Reception

Reception continues to build on the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, extending skills, knowledge and understanding. We balance constant encouragement with higher expectations in terms of a child's application and achievement. Children work towards and beyond the Early Learning goals, exploring mathematics, reading, writing and other areas of the curriculum.

Reception is hands-on, purposeful and organised to help each child progress. Activities new to the children include one-to-one reading, daily phonics lessons, taking reading books home every Monday, Wednesday and Friday plus keywords and rhymes on the other two days, and simple recording of maths and literacy work. Interactive whiteboards and iPads add to the engaging and immersive learning experience. Children spend half a day every week at Forest School doing a wide range of activities, including den building and fire lighting, exploration and discovery. More importantly, Forest School provides the perfect environment to develop and apply the key characteristics of learning - resilience, risk-taking, initiative, curiosity, originality and empathy. Our Thunk of the Week promotes deeper thinking, as part of our commitment to Philosophy for Children throughout the Pre-Prep and the Prep school.

Busy Bee Time

As in Kindergarten children can free-flow between a carefully planned indoor and outdoor environment that aims to support and scaffold their learning while also offering challenge and new experiences . This hands-on, practical and play-based approach ensures that whilst learning new skills children have fun in an environment in which they feel safe and secure.