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Brightwalton C.E.Primary School
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Ash Class
Welcome to Ash Class!
Ash Class – Reception
Ash Class is where our children begin their exciting school journey in Reception. We follow the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which helps us give your child the very best start.
In our classroom, learning happens in lots of different ways. Children take part in adult-led activities, but they also learn through child-initiated play within our continuous provision, which we call Discovery Time. This gives children the chance to follow their own interests, make choices, and build independence, while also developing important skills such as problem-solving, creativity and fine motor control.
Alongside Discovery Time, we have focused sessions that cover all areas of learning, including Phonics, Drawing Club, Maths, RE, PE, Music, PSHRE and Understanding of the World. These sessions introduce new knowledge and skills in a fun and engaging way, helping children grow in confidence and curiosity.
Staff
Reception children are taught by Mrs Williams and Mrs Goatley.
On Tuesday afternoons the children are taught by Mrs Scarrott and on Thursday afternoons by Mrs Stockwell.
Other adults who work regularly in the classroom are Ms Stubbs, Miss Hartwell and Miss Fisher.
If you have a message or query about your child, you are welcome to speak to the staff member at the door in the morning, Mrs Williams at the end of the school day (once she has seen the children out) or by contacting the school office to arrange a meeting or phone call.
Maths Problem Solving Day
Reception Update – Our First Full Week
The Reception children have had a fantastic first full week at school!
We have started Phonics and Maths and also enjoyed our new Drawing Club, where we have been listening to The Colour Monster. This story has helped us recognise and talk about our different emotions and feelings, before creating our own versions of the story through drawing.
Our activities have all been based around The Colour Monster, and the children have had so much fun:
- Threading Colour Monsters
- Making collage Colour Monsters
- Creating messy noodle monsters
- Sorting colours into Colour Monster jars
- And lots more exciting challenges!
Outside, the children have loved riding bikes, building in the role play area with logs and tyres, exploring in the sand, and climbing. We also went on a Wellbeing Welly Walk, collecting natural items to make a display for the Newbury Show.
We are learning how to do good sitting, looking, and listening, and we’ve been sharing lots of songs and rhymes together. The children also enjoyed their first football session with our football coach!
It has been a busy, fun-filled week, and the children have made a brilliant start to their Reception journey.
Reception Phonics – A Flying Start with Letters and Sounds
Intent
At Brightwalton School, we believe that phonics is the foundation for children to become confident, independent readers and writers. Using the West Berkshire Flying Start with Letters and Sounds programme, we aim to give every child the best possible start to their reading journey. Phonics provides the vital code that links spoken and written language, and we are committed to teaching it within a language-rich environment. Our intent is to ensure that children secure early reading skills, enabling them to enjoy books, develop a love of stories and access learning across the curriculum.
Implementation
We follow A Flying Start with Letters and Sounds, a structured programme developed by West Berkshire education professionals. The scheme builds on the national Letters and Sounds progression and complements the decodable books we use in school. Phonics is taught daily in Reception through a clear and consistent sequence. Children learn the main grapheme-phoneme correspondences in a carefully planned order, supported by fun, interactive activities.
Impact
Through Flying Start Phonics, children develop strong early reading and writing skills. They become confident in blending sounds for reading and segmenting for spelling. By securing these essential skills early, children are well prepared to move on in their reading journey with increasing independence. Progress is closely monitored so that children keep up rather than try to catch up, ensuring every child has the opportunity to succeed.
What is Drawing Club?
Drawing Club
Drawing Club is the brainchild of Greg Bottrill, from Can I Go and Play Now?. It immerses children in a world full of imagination, stories, and creativity.
Each week, we use a special book, tale, or short animation as our “portal” into a magical story world. Through drawing, talk, and play, children develop their language, storytelling skills, and fine motor control. They also begin to explore early writing and even some maths concepts like shape, doubling and halving.
Children love Drawing Club because it feels like an adventure. They invent “magic words,” create secret symbols on their drawings, and bring stories to life through their imagination.
In short, Drawing Club helps us open up the magic of stories for children, enriching their vocabulary, building confidence in mark-making, and nurturing a lifelong love of storytelling.
Discovery Time in Ash Class
What is Discovery Time?
Discovery time is when the children are able to access continuous provision. Continuous provision describes all of the different provision areas which are available for your children to use every day. Within each of these areas of provision there is a range of resources that children can use all of the time, throughout the whole year offering a breadth of learning possibilities.
This will enable children to learn skills, will challenge their thinking and help them to embed concepts. It also provides the context for a variety of learning conversations between children and adults with rich opportunities for modelling and extending speech and vocabulary. It is within this learning environment that the children will also develop key learning attributes. We stride to offer activities to enhance children’s engagement, independence, collaboration, self-confidence, resilience, curiosity and creativity.
In Ash class we have created clearly defined spaces. Creating provision areas in this way tends to lead to fewer distractions and also provides the context for children to collaborate, form relationships and communicate as well as promote mathematical thinking and meaningful writing opportunities.
Discovery Time Areas and Activities
Space Week- Based around the story of Whatever Next!
Going on a Bear Hunt
Learning Links
Below are some links and websites that the children might enjoy at home, click on the pictures to go to the linked page. Please note that some of the links are Youtube sites so please supervise your child when they use the internet at home.