Reception Staff:

• Early Years Lead and Reception Teacher - Mrs. C Virr
• Reception Teacher - Miss H. Chittenden
• Teaching Assistants - Mrs. Rashid, Mrs. Ibrar and Miss Carr

We are proud to offer a safe and nurturing environment where children are happy, confident and motivated to achieve their very best. We provide excellent, high quality education, where we enable children to become resilient and aspirational individuals. 

Trusting relationships are quickly formed to ensure children and parents feel supported and part of our committed team. Partnerships with parents and carers are important to us. Welcome meetings are held yearly as well as stay and play sessions in Reading, Writing and Maths. Further information about Early Years can be found here or by contacting the school via email: office@healeyschool.co.uk.  We use Tapestry as a forum for sharing learning with parents and parents can communicate with staff.  Tapestry also offers the opportunity for parents to share learning at home with the class teacher and staff in EYFS.

The curriculum we follow in Early Years is progressive from the start of Nursery through to the end of Reception, with all children working towards achieving the Early Learning Goals.  We have dedicated staff who support learners with Special Educational Needs.  More information can be found here: https://www.healeyschool.co.uk/send/

Early language, reading and a love of books are at the heart of our curriculum. We explore new words daily and provide our children with a vocabulary rich environment. Key skills, including Read Write Inc Phonics and White Rose Maths, are taught discretely on a daily basis, as well as being embedded into all areas of continuous provision. Our writing journey starts with mark making and conveying meaning, and then develops into writing simple words and sentences. Writing is always part of our daily routine. The seven areas of learning are carefully planned for, ensuring our environment offers a rich range of cross curricular opportunities.

Whilst learning through play, our children use a range of accessible resources. Some offer familiarity, many create challenge, and enhancements promote current learning. Our areas of provision promote communication, independence and collaboration, as well as characteristics of effective learning such as negotiating, persevering and resilience.

The children learn and play both indoors and outdoors. Outdoors there are lots of opportunities for gross motor development such as climbing, balancing and riding a bike, as well as a role play area and a mud kitchen.

Staying active is crucial to a healthy lifestyle.

Strong values underpin our ethos and daily practice, which ensure mutual respect, kindness and high expectations for all. Through regular routines and consistent approaches, our children know what to expect and are enthusiastic to explore new experiences.

We pride ourselves in making sure that the children are always ready for the next stage of their educational journey. Reception is an evolutionary year group, which very much changes from a Nursery type environment full of play to a more structured, formal environment by the end of the year. This ensures that the children are ready to begin working on the National Curriculum expectations when they join Year 1. At the end point of the year, adults in Reception and Year 1 work closely together to ensure a smooth transition for all.