Reception

The children move seamlessly from Nursery to Reception, as they have plenty of opportunities throughout the year to work and play together.

Our well-resourced classroom has direct access to an outdoor play area and also to our 27 acre site within the idyllic grounds of the Bishop’s Palace.

Pupils in Reception continue to work within the EYFS framework with increasing emphasis placed on literacy and numeracy skills as well as further development of the whole child. Children are offered a multisensory curriculum which is broad and stimulating. The school day is made up of a mixture of carefully planned play-based learning activities enhanced by more directed and systematic teaching within the areas of English and maths. Daily phonic sessions scaffold early reading and writing skills and our small class sizes ensure that we can tailor our curriculum to meet the individual interests and needs of each child. We refer to our sessions as ‘play and learn’ so that the children value the rich learning that comes out of high quality play.

We have high expectations of our children in Early Years as we work towards the achievement of the Early Learning Goals by the end of the Reception year. Nearly all of our children achieve these with many exceeding national expectations.

Additionally, children have plenty of opportunities for creative work, and are taught by subject specialists for music, French, sport, computing and dance.