Reception

Hello! My name is Miss Duckers and I am the Reception teacher. This is my eleventh year here at Castlefort Academy and I absolutely love working in the foundation stage. I want our children to love school and I strive to make our classroom a place of laughter and learning!

Our Early Years Setting provides the children with a stimulating, exciting and challenging curriculum in a caring and supportive environment. We want the very best for your children and hope that by working in partnership with you as parents, we can help your child achieve their full potential.

In the EYFS we love being creative, a little bit messy and a little bit noisy, but don't worry- it's all to help us with our learning! We do lots of singing, dancing, playing and creating. Children have the chance to work with their teachers and well as find out things on their own. I have lots of exciting activities planned for the busy year ahead, and cannot wait to share these experiences with the children.

We really value your support and the role you play in your child’s education, so if you have any queries or questions, please do not hesitate to come in and see any of us.

Our Reception Team

We're really lucky to have such a supportive, friendly team in the Early Years. This year I will be supported by Miss Hawtin and Mrs Hartshorne.

Miss Duckers

Class teacher

Miss Hawtin

Teaching assistant

Mrs Hartshorne

Teaching assistant

A Day In Reception!

A typical day in Reception will generally involve the following things:

-Literacy session- this will involve reading lots and lots of exciting and interesting books to give a context to start our writing. At the beginning of the year, this will be learning to hold our pencil and writing letters, and by the end some of us are even writing short stories!

-White Rose Maths - This involves lots of physical and practical activities, including singing, games and moving around!

-Read Write Inc. This helps us to learn our sounds to help us read. We work in small groups based on the sounds we know.

-Creative curriculum- this is our ‘topic’ based work, with lots of understanding the world (science, geography, history links) and art and creative activities. Example of topics we have done before are, ‘What happens when I fall asleep?’ and ‘why are carrots orange?’

Creative Curriculum Topic Overview

Autumn 1	Me and my family and friends	Me and my family, people who love me, babies, growing and changing, my body. Keeping healthy, love and relationships
Autumn 2	What happens when I fall asleep?	Hibernation, bedtime routines, the moon and stars, Neil Armstrong
Spring 1	Are carrots orange?	Food, healthy eating, fruit and vegetables, recipes and cooking, origins of different food, my body, healthy living
Spring 2	Will you read me a story?	Fairy tale characters, goodies and baddies, homes and castles, magic and fantasy, writing and telling stories.
Summer 1	Why do spiders eat flies?	Minibeasts in the local environment, plants and flowers, growth and change, similarities and differences, food chain
Summer 2	What can you see in summer?	Weather, seasons, the seaside, at the beach, holidays, staying safe in the sun.

English Text Overview

Autumn 1 -Me and my family and friends	The jar of happiness, Who are you? My body belongs to me, There’s a poonami in my house, The feelings monster
Autumn 2 - What happens when I fall asleep?	Whatever Next, Aliens love underpants Christmas - Elf on the shelf, How to catch an elf
Spring 1 - Are carrots orange?	Supertato, The tiger who came to tea, Spiders sandwich, kitchen disco
Spring 2 - Will you read me a story?	Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Gingerbread Man, The three little pigs
Summer 1 - Why do spiders eat flies?	The Bad Tempered ladybird, The very Greedy Bee, Superworm, a bee’s life (national geographic kids), Flutterby, butterfly
Summer 2 - What can you see in Summer?	Commotion in the ocean, Herman’s holiday, smiley shark, a shark in the dark

General Information

School Times

Parents are asked to bring children to school by 8.40am. Class teachers/teaching assistants will open the doors, welcoming the children through into their classroom. We encourage children to enter school independently and ask parents to stand back and wave. At the end of the day at 3.10pm the children will be dismissed from the Reception exit. Parents are asked to join our queueing system, staff will then release children individually when they see the adult who is collecting them. Please try hard to get your child to school on time and to collect them promptly. If your child is late it is extremely important that you come in via the main reception to let the office staff your child has arrived.

Water Bottles

Throughout the day children are encouraged to stay hydrated by drinking. Children will need to bring in their own clearly labelled water bottle from home each day. These bottles must be taken home at the end of each day for cleaning and refilling.

Snack time & Playtime

Castlefort Academy has a duty of care to ensure they meet the statutory Early Years Nutrition guidance for 0-5 year olds from 1^st September 2025 which outlines healthy snacks, drinks and lunches for children in schools.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-nutrition

The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (SFVS) provides a free piece of fruit or vegetable to every 3 to 7year-old who attends school. We understand that children should eat a variety of fruit and vegetables to access different vitamins and nutrients. This healthy snack will be different each day and term according to the fruit available each season.

Here are some examples of the fruits and vegetables provided throughout the year:

apples
bananas
pears
satsumas
bell peppers
carrot sticks
sugar snap peas

You do not need to send your child with a snack to eat in Reception.

Children will have a short, morning break time on the KS1 playground. They will sometimes use the Trim trail on the field to develop their gross motor skills. The children will also be using the outdoor area for learning.

Lunchtime

Children will eat their packed lunch or a school dinner in the dinner hall. Please remember that Reception are eligible for ‘Free School Meals’ and we actively encourage you to consider these. The school meals are cooked on the school premises and gives us the opportunity to encourage children to use cutlery correctly and choose a healthy balanced meal. If you would prefer your child to bring a packed lunch, this should be in a secure lunchbox, clearly labelled with your child’s name.

Although the school dinner if free, you will need to book your child's school dinner on the Piota App.

Once your child has finished their lunch, they will get the opportunity to play with their friends on the KS1 playground with children in Year 1 and Year 2.

Uniform

Your child will be expected to wear the Castlefort Academy school uniform. Please write your child’s name in each item of clothing so that we can return any lost items. As children are very active, inside and out it is important that your child wears suitable black shoes.

We ask that the children are dressed in our school uniform of:

White Polo shirt
Grey trousers/ skirt/ pinafore dress
Burgundy sweatshirt/ cardigan
Red and white/pink checked school dress (summer)
Sensible black shoes

PE

Your child's PE session is on Wednesday. Children will come to school dressed in their PE kit.

This should consist of:

A white polo t-shirt
A pair of pumps or trainers
Black shorts/black joggers

Clothing and weather

Reception is about active learning and this involves a range of activities both inside and out. We value outdoor play experiences and therefore use our outdoor area in all weather. Please can you ensure your child is dressed appropriately for all weathers.

During winter please try to provide wellies, gloves, scarf, hat and a suitable coat. In summer please try to provide your child with appropriate clothing and a sun hat. We ask parents to take responsibility for applying a sun screen to all exposed areas of children’s skin before Reception, or the children can apply it themselves.

Book bags

Please make sure that your child has a book bag labelled with their name and that they bring it to and from school every day. It is really important that book bags are in school as the children can take home any letters.

Home Learning

Parents participating and actively being involved in early years can have a significant impact on improving children’s learning and supporting their needs. Each week a home learning project will be sent home, we encourage you to do them with your child and return the completed sheet to school.

Home-School mobile library

Every day you can borrow a book to read to your child at bedtime. Having conversations around stories daily is important to your child’s language development. We encourage you to read to your child as much as possible to develop their language and imagination. Our mobile library is located at the Reception exit.