Summer 2025

This term Reception will be exploring the creatures of The Learning Forest. Each creature tells a story that relates to a characteristic of learning. In Reception we focus not only on what the children learn, but how they learn. We will be introducing these characteristics of effective learning to the children through simple stories about forest creatures that illustrate each example, e.g. ‘Penny the Persistent Pine Marten’ and ‘Candace the Can-do Caterpillar’. The children will enjoy explaining how their own learning is just like that of the forest creatures.

We will making maps of our classrooms and looking at various maps from museums and galleries to inspire us. We will continue to read a range of stories and non-fiction books and we will be making a class book about staying healthy. This will help children to know about the different factors that support their overall health. We will be focusing on healthy food choices and ways of being active.

We will be focusing on number bonds to ten, addition and subtraction and writing number sentences in Maths.

Our Little Wandle phonics programme and daily reading and Maths Mastery sessions will continue. We will also continue to visit the school field each Thursday afternoon. Each week the children are given a different challenge, such as going on a minibeast hunt or learning parachute games, as well as having some time to explore independently.

There will be an Early Years Festival on the 9th of July to welcome new Reception families. The children will enjoy helping out and visiting the festival which will be held in the Year 1 playground. This is part of our plan to support children with their transition to Year1. We are having conversations in class about the children's transition and they will be meeting their new teachers in the second half of the Summer term.

In EYFS, we invite parents to make a £10 donation each term. These donations allow us to provide daily snacks for the children, as well as for ingredients to make playdough and buy art supplies for our creative areas. Thank you so much for this.

You can make your donation either through parent pay or by giving £10 cash to your child's teacher in a named envelope.

We also welcome contributions for junk modelling (egg cartons, cardboard boxes, bottles, etc) and natural resources for our mud kitchen such as avocado stones, pebbles, conkers and corks.

We would also welcome donations for the woodwork bench such as: plastic bottle lids, offcuts of soft wood, corks, lolly sticks, screws, nails etc.

We welcome donations of old or broken technology such as radios, clocks, keyboards, phones, CD players, cameras etc for the children to take apart and investigate! 

Uniform and bookbags

Please ensure that your child wears their full school uniform each day.  Please label your children’s clothing with name labels or permanent marker.  Please ensure your child brings their books and reading record to school every Monday.

PE

The children will have a PE lesson every Thursday. Your child should come to school dressed in their PE kit on this day (white t-shirt, navy shorts or tracksuit bottoms and plimsolls). 

Spare clothes

Children sometimes require a change of clothes at school.  Please ensure that your child has a spare set of clothes to change into in the event of an accident, including pants and socks.  Please ensure these clothes are named.

Wellies

We go to the field every Thursday morning.  Please bring in a pair of wellies clearly labelled with your child’s name. Please keep an eye on the forecast and make sure your child has clothing appropriate for the weather.

In the Moment Planning

The cycle of observation, assessment and planning at George Tomlinson is carried out on a moment-by-moment basis.  Each week, approximately 10% of the class will be focus children. 

Some interactions and activities that occur are recorded when the cycle is complete.  These records are on the learning journeys of the focus children and on “in the moment” planning sheets for activities in which a group become involved.  

We work this way because young children are experiencing and learning in the here and now, not storing up their questions until tomorrow or next week.  It is in that moment of curiosity, puzzlement, effort or interest—the “teachable moment” - that the skillful adult makes a difference. 

By using this cycle on a moment-to-moment basis, the adult will be always alert to individual children (observation), always thinking about what it tells us about the child’s thinking (assessment), and always ready to respond by using appropriate strategies at the right moment to support children’s well-being and learning (planning for the next moment). 

When your child is a focus child you will receive notification the week before.  We will give you a sheet to complete and ask you to take some pictures over the weekend.  The week after your child has been a focus child, the class teacher will meet with you to discuss your child’s learning.  This will replace the traditional parents’ evening.