Reception class rooms are busy places at St. Michael’s, each a hive of constant activity where the children are actively engaged in enthusiastic learning.  Building on all they learnt in Nursery, children make excellent progress during the year in all aspects of their learning and development and achieve well above the national average by the end of the year.

 

Classes are kept to a maximum of 20 children with a full time teacher and Nursery Nurse for each class.  As in Nursery, a close working relationship between the children and the staff ensures that the children are able to discover and learn with confidence in a happy and attractive environment.

A large emphasis is placed on the development of phonic and number understanding. Daily activities reinforce letter and sound recognition thoroughly preparing the children as they begin to read and write.  Practical activities rooted in everyday life help to establish and reinforce language and mathematical understanding and encourage the development of problem solving skills at this young age.

In addition to class room based activities and specialist teaching for Music, French and PE good use is made of outdoor learning spaces within the school grounds to stimulate the children’s imagination and to extend their learning experience.

Children in Nursery and Reception follow the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. This covers the following seven areas of learning and development which are important and inter-connected.

Three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children's curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and to thrive.

These three areas, the prime areas, are:

Additionally, the curriculum supports children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. The specific areas are:

These seven key areas are at the core of the children's learning within the Nursery and Reception and form the foundation on which the children will build as they move up to Form 1 and further up the school.

Children who have not been through Nursery at St. Michael's may start in Reception in the September after their fourth birthday. All Reception children attend for the whole day from 8:30am - 3:15pm.