On Tuesday 2nd April 2025, Reception launched their new topic by visiting Cannon Hall Farm. The weather was sunny and warm as the children had a bespoke workshop around the farm. They visited the pigs and newly born piglets, and saw many newly born lambs, foals, donkeys and goats. The children were captivated by naming and describing all the animals that live on the farm, and enjoyed the smell of the farm too!!!! We were able to feed the animals and even enjoyed time on the playground at the end of the day. We won two special prizes on the ferret and sheep races adding to the excitement of the day. We are looking forward to our farm visiting school later in the half term. 

Reception have been journeying in faith during Lent 2025. As part of our Pilgrim Year of Hope 2025, Year One undertook a pilgrimage Lent Walk with our community on our KS1 playground, raising money for CAFOD. They have focussed on prayer, and made their own Lenten promises. They took part in a whole school Holy Week Liturgy to bring Lent to a close. We know Reception are looking forward to celebrating the new life of Eastertide. God bless you all Reception!

On Friday 7th March 2025, Reception had their very first World Book Day at St Anhony's. Reception class love to read and had a wonderful day dressed as their favourite book characters. They had the pleausre of attending a whole school assembly with 215 characters from their favourite books, as well as attending several story telling sessions with their favourite KS1 teachers! What a wonderful day of reading1 Keep reading Reception!

During Spring 2 2025, Reception have been retelling the story of The Gingerbread Man. This story has captivated all our children as they tried to catch the gingerbread man in several locations around our school. We watched footage on the cameras as The Gingerbread Man ran around school, as well as travelling around the world to lots of the places we have learnt about! We have loved this story and retelling it in our areas of provision. 

The children have had a African drumming workshop this week in preparation for next terms learning about Africa. The children were learning about quiet and loud musical patterns and beats. The children all worked hard to listened and responded and the children learnt about different animal beats including fast for a cheetah and slow beats for elephants. Well done Reception.

The children in Reception have been learning about maps, inspired by their class text "Martha maps it out!". The learning included fieldwork around school in the first instance. Reception travelled around school following simple routes and located different rooms and areas of the school building that they had not yet experienced. The children then drew and labelled each of the places they had seen and exprienced, showing the routes and features they had seen. The children used squares to represent each room, producing plan form maps and plans of their experiences. Some children extended their learning in provision by creating and drawing their own maps, routes and features. They all really enjoyed showing their learning to the class, and Miss Leonard, our Geography leader! Fieldwork extended beyond the classroom as the topic developed, and Reception ventured into the local area. All the children worked together to find important landmarks including St Anthony's church and the local supermarket, ASDA. The children then found the end destination on their maps which was Beeston library! On returning to school, the children drew pictures of the human features seen on our local walk. Some children used their observations to make a 3D map using block play and chalk to represent the roads and buildings we saw on the journey. We can't wait to continue to explore next week as we draw and follow our own maps in the local area! What brilliant explorers you are Reception! Keep it up! 

The children have been exploring the birth of Jesus through the past few weeks. They have learnt abut how Angel Gabriel came down and told Mary she was going to have a baby and his name would be 'Jesus'. The children re-told the story through songs and words to express the real importance of Christmas.

The children had a wonderful time visiting St Anthony's Church. Father Whitwell eagerly awaited us and showed us all the special parts of our Church. We found out all about the different statues, why the altar is so important and we even got to look closely at the font and the Paschal candle - spotting the date and the alpha and omega signs on it!  What an amazing time we had. Thank you Father Whitwell, we are already looking forward to our next visit. 

There was a full day of excitement and learning when Reception visited “This Green Moon” in Swillington to explore seasons in the woods! 
The children quickly took up the challenge to become “explorers” for the day, as they created their own forest leaf tails to creep, observe and explore the magical forest. The children were captivated by their explorations and used a huge variety of new skills and vocabulary. To celebrate their journey, they ended their day with a camp fire forest, using all the branches they had measured and gathered as a team! What a super first day of exploration Reception on your very first class trip. I am SO proud of you all Reception! 
 

Welcome to st anthony's Reception Class!

We welcome you into our exciting, caring, and learning environment. This year is really important for our youngest children, and even though the first day is hard for our lovely parents, please feel assured that every child is precious, important and cared for by our amazing Reception Team.

• Attendance is important as every day we are learning something new and our lessons are sequenced in a way that builds on each learning opportunity and lesson.
• Reading every night is important for your child to progress. We will be running sessions to support your child at home in reading and phonic learning.
• Please remember to read our newsletter on the website, also in your child’s bag on their first day.
• We will also be posting your child’s learning on Tapestry on a regular basis so please check this and you can also contact me through the Tapestry system.
• I will be at the entrance to our classroom every single morning and afternoon, my door is always open for questions and queries.
• We look forward to welcoming you this week.

Miss Duffy, Mrs Shelton and the Reception Team