Reception

Welcome to the Maple and Hazel Class page!

Welcome to the Orchard Primary Academy Reception Class Page. We hope that you find the information on this page useful. If you have any further questions please speak to a member of Reception Staff.

Our Class name is:

'Maple' 'Hazel'

Maple Class Timetable Hazel Class Timetable

Both Hazel and Maple Classrooms can be found in the Early Years Building.

At Orchard Primary Academy, play is at the heart of everything we do within the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Play comes instinctively to children. Play is fun, immersive and crucial to child development. Children challenge themselves through play, explore how the world works, work through emotions and learn that other people have thoughts and feelings too.

Through play, children develop the characteristics to be able to thrive and become life long learners.

Important Information

Physical Development

In our Reception class, we provide a rich range of opportunities, both indoors and outdoors, to support children’s physical development in line with the Development Matters Physical Development strands of Gross Motor Skills and Fine Motor Skills.

Our indoor environment provides opportunities for children to develop strength, coordination and control through activities such as mark-making, threading, cutting, manipulating playdough, construction, puzzles and using a range of tools and equipment. We encourage children to develop their independence and hand strength through everyday routines, including dressing, fastening clothing, using cutlery and managing their personal belongings.

Our outdoor environment offers children regular opportunities to develop their gross motor skills through running, jumping, balancing, climbing, negotiating obstacles, throwing, catching and kicking. We provide a range of large and small equipment and encourage children to take appropriate risks, develop spatial awareness and build confidence in their physical abilities.

We also incorporate movement, music, dance, action games and physical activities throughout the day. Children are supported to understand the importance of physical activity, healthy choices and looking after their bodies.

Across both environments, adults model and support physical skills, provide appropriate challenge and adapt activities to meet individual needs. We observe children’s development and use this knowledge to plan experiences that build on their existing skills, helping every child to become increasingly confident, coordinated and independent.

Reception Library day is: Friday

The children will be able to select a book to bring home and share. Please ensure that this book comes back into school on the following Thursday, to swap for another.

Homework/Home Reading books

Every Friday the children will bring home a phonics homework book to enable them to practise the sounds that we have been learning. These need returning by Tuesday in order to get them ready again for Friday with the new sounds.

Home reading books will start in the Spring term in accordance with their phonic ability and grouping.

Key Dates

Inset Days - School closed to pupils:

Tuesday 1st September 2026
Friday 2nd October 2026
Friday 23rd October 2026
Friday, 18th December 2026
Friday 28th May 2027
Monday 7th June 2027

The following day is also a bank holiday where school will be closed to all pupils:

Monday, 3rd May 2027

Staff

Mrs Birkett - Maple Class Teacher

Mrs Davies - Hazel Class Teacher

Mrs Chunara - Clasroom Assistant

Mrs Rothery - HLTA

Parental Partnerships

At Orchard Primary Academy we value parental partnership. We understand that an effective partnership between school and home will have a positive impact on children’s learning.

We communicate with parents in various ways which include Arbor, Facebook and Tapestry.

Arbor is an app which allows us to send text messages, and letters to share information. You can also use this to pay for trips and dinners. We will use your email address to activate your account.

Tapestry

At Orchard Primary Academy, we use an online journal provider called ‘Tapestry’ to collect and store your child’s electronic ‘Learning Journey’.

Tapestry allows you to login with a secure username and password so that you can view photographs, videos and observations of your child’s learning.

You can like and comment on observations that we add for your child. You can also add your own observations. Please click the image below to access Tapestry:

This year we will be learning...

In Reception class, we will cover the EYFS foundation stage curriculum through an overarching theme. This will change each term and links to the enhancements to provision within the classroom. You can click the buttons below to view the topic overviews:

Autumn: Marvellous Me! & Let's Celebrate!

Marvellous Me Let's Celebrate

Spring: Polar Places & Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots

Polar Places Roots, Shoots & Muddy Boots

Summer: Walk On The Wild Side & We All Go Travelling By

Walk On The Wild Side We All Go Traveling By

Oracy Focus

Talk is a powerful tool for learning and oracy - the ability to express oneself effectively - is a vital skill that should be nurtured from an early age. Strong language and communication skills shape a child’s confidence, critical thinking and academic success. This is especially important in the EYFS classroom, we value highly the role of early language development and aim to create a language-rich environment to support lifelong learning.

Throughout our curriculum we have woven key texts through our planned learning to ensure that we can support children to develop their communication skills, learn key vocabulary and story book language.

Nursery Rhyme Focus

At Orchard Primary Academy, we learn a range of Nursery Rhymes throughout our time in the Early Years. Nursery Rhymes are important as they help us to develop key skills. This includes:

Learning new words and extending our vocabulary
Learning early Maths skills such as counting aloud using finger movements and actions
Developing social skills such as turn taking
Learning different beats and rhythms
Develop positive relationships between children and adults.

This year we will be focusing upon learning these Nursery Rhymes

Click on the videos to listen to the rhymes and songs.

Read Write Inc Phonics

We use a teaching programme called Read Write Inc. (RWI) to teach our children to read and spell. In RWI lessons, the children are taught new sounds and these progress from set 1 - 3.

Children learn to read words by sound-blending using a frog called Fred. Fred says the sounds and children help him blend the sounds to read each word. We call this 'Fred Talk'. Children also learn to read red words on sight. Red words are words that cannot be segmented or blended.

Each Friday, the Reception children will receive Phonics Home Learning in red home learning books and QR codes to scan with a phone or tablet which will help your child practise their phonic learning at home.

This will focus on a particular letter/ grapheme that has been taught.