Swing Gate Infant School and Nursery

  Welcome to our Reception Classes

Teaching Team

Miss Oliver

Mrs Fitzgerald

Mrs Paynter

 

Support Staff

Miss Hardwick

Miss Shaw

Week beginning: 6th October 2025

Squirrels Class weekly theme

Making food  

Bowl of carrot or pumpkin vegetable soup, perfect for healthy eating and comfort food visuals. Bowl of carrot or pumpkin vegetable soup, perfect for healthy eating and comfort food visuals. vegetable soup stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images

We really enjoyed the Harvest Festival last week and talking about sharing food with others. This week we will take part in the Big Soup Share, where we will work together to chop vegetables to make one giant soup! We will then share the soup across the school. Any donations of vegetables or herbs for our soup would be gratefully received on Thursday or Friday this week. 

Owls Class weekly theme

How we grow and change  

 

The children have been discussing how the food we eat grows, noticing that some grow underground like carrots. Whilst playing, learning and exploring the children have begun to notice their own learning and things they can now do they couldn’t do when they were in nursery. We are going to explore that more this week. It would be great if you could support your child’s learning through discussing this with your child at home and perhaps sharing baby or younger photographs with them and talking about the differences between them and younger or older siblings or cousins. If your child would like to bring in a photo or a fact to share related to our theme they are more than welcome! 






Our Learning this week includes:

Literacy - This week we will provide lots of opportunities for children to practise their fine motor skills through threading, using tweezers with marbles, and cutting. Adults will support children to communicate their ideas in written form and connect the phonemes learnt with their own ideas when they have a go at writing the initial sounds in words. We are also practising the accurate formation of the letters taught so far, and the letters in our names. 

MathsWe will be learning how numbers can be made up of smaller parts. At first we will explore how numbers can be composed using 1s. The children will then be encouraged to use their experience of recognising small groups of up to three objects by sight, to explore the composition of the numbers 3 and 4. For example, they might begin to discover that the number 3 can be made up of 1 and 2, and the number 4 can be made up in different ways, such as 1 and 3 or 2 and 2. Through hands-on activities and practical experiences, the children will begin to understand that a 'whole' number is made up of smaller parts — and that the whole is always greater than its individual parts.

DT - On Friday we take part in the Big Soup Share where we will be working together with the rest of the school to prepare a giant soup to be shared at lunchtime. We will first chop vegetables, using a safe knife. We will learn how to hold the knife safely, and chop with our hand over the top. We will also tear herbs and peel skins off. We will then deliver the prepared veg to our school kitchen and Shelly and Fay will show us how they cook it in a giant pot! At lunchtime we will have the opportunity to taste some of the delicious soup which has been simmering all morning. 

Reception Baseline Assessments (RBA) - This week is our RBA week where we will be spending time with the children on a one to one basis to complete the statutory RBA. For Literacy it involves talking about a story book, sequencing pictures to make a story, hearing and saying the initial sounds in words and oral blending. For maths it involves counting teddy bears, recognising numerals and putting them in order and making patterns with colours. Our aim is to ensure the children have fun completing the activities and enjoy one to one time with their teacher. 
 

 

Phonics focus of the week Song of the week Words of the week

Poem of the week

ck, e, u, r  happy, sad, nervous, excited

Leaves are falling 

 

Our termly Class letter is viewable here

 

What the children say... 

In our EYFS unit we plan according to the children's interests. We spend time talking to the children, asking them what they already know and what they would like to find out.

 Our weekly themes are led by the children. Each week we share ideas and then pick a theme for the coming week.

Our PE days for both classes are:

  • Tuesday 
  • Thursday 

 

RE learning 

In Religious Education, we will be learning about different celebrations and festivals which link to the heritage of some of the children. 

Swing Gate Lane, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire HP4 2LJ

01442 863913

admin@swinggate.herts.sch.uk