Cressing Primary School

Reception Class News – Spring Term 2026

Dear parents and carers

Spring Term 1: Superheroes

This half term, our topic is “Superheroes”, and we have kicked off our learning by focusing on “People who help us / Real life superheroes” e.g., doctors, paramedics, dentists, vets. Our historical focus will be on learning about the super scientist Mary Anning, and linking this to fossils and dinosaurs, a subject that is always popular. In Understanding the World, we will be exploring freezing and melting, and magnetic forces. Later on, we will be looking at how we can help look after our planet, and just before half term, we will be learning about the Lunar New Year and how this is celebrated in China and worldwide.

Spring Term 2: The Three Little Pigs

We will be focusing on this traditional tale, looking at different houses around the world and over time, and exploring different materials. Linked to our "The Three Little Pigs" theme next half term, if any parents/grandparents are working in the building or construction industry, or carpentry etc. and are willing to come in and talk to us about your job, please let us know. In previous years, we have looked at some real tools, had a virtual tour of a building site, and discussed safety on the building site.

In Mathematics, we will be learning to recognise die patterns to 6 and link die patterns to numbers shown on their fingers, match numerals to representations, and understand that 5 can be partitioned (split) into different parts and be able to explain what the parts are. We will learn to use what we know about 5 to work out a hidden number and know some subtraction facts to 5. We will then move on to exploring numbers up to 10 - as numbers that are composed of ‘5 and a bit’. We will be describing the ‘1 more/1 less’ relationship of numbers to 10 and ordering numbers between 1 and 10.

In PE, in Monday sessions, we will continue to develop our fundamental skills e.g., throwing and catching, kicking, and passing. In Friday sessions, our Spring 1 unit is: Fun Gym Shapes, and our Spring 2 unit is: Obstacles, apparatus and travelling in different ways.

Road Safety Session: Monday 19^th January

A separate letter and email have been sent out about this.

Little City Role-Play session: Tuesday 20^th January

We are looking forward to welcoming “Little City” and having a fantastic, fun morning exploring all the role-play opportunities. If you haven’t already done so, please can you send in £10 (voluntary contribution).

Shrove Tuesday: Tuesday 17^th February

As this falls during the half-term holiday this year, our Drawing Club text, the week we return to school, will be “Mr Wolf’s Pancakes”. We usually make pancakes in class and will discuss a suitable recipe with parents and carers of our children with allergies.

World Book Day: Thursday 5^th March

We will be celebrating World Book Day on Thursday, 5th March.  We will also have a surprise special visitor that day. More details to follow on both of these.

Join us for "Phonics" - Week beginning 11^th March.  

We would like to invite you join us for our Supersonic Phonic Friends Session.  This will help you understand more about how we teach the children to read and write and how the phonics sessions are structured.  These sessions will run at the following dates/times:

Monday 9^th March – 2.30-3.10pm

Tuesday 10^th March – 8.50-9.30am

Thursday 12^th March – 8.50-9.30am

Due to space restrictions in the classroom, we will be limiting places to 10 adults at each session. We will have a sign-up sheet ready at pick-up / drop-off times, a few weeks beforehand, and you can let us know which session you would like to attend.

On the morning that you plan on joining us, you would need to drop your child(ren) and then go round to the school office to sign in before coming down to the classroom.  Your child will be able to sit near you during the Phonics session if they would like to do so. The plan is that you can watch, join in and then support your child when it comes to the activity part for the last 10 minutes of the lesson.
 

Reading Race:  

As an incentive to read regularly at home we will be introducing a "Reading Race" after February Half Term. Each day the children read at home (this can include their reading books, "short story sheets", phonic pots, sound flashcards, reading / writing tricky words) they will get one mark / tick on our chart. We will check the Reading Records a couple of times during the week to help us keep track. The children can choose a small “party-bag” prize every time they earn 10 ticks e.g. every 2-3 weeks.  More information to follow.

Thank you for your support,

The Reception Team