Welcome to Reception at Gunter Primary School

The Reception Curriculum at Gunter Primary School is based upon the principle of learning through play. We believe that this is the most meaningful way for young children to learn. We offer a variety of open-ended learning experiences based around the children’s interests. The structure of our day includes extended periods of uninterrupted play to afford children the time to become fully immersed within their own learning and discovery. We provide rich, enabling learning environments, indoors and outdoors, which promote independence and a love of learning. Our children are encouraged to access resources by themselves, to make choices, to follow their own interests and to extend their own learning independently. We have found that this leads to greater involvement and a deeper level of learning and investigating. As our children progress through Reception, our curriculum balance shifts to include some motivating adult led activities, core experiences, and targeted phonics and maths sessions. 

Our curriculum is designed to equip our children with the foundational knowledge, understanding and skills needed to prepare them for Year 1 and beyond. This is based on the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework and ‘Development Matters’ guidance, along with children’s interests and developmental needs, and the context of our school.

A priority at Gunter Primary School is the development of children’s language and vocabulary. This is taught through the stories we read, our interactions with children, and our language and communication-rich environment. We provide a variety of opportunities to develop children’s familiarity with stories, songs and rhymes throughout Reception.

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Phonics in Reception

In April 2022, we introduced Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds. This is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme. We follow this programme to teach phonics and early reading skills in Reception.  Our consistent approach to phonics ensures that children are given the best possible foundation for reading, writing and language skills. If you would like further information, please click here Little Wandle Phonics.

For more information about Phonics in Reception, please refer to our English - Phonics - section on the school website.

Maths in Reception

We deliver daily teacher led maths sessions, largely following the White Rose Schemes of Learning but this is supplemented by NCTEM. During the Spring Term, we introduce short focus group sessions where we are able to meet our children’s individual mathematical developmental needs. If you would like to learn more about the White Rose Schemes and supporting resources please click here White Rose Maths.

Reading Practice in Reception

At Gunter, we recognise the importance of ensuring our children learn to read fluently as quickly as possible. ‘Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible’, and fluent readers will learn more, because they can read and gain knowledge for themselves.

In Reading Practice Sessions Children in Reception read fully decodable books with an adult 3 times per week during our ‘Reading Practice’ sessions. These books are then sent home for children to build their reading fluency and showcase their developing skills and phonetic knowledge to their parents/carers. These 3 reading practice sessions each have a different focus; decoding, prosody and comprehension. Each week, the children will also select a ‘Sharing Book’ to take home to share with parents/carers.

In our Reading Practice sessions we teach and model the following reading strategies:

1. Fluency (applying our Phonics knowledge)
2. Prosody (reading with expression)
3. Comprehension (reading with understanding)

Our Collins Big Cat Reading Scheme books are interlinked with Little Wandle Phonics. Our children are assigned books that are matched to their phonic knowledge so that they can develop confidence and take pleasure from a love of reading.