Class and Curriculum Information - Reception
Welcome to our Reception information page. Here you will find out all about the day to day information you need to know regarding your child's first year of statutory education.
What you need to know day to day:
All our sessions are carefully planned to meet your child’s needs and provide lots of exciting learning
opportunities. A typical day looks like:
08:30 - Register, morning starter and phonics
09:20 – Free flow with specific targeted work
10:20 – Snack and Story Time (Reading for Pleasure)
10:40 – Free flow with specific targeted work
11:40 – Reading - phonically decodable books
12:10 - Lunch
13:10 – Maths whole class input
13:30 - Maths small group, NELI, free flow with specific targeted work
14:30 – Talk for Writing
15:00 - End of day dismissal
Free flow tasks are changed regularly and specifically designed with an explicit learning purpose in mind. Alongside that, staff will be engaging in focussed targeted work which is specifically adapted to meet the needs of your child. This means that each child's learning that day will look slightly different but ensures that ALL of our pupils make great progress.
At Dunkirk, we go out whatever the weather! Each child has their own set of waterproof coats, trousers and Wellington boots provided by school. However, if you would like to provide your own please make sure that they are clearly labelled.
Pupils have access to fruit and water at snack times during the day, however, we also recommend that your child have their own labelled water bottle in school to support them developing their independent skills.
Our curriculum:
At Dunkirk, we take guidance from the government documents Birth to 5 Matters. As you can see, the Early Years Curriculum is more than just 'subjects' that your child learns, and we ensure that we consider the whole child when planning the learning of your child in school.
Alongside this, we have also worked with our specialist subject leads to ensure that your child's learning follows a clear route of progression right from Nursery through to Year 6. Progression of skills in Nursery and Reception, with clear vocabulary links to Year 1 can be accessed by clicking this link. . This consistency and mastery approach across all subjects, means that your child will continue to know more and remember more throughout their time at Dunkirk. Take a look at our subject specific pages to find more about the specific progression in each subject.
Alongside this, our Early Years Lead has created specific Long Term Plans which includes key assessment opportunities. You can view these by clicking on this link.
Our medium term plans for Reception are then created by our amazing teachers and can be accessed by clicking the following links:
In Early Years, our curriculum is twofold. We consider the Characteristics of Effective Learning and specific Areas of Learning and Development. The specific Areas of Learning and Development are split into 7 main areas which then divide into 17 areas in total:
Homework: 
Maths - your child will receive a login for the app Numbots, a fun and engaging app which supports children in developing their early mathematics skills.
Reading - We recommend that you read to your child daily, both them to you and you sharing a story with them. We will send home reading books on a regular basis that are specifically matched to the phonic level that they are working on. These phonically decodable books are matched to our phonic programme and will have also been read by the children in school. It is crucial that your child reads each book multiple times for them to progress with their reading.
Communication with parents:
Communication with parents is a vital part of your child's learning journey at Dunkirk. We will work with yourselves as part of a team to make sure that your child's transition from home to school is a happy and enjoyable one. Alongside regular conversations with staff at pickup and drop off, we will also communicate with you in the following ways:
Class Dojo:
When you join Dunkirk Primary School, your child will come home with a log in code for Class Dojo. Please do sign in and create an account as this is our main way of communicating with you.
Your class teacher will post regular updates, with photos, on what we have been learning that week, homework or our class reader. If you would like to send any photos to us, to show us any 'wow' moments from home, we would love to see them.
Within Dojo, you can also send private messages to your class teacher. This is a great way to communicate with us or ask us questions. We check our messages twice a week. Only the teacher you have selected to message can see the message. If you need to contact us urgently, as always, you can call the school office, and we will arrange to call you back as soon as we can. We are also on our gate morning and afternoon if you would like to catch us there! Please do let us know if you have any difficulty setting up your account, we are here to help.
Online reading diary:
When your child starts Dunkirk, they will be given a code to join Boom reader, an online reading diary. This acts exactly like a traditional paper copy, but in the form of an app. This is how we will communicate the specific reading targets that your child is working on. You can also add comments about how your child is reading at home.
Learning Environment:
Please take a look below at some photos of your child's learning environment.
