Looking for a Reception place in Caterham?
Life in Reception
Oak Class will take a maximum of 18 children in a class and our qualified teachers support the children in becoming independent problem solvers. The children are exposed to more specialist lessons and are given opportunities to attend after school activities included with the rest of the school. Children are pushed to reach their full academic potential and our supported, socially and emotionally to give them a better understanding of themselves.
Lessons
- Maths
- Literacy
- Phonics
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Understanding the World
- Physical Education
- Swimming
- Music
- French
- Drama
- Computing
- Art
Children in Reception are given homework from September with daily reading books and word box flash cards to support them in familiarising themselves with high frequency words.
From spring or summer term (depending on ability) the children will begin to receive weekly spellings, literacy and maths tasks to complete at home.
A Day in Oak Class
8:30 - 8:40am – Arrival / Register.
8:40 - 9:00am – Adult led carpet input.
9:00 - 9:30am – Adult led activities / Child initiated learning / free flow.
9:30 - 9:40am – Adult led carpet input.
9:40 - 10:20am – Adult led activities / Child initiated learning / free flow.
10:20 - 10:30am – Tidy up time.
10:30 - 10:45am – Snack time.
10:45 - 11am – Outdoor playtime.
11 – 12pm – Phonics.
12 - 12:35pm – Lunch time.
12:35 – 1:10pm Outdoor play.
1:10 - 1:15 – Register
1:15 - 1:30 – Adult led carpet input.
1:30 - 2:45 – Adult led activities / Child initiated learning / free flow
2:45 - 3pm – Tidy up time / Get ready to go home.
3 - 3:15pm – Story time / Home time
Life in Reception
Introduction to Reception 2025
Tuesday 5th November from 6pm to 7pm at Essendene Lodge School.
Come and join us for an informative evening to find out more about what Essendene Lodge School
can offer your child. An opportunity to meet our Headteacher, Mrs Ali and our senior leaders.
Specialist teachers from Drama, Art, PE and Music departments will be on hand to tell you more. Come and see for yourself what makes an Essendene Lodge child stand out from the crowd.
Transitioning to School
For our children in Pre-school, the transition to Reception is seamless, as the children are already familiar with the Reception Class teacher and classroom from our whole unit learning sessions and free-flow play.
Children new to Essendene Lodge school, will be visited by the Reception Class teacher, either in their home or if at Pre-school, at their familiar setting. The child will also be invited to school for a transition morning in July before they are due to start school. At this session they will have the opportunity to meet the rest of their class and the class teacher and spend the morning exploring the classroom and the Early Years Setting. Further to this, you will be invited in to school on a separate occasion to meet with the Reception Class Teacher to have a parent interview to help us to get to know more about your child.
Specialist Teaching
Children in Reception participate in weekly French and Music lessons with specialist teachers. Our children also have the opportunity to learn a variety of instruments with our specialist music teachers who visit our school site.
Communication
We maintain regular contact with parents through our tracking, monitoring and communication system, ‘Famly’, which allows us to share photographs and videos of children with their adult, privately.
We welcome parents to come in and help with an activity, during our whole school theme weeks and on occasions to join us on school trips. The Early Years unit operates very much on an ‘Open Door’ Policy and like to draw on parent’s expertise when these may be relevant to our topics.
Experiences
The children experience a lot in our community as we regularly take the children on local walks, to the library, local shops and the park. Each term the children also experience a visitor in school or a trip out relating to our topics, such as Sea-life Centre for Under the Sea topic, or Chessington zoo for our zoo topic.
Moving to Year 1
In preparation for moving to key stage one, learning becomes more formal throughout the school year. This prepares them for a structured learning environment in year 1. Children are given activities once a week to complete at home in readiness for homework tasks to support their learning, from the Summer Term.
