We are Waltham's Reception class and this is where our journey begins.

Our room in The Treehouse is an exciting, vibrant place where we are happy, safe, and secure. We work together with parents to promote readiness for school, readiness for learning and readiness to have fun! Our children are keen to learn and quickly become confident, independent learners who work and play beautifully with their friends.

The Treehouse has recently been built and is adjacent to the main, Victorian building and Pre-school. It comprises of two classrooms: ours and a room for Year 1 and 2 which is great because we get chance to work together. We have lovely, brand new toilets and our own outdoor learning space. We love it all!

The topics we study are planned according to the criteria outlined in the Early Years Foundation Stage for Reception, but with our own twist. Learning is tailored around the needs and interests of the children. This year our termly topics are linked to our project-based learning starting with ourselves and our key question is ‘What makes me, me?’ followed by ‘What is the past?' A lot of our learning takes place through high quality literature and a room full of amazing resources that we love exploring.

During the morning we focus on phonics, literacy and maths, using differentiated tasks and activities to promote active learning. We have areas of continuous provision, so we always know what to expect when we come into school in the morning and exciting enhanced provision, to help develop our curiosity.

We are able to work inside our room or outside in our own special area which is set up so we can choose activities that interest us. Sometimes we create trails to cycle round; other times we build dens with large-scale construction materials; or use the mud kitchen, sand trays and ramps to learn about the world around us. We have a little stage area which we love to perform on and sometimes we turn it into special environments, like a Waltham Café or builders site.

We follow the Read, Write Inc programme for our phonics, which is taught in small groups on a daily basis. After lunch we enjoy cross curricular topic work which includes RE, science, art and music. Children love to dress up, construct amazing models, sing and dance, all with lots of laughs along the way.

Holly Class have weekly PE lessons, focusing on movement and ball skills, games and gymnastics. We also learn to dance with Miss Cheryl we love music in Holly class!

We also learn outdoor in our own wooded outdoor learning area; the aim of this is to build on children's natural instincts, to learn and explore using the outdoor environment, developing language and communication skills as well as team work. It offers opportunities for children to make choices for their own learning and to take and manage risks in a safe, supportive environment. Development of these skills encourages creativity, independence, positive attitudes and behaviour plus social, personal, spiritual and health education. 

Throughout the year we will also aim to enrich the children's learning with a mixture of trips out and visitors who come into school to add that extra special dimension to our learning. In Holly class we also love working with the older children on special projects in RE and charity events and we love playing with them at playtimes and eating lunch together. They always involve us in their special pupil-lead assemblies and we can’t wait to share books with them, too.

We are like one big family which makes us feel very happy and secure.