Reception
Starting School at St. Clement’s C. of E. Primary Academy
Hello!
Welcome to St. Clement’s C. of E. Primary Academy. This booklet is for you and your family. It tells you all about the different things that happen at School. We hope that you enjoy looking through it, and we look forward to seeing you soon when you start school!
Your Teachers are: Miss Tsang and Mrs Ali
Your Things
You will have your own coat peg with your name on it. You can hang your coat here.
In the classroom we have a special box to put your book bag in.
Letters for home will go in your book bag together with your school reading book when you have one.
Arriving in the morning
When you come to school you will wait on the playground with your grown-up. Your teacher will be in the classroom from 8:30am if your grown-up wants to talk to them. A bell will go at 8:45am and your teacher will open the door.
Morning Snack
During the morning you will be able to have a drink of milk or water and eat your snack at the snack time cafe.
We all have a piece of fruit to eat. This might be an apple, pear, banana or satsuma. The fruit is provided free to all Nursery and Reception children.
Lunch Time
You will eat your lunch in the main school hall, with the rest of your class. All children in Reception and KS1 can have a free school lunch.
Nursery will need to bring in a packed lunch from home.
You can bring a packed lunch in a special box from home. Please make sure it has your name on, so you will not lose it.
What will you do at school?
Reading
We hope you enjoy sharing books with your friends and families and are getting to know lots of rhymes.
At school you hear stories every day. The book corner in your classroom is a special place to sit while you are looking at and reading books. There are books about everything- dinosaurs, pirates and trains, fairy tales and super heroes and lots more besides.
You will also be able to watch and listen to stories on our big classroom boards.
Phonics/reading
At school we use Read Write Inc to help you to learn your letter sounds and names. For each sound you will learn the shape of the letter and a rhyme to help you remember it. As you learn the sounds in school you will take home a sheet to help you, and help your families, say and recognise these sounds.
You might like practise by playing games like “I spy”
Suggested game and ideas:
- I spy
- Sound walks – what sounds can you hear?
- Clap the beats in words
- Listen to lots of stories
- Look at the pictures in the books
- Talk about what has been read
Writing
Writing is FUN! At school you will learn how to form your letters correctly, and also how to write sentences.
It would be great if you could write your own name when you start school, using a capital letter at the start of it. However, don't worry if you can't yet; you will soon learn this at school.
We write while we play all of the time; in role play, outside and on the writing table.
You will be able to do lots of other activities at school to help with your writing. These include outdoor games, drawing patterns, colouring, making models with plasticine, cutting and drawing. We use playdough in our finger gym to help strengthen our fingers. You may want to practise at home and can use the recipe opposite to make your own playdough.
Mathematics
- Before you come to school you can do lots of things at home with your family that will help you with your maths:
- sort blocks by colour and size
- fit jigsaw puzzles together
- learn nursery rhymes and number songs such as "Five currant buns"
- play lots of games where you have to throw a dice and move along a board
- cooking – talk about which things are heavy and light, how much you need, counting and sharing
- talking about your family – who is the youngest, oldest, tallest or shortest
- talk about time using words such as morning, night, yesterday, tomorrow and next week
- at bath time look at which things float or sink; is the bath full or empty?
- when you are getting dressed look at which things you put on first and last, which is the back and front, how many buttons have you got?
- at meal times you can lay the table and make sure you have enough knives and forks.
- when you go shopping you can look at the numbers and look at coins. You can look at the shape, size and colour of the boxes.
At school we will do lots of mathematical activities. You will do lots of exciting things, such as measuring, weighing, looking at shapes, making models, following directions and using the computer.
Can you count ten toys when you tidy up?
PE
If you are in Reception you will be able to do PE each week. In the summer term you will need a P.E. kit. Your PE kit should be black shorts/leggings, a white T-shirt, and pumps. You can purchase these items from the school.
Nursery and Reception are active every day in the outside area, climbing, and building, riding bikes and using other large equipment.
All your other clothes should have your name in so that they don't get lost or mixed up with someone else’s, as everyone’s uniform looks the same!
Activity Time
At school there are lots of things for you to play with. Here are some of the things you will find:
- dressing up clothes so that you can be a doctor, a princess, a policeman or policewoman or a fire-fighter or even a superhero!
- construction kits to make large models using nuts and bolts
- large and small building blocks and lots of other things to make models
- a farm with buildings and lots of animals
- games and jigsaws
- plasticine and playdough
- a sand tray and a water tray
- a dolls’ house and a garage with play people
- iPads with lots of interesting programmes
- bikes, tunnels and a climbing equipment
- digging area and vegetable patch.
Messy Activities
At school you will be able to do lots of "messy" things. You can paint, stick, make models, use clay and play in the sand and the water.
We have aprons at school to keep your uniform clean and also to keep you dry when you play in the water.
Assemblies
Each day at school we all meet together for an assembly or a praise time.
You will be able to hear a story, say your prayers and sing songs.
On Monday afternoon we have a Celebration Assembly when we share our special work with our parents and other children.
Home Time
After a fun day at school, we will share a story and a home time song. The end of the school day will be at 3:15pm. Your Mum, Dad or someone else you know should wait for you in the playground outside your classroom. Your teacher will make sure they see your grown-up before you can go. You can tell your grown-ups what a great day you have had and look forward to more exciting things to do at school the next day!
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile
We will take lots of photographs of you and write about all of the great things you do in school. These will go in your very special online Learning Journey. Your parents will have their very own log in to see all of your amazing learning at school and parents will be able to upload from home too!
We hope this booklet has helped you and your family to know what will happen when you start school.
Remember, when you come to school you will learn lots of new things and have lots of fun with your teachers and your new friends.
St. Clement’s Academy, Butlin Street, Nechells, Birmingham, B7 5NS
0121 – 464 – 4652
reception@stclemce.bham.sch.uk