Reception Class 2025 - 2026

Mrs Seamans

PSHE, RE and EYFS lead.

Welcome to Reception Class

Meet the Team

Teacher and Early Years Lead; Mrs L Seamans

BA (Hons) Primary Education with QTS, NPQEYL, Paediatric First Aid trained.

'Welcome! I’m delighted to introduce myself as the Reception Class Teacher and Early Years Lead.
Working with our youngest learners is truly my passion. I love watching children discover the world with curiosity, creativity, and confidence, and I feel privileged to play a part in their early steps through school.

In the Early Years, every day brings new opportunities for children to explore, grow, and express themselves—and guiding them through that journey is what inspires me most. Creating a nurturing, playful, and inclusive environment where each child feels valued is at the heart of everything I do.

I’m excited for a wonderful year of learning, laughter, and new beginnings together!'

TA; Mrs Z Bromley-

Level 3 teaching assistant, Paediatric First Aid trained.

'Hi everyone! I’m the Level 3 Teaching Assistant in Reception, and I’ve been working in Early Years for 17 years.
I’ve always loved this age group—there’s nothing better than seeing children’s faces light up when they discover something new or proudly show what they’ve been working on. Every day is different, full of little moments that remind me why I enjoy what I do.

I’m all about creating a calm, welcoming space where children feel comfortable to have a go, make mistakes, and try again. Getting to know their personalities, helping them grow in confidence, and being part of their early adventures is the best part of my job.

I’m really looking forward to a fantastic year together in Reception!'

TA: Miss S Aldcroft

Level 2 teaching assistant, Paediatric First Aid trained.

'Hi, I’m the Level 2 Teaching Assistant in Reception, and I’ve been working in Early Years for two years.
Even though I’m still quite new to the EYFS world, I absolutely love it. I’m full of enthusiasm, and there’s nothing better than being part of the children’s excitement as they learn, play, and grow each day.

I enjoy creating a happy, supportive space where children feel confident to explore, be themselves, and try new things. Their energy and curiosity are contagious, and it’s a joy to help them discover the world around them.

I’m really excited to be part of the team and can’t wait for all the fun and learning ahead in Reception!'

Vision and Rationale for our EYFS at Britannia Primary School

Children

In our Reception setting, children are supported to become deeply engaged, purposeful and independent learners who approach each experience with confidence and sustained concentration. Guided by our school values—respect, resilience, ambition, inclusivity, support and enthusiasm—they develop positive attitudes to learning and show pride in their achievements. Children respond thoughtfully, listen attentively and adapt well to challenges, demonstrating curiosity and determination. They use rich and precise vocabulary drawn from high-quality texts and meaningful conversations. Through strong executive function skills, they show increasing self-regulation, attention and working memory. They confidently plan, predict outcomes, adapt ideas and collaborate with others. Their growing foundational knowledge enables them to recall and apply previous learning across areas of the curriculum.

Standards and Progress

We are ambitious for every child. Learning experiences are intentionally designed to build solid foundations across communication, language, literacy, mathematics and personal development. Continuous provision and targeted teaching ensure that all children make strong progress from their individual starting points. A language-rich environment and high-quality adult interaction support children in articulating their thinking, using tiered vocabulary and exploring concepts with increasing depth. Assessment is purposeful and continuous, allowing staff to identify needs early and adapt teaching responsively so that all learners, including those who require additional support, achieve success and feel valued.

Staff

Staff create a warm, trusting and joyful atmosphere in which every child feels safe, included and supported. High expectations sit alongside nurturing relationships that model respect and resilience. Adults engage in high-quality dialogue with children, extending language, deepening understanding and encouraging ambitious thinking. Staff enthusiastically promote independence, foster curiosity and scaffold learning sensitively. They are reflective practitioners who work collaboratively to ensure provision is purposeful, inclusive and aligned with children’s developmental needs.

Environment

The environment is carefully designed to be stimulating, inclusive and enabling. It provides rich opportunities for exploration, challenge and imaginative play, encouraging children to think creatively and apply learning independently. Resources promote collaboration, problem-solving and communication while supporting children to take pride and ownership in their space. Vocabulary prompts, engaging texts and meaningful provocations ensure that language development is woven throughout the environment. Each area supports executive function through opportunities to plan, organise, negotiate and reflect. The outdoor and indoor environments together foster resilience, ambition and enthusiasm for learning, ensuring every child can flourish.

Class Dojo

For all class updates, news and pictures, please see our Class Dojo page. Here you can message the staff, comment and like our posts and keep up to date with day to day life in Reception. We add a weekly story for our families to keep up to date with all our learning. All our families should now have access to this closed site but if you would like to be added please contact Mrs Seamans.

Contact

If you ever need to speak to anyone in the EYFS team, we’re always here for a chat. You can catch us directly before or after school, give us a call, or send an email — whatever works best for you. We’re an open-door team and always happy to help.

[email protected]

Learning to Read and Write in Reception

Here at Britannia we follow the scheme Read Write Inc.

Read Write Inc. is a popular phonics scheme. Like all phonics schemes, it teaches children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing. Read Write Inc. Phonics includes reading books written using only the letters they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately taught tricky words). The children will quickly feel confident and successful.

Here you can find lots of free resources to support your child’s learning.

We are learning Set 1 Speed Sounds and have had a very successful start!

Learning Set 1 Speed Sounds

These are the Set 1 Speed Sounds written with one letter:

m a s d t i n p g o c k u b f e l h r j v y w z x

These are the sounds written with two letters (your child will call these ‘special friends’):

sh th ch qu ng nk ck

Check if your child can read these sounds. Make sure they say sounds like ‘mmm’, not letter names like ‘em’. Watch the Sound Pronunciation Guide video to help you.

If your child is learning Set 1 Speed Sounds, help them to:

Complete the Speed Sounds practice sheets for the Speed Sounds they have learnt.

What is Fred Talk?

We will introduce your child to a toy frog called Fred once he or she is ready to start reading words.

Fred can only say the sounds in a word and needs your child to help him read the word. Fred will say the sounds and children will work out the word. For example, Fred will say the sounds c–a–t, and children will say the word cat. This is Fred Talk: sounding out the word.

Please watch the useful videos and read the documents in the file below to help support your child with their reading and writing. Thank you.

Maths in Reception

In Reception, we follow a practical, engaging approach to early maths that helps children build strong foundations and a real love of numbers. We use both the Mastering Number programme and White Rose Maths to support this.

Mastering Number
Through short, daily sessions, children develop a deep understanding of number by exploring patterns, using manipulatives, and talking about their thinking. This helps them build strong number sense, such as recognising amounts quickly (subitising), comparing numbers, and understanding how numbers can be made and broken apart.

White Rose Maths
Alongside this, we use the White Rose Maths scheme, which introduces early mathematical concepts in small, achievable steps. Children learn through hands-on activities, problem-solving, and lots of practical exploration. Topics include counting, shape, measure, patterns, and early calculation — all taught in a playful, meaningful way.

Together, these approaches help children become confident, curious mathematicians who enjoy exploring numbers in everyday life.

If you would like to know more about the other areas of the curriculum and how we teach them and learn through play, please take a look at the documents attached or speak to a member of the EYFS team.