Welcome to Reception!

We are so pleased that you have chosen West Town Lane Academy to begin your child's Primary School learning journey. Here you will find helpful information regarding your child's learning, key dates and events.

If you are going to be joining us in September 2025 please visit the Admissions section of the website for more information. 

Adults in Reception:

Dragonfly Class

Class Teacher- Mrs C Owen

Class TAs - Mrs Saunders

Bumblebee Class

Class Teacher- Miss A Nicholls

Class TA- Miss Andrews 

Caterpillar Class

Class Teacher - Miss C Simmonds

Class TA- Mrs M Rayner (M, T) & Miss Cox (W, Th, F)

Additional Support

Mrs L Andrews - NELI and Intervention support

Mrs M Rayner- NELI 

Miss K Rosling- Sensory Circuits, Bucket Time and Talking Tunes 

Term 1: What Makes Me Marvellous?

During the term we will encourage the children to become independent learners and explorers as they make new friends and explore their new school. We will begin our project by waltzing into the story of ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ a story all about a Giraffe named Gerald who finds his own tune (and confidence) to boogie at the Jungle Dance. We will learn all about what makes us unique and share our own special talents! We will solve a mystery with Detective Dog Nell using our five senses and know what foods we like and dislike! We will discuss our attributes and features when creating self-portraits, as well as, describe our families. We will learn to retell the classic story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. We will complete our project with a Teddy Bears Picnic in the last week of term where we will bring in our favourite teddy bear from home!

In phonics we will be beginning with Phase one sound games and move quickly into Phase 2. We begin Phase 2 introducing our first set of sounds and Common Exception Words. We will be focussing on hearing sounds, mark making with a variety of materials and practising the letter formation of the sounds in our name. We will be learning about rhyme and join in with repeated refrains in stories. We will listen for the initial sounds in words and begin to segment and blend words. 

 In mathematics we will begin to recognise numbers to 5 and move onto numbers to 10. We encourage the children to start matching numerals to quantities, and ensuring they have a secure understanding of each number. We will sing a variety of number songs and we will be counting using 1:1 correspondence by finding ways to count accurately.