Our Teacher is Mrs Croxall

Our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Powling and Mrs Thorne

Our Autumn 1 half term topic is "I'm Super, I'm Me!"

Here are some of the stories that we will be sharing this half term to help lead our learning:

Our Autumn 2 half term topics are "Dinosaurs"  and "Christmas".   

Our Spring 1 half term topics are "Off on a cold adventure"  "Blast Off!" and "All around the World".    

Here are some of the stories that we will be sharing this half term to help lead our learning:

Our Spring 2 half term topics are "Book Week"  and "A Jungle Journey".   

Here are some of the stories that we will be sharing this half term to help lead our learning:

Our Summer 1 half term topics are "Magical Mayhem"  and "Pirates".   

Here are some of the stories that we will be sharing this half term to help lead our learning:

Our Summer 2 half term topics are "Bears"  and "Awesome Authors".   

Here are some of the stories that we will be sharing this half term to help lead our learning:

Reading 

We love reading in school and share at least 2 stories daily with all of the children. We aim to install a love of reading in all children! All Reception children will read with a grown up at least twice a week in school. We encourage children to read at least 5 times a week at home. Just 5-10 minutes a day will make a real difference to the progress that your child makes. If your child reads at least 5 times a week at home, they will receive a voucher for the Golden Box. Each week, a name is picked out to win a free book to keep!  Please record all reading in the reading records to ensure that we can monitor your child’s reading.

Phonics in Nursery

Children in nursery have important steps to learn before they are ready for learning the letter sounds. At Ashbourne Primary School we use pre-phonics skills to develop a child’s ability to listen to, make, explore and talk about sounds. This phase of phonics is referred to as phase 1 phonics and it is a vital phase that should never end for children. Throughout this phase children will also develop their speaking and listening skills. Children in Nursery will develop their phase 1 phonics skills daily, through a range of games and activities. 

This phase is split into 7 aspects that are explored and developed through games.

Aspect 1 – Environmental sounds – The aim of this aspect is to raise children’s awareness of the sounds around them and to develop their listening skills.

Aspect 2 – Instrumental sounds – This aspect aims to develop children’s awareness of sounds made by various instruments and noise makers.

Aspect 3 – Body percussion – The aim of this aspect is to develop children’s awareness of sounds and rhythms. Activities include singing songs and action rhymes, listening to music and developing a sounds vocabulary.

Aspect 4 – Rhythm and rhyme – This aspect aims to develop children’s appreciation and experiences of rhythm and rhyme in speech and song.

Aspect 5 – Alliteration – This aspect focuses on initial sounds of words.

Aspect 6 – Voice sounds – The aim is to distinguish between different vocal sounds and to begin oral blending and segmenting.

Aspect 7 – Blending and segmenting – In this aspect, the main aim is to develop oral blending and segmenting skills.

Phonics in Reception

Children thoroughly enjoy phonics and great progress can be seen rapidly! We have a phonics session each day in Reception class. Please see below to see the sounds and words that we will learning this year. We will continue to focus on listening skills, rhyming, hearing sounds and oral blending, alongside our phonics sessions. The sounds and words that we have been practising will be sent home each week.

Phase 2 Sounds and Words

- s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u, r, h, b, f, l, ff, ll, ss

- the, to, into, go, no, I

Phase 3 Sounds and Words

- j, v, w, x, y, z, zz qu, sh, ch, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, or, ar, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

- me, we, be, he she, was, you, they, all, are, my, her

Phase 4 Words

- said, have, like, so, do, some, come, were, there, little, one, when, out, what, 

Outdoor Learning 

We will be enjoying an outdoor learning session each week. Please ensure your child has a pair of wellies that are kept in school to use in our outdoor learning session and in our outdoor classroom in the wet weather.

Key information 

• Drop-off time is between 8:40am – 8.45am. Pick-up time is at 3.15pm. Please drop off and collect your child from the blue gate outside the EYFS classroom.
• Please ensure your child brings their bookbag to school daily with their reading book inside (Reception children) 
• Children will have fresh water available each day. Please send a plastic, named cup to school. Children will be encouraged to fill their cup and drink water throughout the day.
• Free fruit is provided for the children every afternoon. Please send in a healthy, morning snack for you child. This can either be a piece/pieces of fruit or vegetable.
• PE will take place each Thursday for all children. Please help your child to practise getting changed for PE independently. PE kits will stay in school and be sent home at the end of each half term.
• We visit the school library every Wednesday. Children can choose a book to bring home to share to encourage reading for pleasure.

Below are links to useful websites:

Useful documents: