Cressing Primary School

Reception Class News – Summer Term 2026

Dear parents and carers

Summer Term 1: Pirates, Mer-people and Sea Creatures

This half term, our topic is “Pirates, Mer-People and Sea Creatures”, and we will be enjoying a variety of great texts linked to these, e.g. 'Mrs Pirate', 'Julian is a Mermaid', 'Somebody Swallowed Stanley'. Our historical focus will be on learning about pirates and how they lived a long time ago. In Understanding the World, we will be exploring floating and sinking. We will also be looking at different environments and discussing similarities and differences e.g. land and oceans, hot places, cold places, cities and villages. We will be learning about ocean pollution and how to look after our planet by keeping our beaches clean. We will be looking at some simple maps and drawing our own. We currently have some eggs incubating in class, thanks to a kind donation from one of our families. We are all very excited about what will hatch in a few weeks!

Summer Term 2: Growing

We will be focusing on several traditional tales, e.g. 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and 'The Enormous Turnip', and also books about mini-beasts, such as 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and 'What the Ladybird Heard'. Linked to this, we will be planting cress seeds and beans and observing them grow. We will be learning about other life cycles and watching our caterpillars develop and change into butterflies. Our class trip will link nicely with this and will include a nature walk.

In Phonics, we are onto Level 4 and reading and writing longer words with four or more sounds. We are still focused on securing our recognition of Level 3 digraphs and trigraphs and being able to read and write words containing these.

In Maths, we will be developing their counting skills, verbally counting above 20 and counting objects up to 20. They will be honing their subitising skills visually and audibly and securing their knowledge of doubles patterns to 10. They will be consolidating their understanding of the composition of numbers to 5 and recalling these parts when 1 part is not visible e.g. I know there are 4, I can see 2, so I know there hidden part must be 2. We will be reviewing the composition of numbers to 10 and then will begin to explore how 10 can be composed. After lots of revisiting these skills ready for Year 1, we will be spending the last few weeks of term on some shape, space and measurement work.

In PE, on Monday sessions, we will be developing skills ready for Sports Day and then in Summer 2 we will be doing some athletics with Mr P. On Friday sessions, our Summer 1 Unit is: Dance – Commotion in the Ocean where we will be learning to move to music like different sea-creatures, and our Summer 2 Unit is: Gymnastics: Move and Hold.

Handwriting and letter formation continue to be a daily focus as we need to ensure that the children are forming the majority of their letters correctly by starting each letter in the correct place, retracing lines and using anti-clockwise movement. This is one of the ELG’s for the end of the year.

Lunchtime transition:

This term the children will be encouraged to go and explore the main playground at lunchtimes supported by the midday assistants but can still spend time in the Reception outside area if they choose. They have been very excited about this and have enjoyed meeting up with older siblings and friends.

Pirate, Mer-people and Sea Creature Day - Thursday 21st May

The children can come to school dressed as a Pirate, Mermaid / person or Sea Creature on Thursday 21st May. We will have some special activities planned for the day. Hopefully, this will be a straightforward one for you to prepare for. The children could wear an old shirt or stripey t-shirt and old shorts and might like to make a sword, parrot, hook e.t.c. Please don't buy anything if your child doesn't have anything suitable to wear for the day. We have loads of costumes to choose from in school, so just let us know and they can choose something which we can send home a few days before to be freshened up.

Class R trip to "The Wilderness Foundation":

The letter re: our class trip on Tuesday 30th June has been sent out in book bags recently and I will also send a copy by email.

Naming uniform, sunhats and sunscreen:

Please ensure that all uniform is named. As the weather is warmer the children are taking off jumpers and cardigans and many of these are not currently named. The children will all need to bring a named sunhat as the weather improves. Suntan lotion should be applied before school and many of these last for up to 6 hours. However, you may also wish to send in some suntan lotion in a named bottle. The roll on ones are easy for the children to apply at lunchtime. PLEASE double check the ingredients of all suntan lotion to ensure that it does NOT contain any nut based oils or products.

Reading Race:

The "Reading Race" will continue this term and the prizes have hopefully been encouraging the children to read at home with you. We would like to reiterate how important it is for the children to get into the habit of reading at home with you for around 10 minutes, up to 5 times per week. This can make a fantastic impact on their progress and attainment in reading.

Guest Mystery Readers:

If you would like to volunteer to come in and be one of our Guest Mystery Readers then please sign up. We will put a sign-up sheet out at the gate. This involves bringing a favourite book in to share with the children. Usually we do this on a Wednesday at about 2.50pm for 10-15 minutes, but this could be an alternative day.

Thank you for your support,

The Reception Team