Ash Class
Ash Tree Class Webpage
We would like to wish you a warm welcome to our Reception Class!
Our Reception Class is called 'Ash Tree Class'. 'From the tiniest seed, an amazing tree can grow!'
Our Teaching Team:
Early Years Leader & Class Teacher: Mr D Briscoe (Full time)
Assistant Headteacher, SENDCO and Cover teacher: Mrs Dacosta
Our Teaching Assistants: Miss Buck works within Early Years (Full time) Mrs Deneva, Mrs Sayer and Mrs Stanbridge work across the school and sometimes come into support us in Early Years too!
Class Overview:
Welcome to the Ash Class webpage! We hope that the information below is informative and useful.
Ash Class is the Reception Class of Old Buckenham Primary School, and forms our Early Years provision within our school. We recognise that our children's learning journey starts from the very first moments that they join us from their Nursery or Pre-School. Therefore, we place great emphasis on having a strong transition programme which enables our Reception children to make a confident start to their new school year. Further information about our transition arrangements can be found below.
We pride ourselves on the strong positive relationships that we develop with the children and families in our setting, and as an Early Years team we are incredibly passionate about giving our children the best possible start to school life!
We follow the EYFS Statutory Guidance, as outlined by the Government, to provide our children with a well structured and research informed curriculum that is purposeful and exciting. Through a child centred approach, which recognises the interests and needs of each child, we plan for our children to make great progress as they are all valued and taught as unique individuals. Our continuous provision ensures children are developing the ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning’ (‘Playing and Exploring’, ‘Active Learning’, and ‘Creating and Thinking Critically’), which underpin the Early Years curriculum. We know that when children are interested and engaged, they are more likely to be motivated to learn. This shapes our practise.
The 'Old Buck Way':
Embedded within our school ethos is the mantra: 'Ready, Respectful and Safe'. These three words are taught throughout all parts of our curriculum and are at the heart of our whole school approach. Our children are becoming more confident to be able to talk about these words and understand what they mean!
Our Values:
At Old Buckenham, we also have 5 core values which we teach our children explicitly throughout our curriculum.
These values are:
Respect Honesty Communication Teamwork Resilience
In Reception, one of the many ways that we celebrate these values is through a class puppet called 'Olaf the Snowman' who is our Growth Mind-Set character. Olaf is used to help tell stories to the children, as we raise the profile of having a positive attitude towards our learning. We also have a puppet called 'Gru' who is our Fixed Mind-Set character. We use this to model how we can all feel nervous to try new things, but can try to do so with support.
Our Curriculum:
At Old Buckenham, we understand that learning through play is essential if a child is to succeed. Therefore we strive to create memorable experiences for our young pupils which stem from their interests, focusing on the key skills which we know they need to strive to master. We also recognise the need for key skills to be taught through structured adult led sessions, which children can then build upon further within their play.
The EYFS describes seven areas of learning and development, which are comprised of 'Prime' and 'Specific' skills. The prime areas are those most essential for a child’s healthy development and future learning. These are:
- Communication and Language
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development
These prime areas lay the foundations for children to then be able to succeed in four specific areas. These are:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design.
These seven areas make up our curriculum. Many experiences support the development of several areas of learning simultaneously and it is worth noting that these are not taught seperately. Most of all, the children in Ash Tree Class are developing a love of learning and the skills to support them to achieve their own personal goals.
Our Classroom Learning Environment
Oracy: Communication and Language
Oracy is an essential part of our curriculum. If your child has speech and language barriers to their learning, or you wish to seek some further support yourself, please see the following resources for more support:
Learning to talk | 3 to 5 years | Start for Life (www.nhs.uk)
Health Advice & Support for Children - Just One Norfolk
We also carefully assess your child to understand their speech and language development. We will make sure that we communicate with you if there are specific things you can be doing to support their development further at home.
Maths: Numbots
Our Curriculum Maps and Newsletters:
Every half term, we inform our parents of the key overview of what we will be learning over the coming weeks. Please see an overview of what our current children have / will be learning at the bottom of the webpage in the dowloads area; entitled as follows:
Autumn 1: Wonderful Me!
Autumn 2:
Spring 1:
Spring 2:
Summer 1:
Summer 2:
Latest Key Information:
September 2024- See key information regarding Reading and our School Rewards here.
Enrichment:
We have really tried to develop the level of enrichment that takes place within our curriculum. Here are some of the things that we have been engaging with:
-Inviting local people from our community into the classroom to bring to life our learning themes. For example, at the end of last year, we have had a BeeKeeper visit us and look forward to more visitors this year!
-Engaging in a Pen Pal Partnership with Longonot DEB Primary School in Kenya. Our children have been interested to find out about how these children learn in their own classroom! We look forward to lots of communication with their class teacher over the year!
-Visiting two exciting locations in Norfolk for our School Trips this year! We cannot wait to go to visit the WildLife Trust's 'Ranworth Broad' and 'Wroxham Barns' to engage in some really exiciting learning challenges.
-Fundraising to ensure costs passed onto parents are reduced. Our children really enjoyed decorating biscuits to sell during our fundraiser projects last year!
-Providing lots of opportunities during the year to invite our parents into our learning environment to find out about what skills our children are learning.
-Running a Creative Club for our Early Years and KS1 children to join, enabling them to have lots of fun learning key Art and Design skills, whilst also making new friendships across different year groups.
-Previously, we raised money to purchase some tropical fish for our classroom. They are thriving in their new home and help our children to feel calm and curious within their environment. Our children are learning how to care for them as they are sensitive little pets!
Tapestry – Our Online Parent Partnership Tool:
We use 'Tapestry' as a key tool to share our children's learning with their parents and carers at home. At the start of the year, our families have the opportunity to sign up to this online platform. They are then able to receive key updates about their child's learning each week, as we share comments, videos and photos of their progress and achievements. Permission Slips for this can be found in the downloads section at the bottom of this webpage and also here: Consent Letter 1 / Consent Letter 2
Class Email Address: reception@obps.set.education
To support our ongoing partnership, we want to strengthen our communication with you. Therefore, we have a class email address in place. This is another method whereby you can get in touch with us to discuss anything important with us.
Transition: Key Information for our New Starters in Reception - September 2024:
We have a clear focus on transition at our school because we want our children to flourish, becoming confident and happy members of our school community. Therefore, we offer numerous opportunities for our children and their families to get to know our school so that they can begin to build those key positive relationships with their teaching team.
These include:
- An information evening for parents
- A Stay and Play session
- Home Visits
- Nursery and Pre-School Visits
These are held in the Summer term to welcome children and carers into their new learning environment well in advance of the September start, as we recognise the how important it is to look forward to schooling over the Summer holidays, rather than feeling anxious about joining us.
An information pack has been issued to all of our current Reception pupils. If you are new to the school, we would be happy to provide you with a pack which will explain further details of our Transition Programme!
Do you love a story?
You may also wish to share one of these videos that I made previously for my children in Ladybirds. I recorded myself telling some of my favourite stories. This is another good way that your child could get to know a little bit more about their new teacher!
Watch: Oi Cat!
Watch: There's An Alien In Your Book!
Watch: Ralfy Rabbit: Book Burglar
Thank you for visiting our webpage!
