for their PE session. 

They will need pumps, NO TRAINERS, as we are doing dance in the hall.

PLEASE ENSURE ALL ITEMS OF SCHOOL UNIFORM ARE NAMED, ESPECIALLY PE KITS. COATS, WATER BOTTLES & SNACK POTS.

Please remember to check the Class Dojo stories as we will post lots of pictures of activities we have been doing in school.

Please see the Parents section on the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds website for support with how to teach the sounds to your child.

The Early Years Curriculum

Planning for our children's learning is based on the government publication 'Development Matters for the Early Years Foundation Stage'. This provides guidance on the stages of development (Unique Child), how children's learning can be supported by adults (Positive Relationships) and the activities and resources provided (Enabling Environments), both indoors and out.

All the children are assessed on entry (in September) to determine their individual starting points. This year a statutory Baseline has been introduced which will be completed within the first half term. All activities are practical and engaging for the children. Topics are then planned which take into account the stages of the children's development, their learning needs and their interests.

Assessment is ongoing through observations and planned tasks. Our children's progress and achievements are recorded using the Evidence Me app. At the end of the year the children's progress is assessed against the Early Learning Goals.

We have attached links to both the updated Development Matters document and the updated Early Learning Goals.