Reception Cycle (age 3-5)
Our unique two-year Reception Cycle maximises your child’s continuous learning and development in what are recognised to be the most crucial years of their school life.
The lasting impact of effective Reception teaching
Research published in December 2017 by Durham University established that Reception is the school year with the greatest impact on a child’s education. The paper entitled “The Long-Term Impact of Effective Teaching” concluded that children who benefited from good quality educational provision in Reception went on to achieve better GCSE results in English and maths. The study also acknowledged that it had already been widely accepted, based on other research, that high-quality early years and pre-school provision is arguably even more crucial for a child’s educational development.
Continuity through our unique two-year cycle
Because of the great importance of the Reception year and the need for continuity at this stage in a child’s development, we have devised a two-year Reception Cycle through which we seamlessly progress our children from Kindergarten to the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Everything we do in Pre-Reception aims to prepare the children to maximise their learning during that all-important Reception year.
Continuity is vital during this period since the children develop so rapidly, albeit on a path and at a pace that is very much their own. We achieve this through a number of means, including:
- Ramping up the number of afternoons in Pre-Reception from a minimum of two in the autumn term to a minimum of four in the summer term, in readiness for five full days in Reception
- Introducing expert teaching from all of our peripatetic teachers (music, PE, dance and French) from Pre-Reception
- More generally, fully familiarising the children with our main school site at 127 Herne Hill, including all relevant adults, facilities and resources
- Nurturing established relationships and friendships by moving the Pre-Reception children into Reception with a group of classmates.
Our approach
Our approach is predominantly play-based and exploratory, with judicious and progressive introduction of more structured, teacher-led lessons. The children are encouraged to pursue their own interests, rooted in their inherent desire to explore and understand the world, as this enables the development of all inter-connected domains of the brain, especially the self-regulatory ‘executive functions’. Indeed, it is through creative play, games and other appropriately guided activities that children can best practice integrating their attention, working memory, and self-control to support planning, flexible problem-solving, and sustained engagement.
Our staff make the difference
Our expert practitioners play the most crucial role in successfully implementing our approach. They guide the children to practice reflecting on their experiences, talking about what they are doing and why, monitoring their actions, considering possible next steps, and evaluating the effectiveness of their decisions. They ‘scaffold’ the development of these skills, first by helping children complete challenging tasks, and then by gradually stepping back to let them manage the process independently.
Thanks to their expertise and our high staff:pupil ratio, our teaching staff gain an intimate knowledge of each child’s sensitivities and personality, which enables them to tailor their scaffolded interventions to the child’s age and stage of development. This highly individualised, seamless approach through the entire Reception Cycle is crucial since both the path of development of the inter-connected domains in the brain and the pace of that development differ for each child.
Our Reception-Cycle curriculum
In line with our aims and approach, our bespoke curriculum is broad and multi-faceted. It not only meets the statutory requirements of the EYFS but goes way beyond, incorporating the following:
- Promotion of communication skills through exposure to a rich language environment
- Fostering a positive sense of self and respectful relationships with others
- Opportunities to develop control, coordination and movement
- Progressive development of early mathematical skills and concepts
- Progressive development of early reading and writing strategies
- Enhanced love of books and reading
- Knowledge of different cultures, communities and the natural and man-made world
- Imaginative, creative and expressive opportunities
In delivering these and all other areas of learning, our teaching staff render everything as fun as possible and make extensive use of our amazing outdoor environment/woodland area.
Another important hallmark of our curriculum is the extensive use of cross-curricular whole-school topics. They not only unite the school under a new creative theme each term but also help to keep our teaching fresh and relevant. Most importantly, they provide a means to creating inter-related, exciting and enjoyable learning opportunities and to nurture the children’s creativity, curiosity and interests.
You can find further details about our Reception Cycle curriculum by logging in
Please login or sign up for access.
LoginPlease log in to view this additional content
Ahead of each term, the Reception Cycle teachers hold extensive discussions to devise interesting ‘super starts’, ‘hooks’ throughout the term and a ‘grand finale’ to end with an exciting finishing activity – tailored to the needs of each class. They weave these ideas into their termly curriculum planning, using the topic to introduce and consolidate learning across all areas of teaching, with a special emphasis on maths, phonics and PSED.
Mathematics
Our approach to teaching maths is to introduce it as early as possible – and to make it as fun as possible! As ever, a hands-on play-based approach works best. To enable this, all Reception Cycle classrooms include high quality mathematical resources such as Numicon, Community Playthings blocks, Unifix, etc. as well as sets of ‘small world’ resources such as dinosaurs, trains, people, cars and animals. These provide rich opportunities for exploring early concepts of numbers, shapes and measures.
At the outset of Pre-Reception, the children are introduced to our school-wide programme of ‘Maths Meetings’. These quick-fire structured sessions, which always begin with the mantra of ‘We Love Maths!’, are aimed at developing mastery of concepts through partner and group problem-solving activities. As the children progress through the Reception Cycle, the sessions become increasingly complex, building on the children’s growing mathematical confidence and knowledge.
Phonics
In Pre-Reception, the children are introduced straight away to our synthetic phonics programme which initially focuses around the children learning a ‘sound of the week’. Phonemes (or sounds made by a single letter) are systematically introduced each week in an order which allows children to begin to blend and segment simple words very quickly.
Our programme ensures plenty of opportunity for repetition and reinforcement, so that children who need a bit longer to consolidate their phonic learning have ongoing exposure to all of the sounds already taught. As they progress towards and into Reception, children are given a range of opportunities to apply their phonic knowledge in supported reading and writing. Once confident in their knowledge of phonemes, they are introduced to individual reading books and applied writing within a range of contexts.
PSED
Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) plays a central role in life during the Reception Cycle– through our safe and supportive learning environment, clear ground rules for discussions and interactions and, more widely, our ethos which values the contribution of all individuals and promotes self-respect and respect for others.
Through our PSED education, we aim to support children to:
- Feel secure and valued
- Develop a positive sense of self
- Interact with others appropriately and form positive relationships
- Become increasingly independent and able to look after themselves
- Explore their feelings and develop empathy towards and an understanding of others
- Understand and follow the boundaries and expectations
- Appreciate the diversity of individuals, families and cultures
Our nine school ‘Golden Rules’ create an important supportive thread to all aspects of our PSED education. In the Reception Cycle, we build on their introduction in Kindergarten and regularly deepen the underlying meanings and concepts of each golden rule in our weekly Reception Cycle assemblies. In these, we like to feature our cuddly golden rule toys, known as our ‘golden friends’, and their related stories. In addition, we utilise a motivational reward scheme through which each child is awarded, over the two-year Reception Cycle, a medallion of each golden rule.
Peripatetic teaching
From Pre-Reception, the children are taught by highly skilled, specialist peripatetic teachers in music, PE/sport, dance and French. Later on in Key Stage 1, these same teachers are then able to deepen and extend the children’s skills and knowledge in all these subjects, which between them cover a wide range of important areas of development.
In Pre-Reception, all peripatetic teaching is held in the morning to enable all children to participate. That first year is all about building trusted relationships with the teachers; stimulating interest in the subject; imbibing confidence to all children that they can all be good at singing, sports, dancing and languages; and laying the foundational skills for rapid progress in Reception. Teaching is typically through songs, puppets, lots of movement, role play and stories in an engaging way tailored for 3 and 4 year-olds.
The strong foundations and relationships established in Pre-Reception then allow the teachers to rapidly advance the children’s skills in Reception in a manner that is way above average.
Learning support
As part of our monitoring of the learning and development, we carry out ongoing assessments of each child’s progress. This includes a written assessment (The EYFS Profile) we produce at the end of the EYFS in the final term of Reception.
If our monitoring and assessment indicate a possible learning difficulty or special need, our teachers involve one or both of our Learning Support teachers to jointly consider potential intervention opportunities. Parents are kept abreast of any concerns and discussions; they can also establish direct contact with the Learning Support team.
In addition, the Learning Support team proactively supports the teachers in deepening learnings in small groups, where required.
Pre-Reception
Children transition from our Kindergarten at 99 Herne Hill to Pre-Reception at 127 Herne Hill the September following their third birthday. They are joined by a few additional new pupils. Having been introduced to the main site towards the end of their Kindergarten year, they quickly become familiar with it. The Pre-Reception classes are all located at ground floor level to enable free-flow access to the outdoor areas.
Attendance
Attendance is required on all mornings plus a minimum number of afternoons, which increases during the year to prepare the children for full-time attendance in Reception (two afternoons per week in the autumn term, three in spring and four in summer; with all children having the option of attending full days Monday to Friday throughout the year).
Lunch and wrap-around care
At lunch, the children continue to eat family-style in their classrooms. Optional wrap-around care is available with drop-off for breakfast club from 7.45am and after-school care until 4.40pm, 5.30pm or 6pm, as required.
Reception
Pre-Reception children transfer into Reception in the September following their fourth birthday. They pick up immediately on their steep learning trajectories, without ‘wasting’ any time, by being fully familiar with the facilities, recognising consistent learning resources and approaches, reconnecting with the trusted adults they know and being excited to see their friends again. They are joined by children from other local nurseries, whom we are able to settle very quickly as they can readily join in with the children who have come up through Pre-Reception.
Attendance
Attendance is full-time except for Friday afternoon, which is optional for the youngest children. All Reception classes are located on the first floor of the Mulberry building. All rooms have been recently renovated and benefit from being equipped with a full range of learning resources.
Lunch and wrap-around care
From Reception, the children have their lunch in our multi-function hall, initially with a lunch-plated table service which evolves to being served buffet style to allow more freedom of choice (albeit still with substantial nutritional guidance and encouragement). They can also attend our popular breakfast club from 7.45am as well as a wide range of Pre-Prep after-school activity clubs until 4.40pm and then care until 5.30pm or 6pm.
