Academic

• Subject Areas
  • English
    • Ruth Miskin
    • Public Speaking
  • Maths
  • Science
    • Science Week
  • French
  • History
    • History Revision
  • Geography
  • Religious Studies
  • Classics
  • Art
  • Music
  • ICT
  • Drama
  • P.E.
  • Design Technology
  • Boys' Games
  • Girls' Games
• Curriculum Notes
  • Reception
  • Year 1
  • Year 2
  • Year 3
  • Year 4
  • Year 5
  • Year 6
  • Year 7
  • Year 8
• Pre-Prep
  • Foundation Stage
  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
  • Science
  • Art
  • French
  • Music
  • Religious Studies
  • ICT
• Study Skills
• Learning Support

Reception

Reception at St. Hugh’s is a warm and caring environment set up to give every child a secure foundation in their first year of school. We endeavour to stimulate and encourage all children to reach their full potential whilst also having lots of fun!

We offer a broad and balanced Foundation Stage using the Early learning Goals as our starting point. These are broken down into six areas of learning:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication, Language and Literacy
• Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
• Knowledge and Understanding of the World
• Physical Development 
• Creative Development

Personal, Social and Emotional Development:

Our aims are to en courage the children to be thoughtful, kind and caring members of the Pre-Prep and of the wider community. The concepts involved in this area of the curriculum occur in everything we do at school - in the playground, in the classroom, dining hall, cloakrooms, before and after lessons. They are reinforced at every opportunity through role play, assemblies, RS lessons, 'Circle time' and 'Golden Time'. High standards of behaviour are insisted on and rewarded, and self respect and respect for others is encouraged at all times. 

Communication, Language and Literacy:

We offer many opportunities for the children to learn and practise communication skills and to access language and literacy. These skills are encouraged throu gh both structured and unstructured play, role play, listening to and telling stories, show and tell, access to books and the Pre-Prep library. We also follow an excellent literacy scheme (RWI – Read, Write, Inc) which is designed to develop the children's reading, spelling, writing and listening skills.

 Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy:

We follow the 'Abacus Evolve' Scheme throughout Pre-Prep and Middle School. The children are encouraged to enjoy working with numbers and to experience and investigate other mathematical concepts such as shape, space, pattern and measurement. There are many opportunities to include mathematical activities and challenges acr oss the curriculum, in particular during structured play sessions when the children have access to sand, water, bricks and many other materials with which to experiment. 

 Knowledge and Understanding of the World: 

This area of the curriculum covers many subject areas such as science, geography, history and RS and all these can be interlinked in our topic sessions. The overall aim is to inspire the children with awe and wonder at the world around them: to help them to begin to understand how it works, to encourage in them an awareness of their local environment and culture and to begin to recognise that other cultures and environments exist in other parts of the country and the world.

Physical Development: 

This is a very important time for children developing physically and we aim to incorporate as much physical activity as possible into each school day. The children have access to fresh air and an outdoor environment for much of the time they are with us and they have discrete PE and games lessons twice a week. Music, movement and drama feature strongly in the activities which are offered to the children.

Creative Development: 

The children are given a wide variety of experiences that encourage creativity through art, design and technology, drama and music.

We explore many different types of media in our creative sessions, from painting to collage to gloop! Most afternoons the children can experiment with something creative and sticky! Singing is part of our daily routine and on most days you can hear the children singing a wide range of songs and experimenting with different instruments.

 

We are very lucky to have a  Reception unit that offers two very flexible teaching areas as well as a central area that is geared to imaginative and creative play. As well as the main playground to the front of Pre-Prep, the unit boasts its own outdoor classroom that offers many opportunities to explore the Early Learning Goals. The children also use facilities of the main school, for example, the ICT suite, the sports hall, the swimming pool, the barn and the woods. 

We pride ourselves on having a good partnership with parents. At ‘drop off’ and ‘pick up’ times, teachers are available to have a chat with parents about their child’s progress and answer any questions. We also produce a weekly Reception newsletter, that informs parents of all the fun activities that the children have been involved in and includes an agenda for the forthcoming week.

The Reception staff are a dedicated and friendly team. We aim for all children to become inspired and confident young learners through continual praise and encouragement.