Welcome to Reception Class 2023-24

Hello Children, 

A very warm welcome from our Reception Team here at Dunmore Primary. We are looking forward to meeting you on your first day of school.  We hope you are feeling as excited as we are. We have lots of fun activities ready for you when you start school and lots of resources for you to explore. 

We are lucky to have two classrooms, some shared areas and an outdoor area too. These classrooms are split into different areas. For example, role play, construction sand and water. We love to read and write at Dunmore and we tell different stories such as ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and ‘Supertato’ - these are a few of our favourites.

Don’t be worried about starting primary school because you may already have friends here at Dunmore and even if you don’t, there are lots of other children waiting for you to be their friend.

We are so lucky to have you at Dunmore and you will have a fantastic time here with us too.

See you soon!

The Reception Team

Getting to know Dunmore Primary School

Below you will find a Pdf document called "Starting School". It has photographs of key members of staff and our school environment to prepare your child for starting school. Use it like a story book if you want to.

You'll also find the Pdf of our Parent/Carer power-point which we went through at the Welcome meeting in June 23.

Our Starting school document with information about how we run our Reception classes and whole school is also below.

If you need any help accessing the documents or need them translating into a different language, please contact the main school office

                 Your child is entitled to a hot school dinner until the end of Year 2 -

                       but just in case, here is our guidance on packed lunches

School readiness              

The photograph below is a useful resource provided by Nursery Resources to explain ‘school readiness’. We strongly believe at Dunmore that concentration, listening, independence, self-care and social skills are key for starting school. We have provided a list of activities below to support your child becoming "school ready". We also understand each child is different and we aim to support every child to achieve their personal best. We have attached a link for the photograph if this will be easier to read.

Phonics 

Our aim is for children to start the Reception year being able to listen to and compare sounds. These skills can be improved by going on a listening walk and sharing the different things you hear e.g. birds, aeroplanes etc. We will upload different activities below to improve your child’s listening skills and ideas to compare sounds. If children can write their own name then that is a great start but this isn’t an expectation. We would however love it if your child could recognise their own name as a starting point. Each child is different and unique and therefore we understand there will be different starting points and we will support your child wherever appropriate with you as a team.

One aspect we will focus on at the start of the year is listening to the beginning sound in words. We sometimes call this the initial sound. We want children to be able to say what sound is at the beginning of a word. This doesn’t mean that they can recognise it or write it, but they can orally say the first sound. If you feel your child is ready to do this before September then please start breaking up the sounds in words to help your child be familiar with this. You can play Simon says but instead of saying the word- break it up e.g. Simon says touch you ch- i – n. This is a great game for developing listening and concentration skills. The document below provides other games to support this area of phonics.

Handwriting 

If your child is enthusiastic and eager to write then please introduce them to our handwriting. The PDF document below helps you form letters through rhymes.

Fine Motor Skills

Below is a document we have produced to support your understanding of fine motor skills with some activities on to strengthen those very important muscles in our hands.

Dough Disco

Play dough is a great activity to strengthen your fine motor skills. Can you go to the Dough Disco? Develop your motor skills through this fun video!

Memory and Concentration

Memory and concentration skills are so important throughout school and we would therefore encourage you to develop these skills with your child wherever possible. We have uploaded a variety of activities below to provide some suggestions.

Independence and Personal Hygiene 

Developing independence will benefit your child significantly to get them ready for school. These skills include tidying away toys and taking care of your belongings etc. We would aim for children to go to the toilet independently and for children to be able to dress themselves without help. The PDF documentation for fine motor control provides more skills in this area (using a zip, putting shoes on, buttoning and unbuttoning etc). Some of these skills will take time but please keep trying and practising them. Allowing time for your child to practise dressing themselves and giving your child ownership over taking the shoes on and off will help them to become quicker.