Transition into Reception…

We are so proud of how all of the Reception children have coped with joining the school! Many of the children didn’t know the school or the staff, but they have done fantastically well adapting to new routines, learning names, meeting new friends from across many different nurseries and preschool settings.

The Reception team have also worked incredibly hard to make transition into school as smooth as possible, at a time when it’s even harder due to the additional restrictions. This year we weren’t able to do the usual nursery visits and home visits, but instead did telephone calls home to find out friendship groups to make classing the children easier and find out about our new children and families. We also did info sessions via Zoom meetings, a video for the new children to see the setting, meet the staff and for the team to do an ‘agony aunt’ style question and answer session, which hopefully answered any questions that the children and parents may have had. (I felt very famous when several children said “Ooo I’ve seen you on my TV lots of times.” – I hope the video was useful!) We also sent home a social story with lots of photos of the staff our fabulous setting too, informing the children of the door to use to come into school, and routines to follow so they were fully prepared for their first days in school. (Again, this helped as many of the children had learnt the staff names by using the photos.) We then had Stay and Play sessions in September to meet the children before they joined us officially.

Now the children are all in and are settling perfectly into school life, we have introduced the children to other faces. They have enjoyed saying “Good morning” to Mrs Fennelly and Mrs Rosevear when they are on the school gate at drop off / collection time. Mrs Fennelly and Mrs Rosevear have also popped into Reception many times to learn names and become a friendly face to the children. On Friday many of the children met Mr Johns for their P.E taster session, the rest of the children will meet him this coming Friday and then our proper PE sessions will begin next Friday, when the children are all in school full time. (The photos attached show some of the children enjoying some fun games activities on the playground with Mr Johns.)

A busy few weeks so far, but well worth it, knowing that the children have done so well in their transition into school!

Well done Reception, keep up the great effort! We are so proud of you all. 😀

We are now starting to think about next year’s new intake of children, so if you have a child due to start school next September we have some COVID secure tours of the school coming up. Please go onto our school website to book a place.