Welcome to Reception!

Croeso i Dosbarth Derbyn!

Teacher: Miss O'Shea

Teaching Assistants: Miss Thomas and Miss Lindsey

health screening.pdf

Communication

Contact us on Reception@stmellonsprm.cardiff.sch.uk

Google Classroom zkp446bl

Twitter @stmellonsprm

Schoop app

Overview of the day

8.45 Children arrive and settle down to complete their Morning Activity / Register

9.15 – 9.30 Collective Worship

9.30-10.00-GGR

10.00 – 10.30 Literacy, Languages & Communication

10.30 – 10.45 Snack / Break Time

10.45 - Milk

10.55-11.45 Mathematics & Numeracy

11.55 – 1.00 Lunch

1.00 – 1.25 RWI

1.30-2.45-- Context

(Topic/Science/RVE/ICT)

2.45-3.05 Daily Welsh Activities/Helpwr Heddiw

3.15 Home Time

Important dates for the half term
Monday 6th January - Friday 13th February

Christian Value - Courage

5th January – Inset day
6th January - Children Return to School
7th January - Candlemas Assembly for Children 9.15am

12th January - Christian Values Day Celebration - Courage
16th January - Chinese New Year Celebration PS1&2 for children
20th and 21st January - Spectrum Workshop Years 3 and 4
26th January - St Dwynwen’s Day Celebration for Children
25th January - Whole School Islam Celebration Day for Children
4th February - Courage Clergy Worship 9.15am for Children
Bishop Cherry visiting
2nd - 6th February - National Story Telling Week
6th February - Mid Term Reports sent out to parents
9th February - Welsh Language Music Day

11th February - Reception and Year 1 School Trip
12th February – Valentine Disco PS1 & 2- 3.30-4.30pm, PS3 4.45-5.45pm
Spectrum Workshop Year 5
9th-15th February - Children’s Mental Health Awareness week
10th February - Safer Internet Day
13th February – Last day of term
16th – 20th February 2026 – Half Term

Christian Value – Forgiveness
23rd February - Return to school, values celebration day
5th March - World Book Day
3rd March - Eisteddfod Celebration for Children
9th March - International Women's Day
9th - 11th March Year 4 Residential to Llangrannog
13th March - World Maths Day
2pm Parents Maths Workshop
17th March - Sikhism Celebration Day
20th March - Year 3 Family Worship at 9:15am, families welcome
Rags to Riches Collection
23rd and 24th March – Parents Evening 3.30-5:30pm
23rd March - Easter Eucharist 9.15am families welcome
23rd March – Easter Celebration Week
26th March - Messy Easter Celebration Day
Easter Bonnet Parade N- Year 3 - 2pm
Bonnet Parade Nursery am - 11.15am
27th March - Last day of term
Easter Holidays – 30th March - 10th April 2026

Snack

Families may choose to provide your child with their own healthy snack, however, there are also a range of fruit options that can be purchased from our schools healthy snack shop. Please can all orders be purchased on either a weekly, or termly basis. The cost of fruit per week is £2 per week or £14 per term and can be paid for on Parent pay. Payments should be made via parent pay. If you wish to purchase snack on a weekly basis, please can all orders be paid for in advance, no later than 12 noon on the Friday before snack is required.
If your child is bringing their own healthy snack could you please put it in a container clearly labelled with their name, which is not part of their lunchbox.

PE will take place on a Tuesday morning. Pupils can come to school in their PE kit. They can remain in their kit for the day. Please send your child in their house colour T-shirt and joggers.

Pupils should come to school in uniform when they do not have PE.

Grey skirts ,dresses or trousers
White shirts
School tie
Navy cardigan or sweatshirt with the school logo

Current Learning

This term we will look at the context, Memory box

This term, our inquiry topic will focus on exploring time, memories, and personal experiences. Pupils will reflect on and share their own memories of starting school and other important moments in their lives, building confidence and curiosity as they talk about their experiences. They will begin to sort and order events from the past, present, and future, developing an early understanding of simple chronology and using language such as “yesterday,” “today,” and “tomorrow.” Through stories, discussions, and play, pupils will learn to recognise different times of day and explore events that have already happened while imagining those that may come, such as moving into a new class, meeting new teachers, or thinking about future aspirations. Alongside this, pupils will develop an appreciation of similarities and differences between themselves and others, understanding that everyone’s memories and milestones are unique and equally valued.

Pupil Voice Questions

When did I take my first steps?

Were we all babies at the same time?

Am I different from when I was a baby?

Do we all start walking and talking at the same time?

When will I be grown up?

What different things can I do when I grow up?

What was my first word?

How old was I when I first came to nursery/school?

How did I feel on my first day of school?

What can I do now that I couldn't when I was a baby?

Planning

Reception Inquiry Planning Spring Term 2026 - Memory Box

Homework

counting in EYFS and KS1 | Teaching ...

Reading

Reading books will come home weekly.

Please could book bags be sent in on a Monday so that books can be changed and sent home by Tuesday.

Please comment in the little yellow book each week and ask any questions in there and we will try to respond as quickly as possible.

Homework

Homework is optional and will be posted on Google Classroom weekly.

Spelling Test

Spellings for the term will be posted on Google Classroom for your child to practice. Spelling tests will be every Friday.

The Four Purposes

The four purposes are that all children and young people will be:

Ambitious, capable learners who are ready to learn throughout their lives.

Enterprising, creative contributors who are ready to play a full part in life and work.

Ethical, informed citizens who are ready to be citizens of Wales and the world.

Healthy, confident individuals who are ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

Value

We follow the ‘Values for life’ scheme this term and our value is ‘Courage’. Please discuss our termly value with your child at home and encourage them to share how they have been ‘living out’ the value in their daily life.

compassion.pdf

Proverbs 19:17 - 'Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and will be repaid in full.'.

LLC

In Reception, we will focus on letter recognition and letter formation using Read Write Inc . This is a popular phonics scheme. Like all phonics schemes, it teaches children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing.

rwi formation.pdf

We will also begin to look at our high frequency words and play games to help us recall some of these words. Lots of these games will take place outside to enable us to make the most of our learning environment.

We will also be using games on the iPad and on Active Learn to support this.

Games can also be played at home and relevant games will be made available each week.

We will learn a story by heart, story map it and then learn actions to help us retell it. We have a role play corner and puppet theatre in our enhanced provision to support us with our story telling and oracy skills.

We will be learning to label pictures using initial sounds to identify the correct vocabulary.

The children will also be continuing to develop their Welsh language skills through daily Helpwr Heddiw sessions . They will be asking and answering simple questions based on feelings and likes and dislikes and using greetings throughout the day. Counting in Welsh and use of colour vocabulary will form part of their daily routine.

Reading is an extremely important part of your child's learning. We will take every opportunity to immerse your child in books and stories and we also take part in a guided reading session at least once per week. Reading books will be set up online to share with your child at home .Please use the online Oxford Owls books to support your child. Reading books will come home weekly. Please could book bags be sent in on a Monday so that books can be changed and sent home by Tuesday. Please comment in the little yellow book each week and ask any questions in there and we will try to respond as quickly as possible.

Numeracy

Cartoon funny numbers or comic digits set. Creature monsters illustration

In Numeracy this term, we will continue to look at and developing our number skills. We will be looking at place value and counting to 20 and then beyond according to the stage appropriate for your child. We will be counting backwards from ten and then from 20 so that we can begin to understand taking away. We will look at the formation of numbers and use rhymes to help with the recall of formation. We will use the outdoor environment to find and form numbers and begin to count amounts in games and using natural objects We will sing number songs on a daily basis counting both backwards and forwards and use shapes in our play. We will continue a repeating pattern with natural materials and will sort people pictures according to different criteria. As part of our context we will be comparing height and length. We will be comparing the length of our feet and how far we can jump. We will collect data about the way that we look and represent this in picture form, forming questions about the data collected and answering using this. We will begin to look at time and what we do during different parts of the day.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/shape-patterns Patterns with shapes

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/todays-number-up-to-20 Number activities

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/teddy-numbers Counting and reading numbers

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/caterpillar-ordering Ordering numbers

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/todays-number-up-to-20

Numbers to 20

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/helicopter-rescue

Numbers to 100 activity

https://pbskids.org/peg/games/happy-camel/

Weighing activity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0dJWfQHF8Y

Counting to one hundred song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=941e6RnP4EQ

Days of the week song

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/early-years/lets-compare Measuring by direct comparison

Welsh

Welsh Dragon Flag. 8ft x 5ft - Life's a breeze GB Ltd

Welsh language will be an integral part of our everyday routine. As we talk about colours, shapes and numbers the children will be hearing Welsh vocabulary alongside English. We will be starting with simple greetings at different times of the day around school with staff and pupils. These can also be used with you at home. We will also be looking at vocabulary relating to toys.

Bore da Good morning

Prynhawn da Good afternoon

Sut wyt ti? How are you?

Pwy wyt ti? Who are you?

Sawl? How many?

Beth wyt ti eisiau? What do you want?

Sut mae'r tywydd heddiw? What is the weather like today?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/lingo-show-welsh-counting-song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjZzVQOEj4 Sut Mae'r Tywydd Heddiw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6hQDMBrJn4 Bore da Ffrindiau

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Cn-qQzA3c Beth sy yn y Bocs?

MFL

Jigsaw and PSHE

Starting Reception is an opportunity for children to gain independence and self-confidence. It allows them to learn basic tasks by themselves and discover more about life outside of their family unit. Encouraging children to start with something easy and small can help them to avoid over-reliance on adults, parents or even their more confident peers. Practicing key skills such as putting on their shoes and doing up their coats are very important.
The pupils will be starting with a unit of work ’Dreams and Goals’ which comes from our PHSE Jigsaw scheme.

Jigsaw is the mindful approach to PSHE/HWB, brings together Personal, Social, Health Education, emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development in a comprehensive scheme of learning. A lesson a week with the teaching resources included, helps us to focus on tailoring lessons to the children’s needs and to enjoy building the relationship with the class, getting to know them better as unique human beings.

Teaching strategies are varied and are mindful of preferred learning styles and the need for differentiation. Jigsaw is designed as a whole school approach, with all year groups working on the same theme (Puzzle) at the same time. This enables each Puzzle to start with an introductory assembly, generating a whole school focus for adults and children alike.

Active Travel & news

Travel Tracker

The WOW Activity Tracker is a web-based tool which makes use of the class whiteboard to offer schools a digital alternative to WOW wallcharts. It offers all the usual benefits of tracking the pupils’ journeys, plus a whole lot more. Combined with the monthly badges, the Activity Tracker forms a complete monitoring and rewards system for schools running WOW.

Picture News is a pack full of teaching resources, emailed to each class every week!

The resources are designed to provide opportunities for children to learn from our world and develop respect for other’s beliefs, feelings and faiths. They encourage exploration, discussion, challenge and inspire children to learn!

Music Instrument Images - Free Download on Freepik

Would you like to play an instrument?

Which one would you choose?

Gift boxes set Colorful presents for holidays

Have you ever been given a gift?

Who gave you the gift ?

How did it make you feel?

Internet safety

At St Mellon's, we promote the use of 'SMART' rules daily, as we know how important it is to stay safe online.

Please encourage your children to use these 'SMART' rules at home too.

Online Safety Poster - Primary

As part of the Curriculum for Wales your child will discuss and learn how we can all stay safe online and about the dangers we may face on the internet. We get involved with national Internet Safety Day, which is held on the second Tuesday every February each year.