2020 - 2021

Welcome to Early Years at Winhills Primary Academy.

We are thrilled to welcome the children into school and are looking forward to an exciting year ahead. 

Summer term

Welcome back for our summer term of 2021!

This term our main topic will be ‘Journeys’. We will learn about lots of different transport types and where these may take us in the world. Some of our books we will share will be ‘The Great Balloon Hullabaloo’ by Peter Bently, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury and ‘Oi! Get off Our Train!’ by John Burningham. 

We will also learn about different journeys of life, focusing on growth and life cycles. We will learn about the life cycles of frogs and butterflies, spending time in the spinney and the pond area, as well as planting seeds and observing their growth. 

Spring term

We are so excited to welcome all the children back to school on Monday 8th March. Our topic as we return to school will be animal homes. We will spend time exploring what types of homes different animals live in. Where do they live? What do they need? We will even have some new pets in the classroom!

We start this term with a topic of ‘Superheroes’, sharing our favourite series of books ‘Supertato’ by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet. We will share these at school as well as on Tapestry. Our topic will include learning about our super powers by finding out and sharing what we are fantastic at, learning about our senses and learning about people who help us - our everyday superheroes!

For the children learning at home your work will be on tapestry daily through the week. This will include pictures and videos. We look forward to seeing your amazing work! Please contact us if you need any help, support or resources. Stay safe. 

Autumn term 

This term our main theme will be 'Castles'. We will enjoy learning lots of castle related songs and stories. Some of the songs the children will learn will be 'The Grand Old Duke of York', 'Old King Cole' and 'Humpty Dumpty'. The children will use these songs as a basis for their learning, beginning to recognise rhyme and patterns, using the songs to perform and create art, as well as a starting point for discussion around emotions and feelings. Some of the stories the children will share will be 'The Knight and the Dragon', 'George and the Dragon' and 'There is NO Dragon in this Story'. These will also create a starting point for children's learning where the children will story map the stories, act them out and reinvent them. They will also begin to write simple words and captions, focusing on initial sounds. As the term progresses the children will learn about different castles and who lived in them using non-fiction texts appropriately. 

As always the children will have access to inside and outside provision where their continuous provision will always be available, including water play, painting, role play, small and large construction and small world. We will also continue to provide many opportunities for children to talk and share on a daily basis, as well as maths, phonics and mark making. 

As the seasons change the children will also look for signs of Autumn, spending time outside to explore the differences they observe using their senses. They will also learn about the Christian Harvest festival celebration and the Hindi Diwali celebration.  

We are very excited to welcome all our new parents and children for September 2019. We are beginning the year with an 'Ourselves' topic. We are going to celebrate what we are good at, learn all about how our bodies work, the different senses and celebrations. We are still using Tapestry so please log on to your child's journal and share their successes with them.

Our first story of the term is Jack and the beanstalk. We have already shared the story and talked about Jack's behaviour; the children felt that he needed a time out for taking the Giant's things. They have been cutting up beans and taking a close look at what they have found. 

Spring term 2019

This term we are excited to learn around our topic of 'Houses and Homes'. We will start the term by learning an abundance of new vocabulary to describe the homes we learn about. For the first half term we are learning about different types of houses, particularly in our local area. We will be looking closely at different features of houses and taking a walk close to school to discover what is the most popular type of house near Winhills. We will revisit one of our favourite fairytales 'The Three Little Pigs' and use our amazing imaginations to innovate our own versions. We will be investigating the properties of different building materials by asking questions and finding our own answers. As the weather starts to warm up we will be learning all about the houses and homes of different animals and making bug hotels in the spinney.

In Phonics we are carrying on with sounding out and blending words, as well as continuing to learn new graphemes. We will be practising our writing skills by writing CVC words and moving on to writing in sentences.  

In maths we will continue to grow in confidence with number knowledge, through counting, addition and subtraction, as well as solving practical problems based on real life situations, including money, shapes and measuring.

Autumn Term 2018

Welcome to Topaz class. This term our theme is 'Ourselves'. We will be learning all about our friends by talking about our families and things that are special to us as well as the things we enjoy doing. We will also learn how to keep ourselves healthy and strong and begin to learn about how our bodies work and about the people who help us.

We will start the term by sharing the 'Supertato' series of books. This will encourage us to think about our own superpowers and what makes us special. Over the term we will also share 'The Jar of Happiness', 'Funnybones' and 'Peace at Last'.

We will take part in daily phonics lessons as well as shared writing to help us learn about the importance of reading and writing. We will also explore maths inside and outside, beginning with counting objects and actions accurately.

We love to learn inside and outside and will explore the seasonal changes as Autumn progresses through to Winter.

Please take the time to read our curriculum letter which outlines the terms learning in more detail.

Summer 2018

Welcome to summer term of Reception where we are really looking forward to learning around our main theme of 'Journeys'. The children are excited to be focusing on journeys of all different types – they will be finding out and imagining going in a plane or rocket, on foot, by train, boat or car - and to lots of different places. As well as this, we will be enjoying the outside environment as the weather is getting warmer, by digging and planting, bug hunting and bird watching, and looking at and explaining all the differences in the environment as the seasons change; including life cycles by hatching our own tadpoles and butterflies and growing a variety of food and flowers in the garden area.

In maths we will be learning about doubling, halving and sharing in practical contexts as well as securing our existing mathematical knowledge of counting, addition, subtraction, shape and using mathematical language. In our phonics lessons we will continue learning new sounds, and practising our segmenting and blending, as well as becoming more confident with our word walls. We will develop our writing through increasing confidence and independence, allowing us to write some super sentences. The children will be writing about the things they have learnt, what they have enjoyed doing and inventing their own stories. We will also continue our shared writing through exploring different books, creating story maps, writing about them, acting them out and creating our own versions.

We will finish off our term with an exciting trip to Paxton Pits where we will be able to use our skills of observing and finding out about the environment and living things through bird watching, bug hunting and pond dipping.

Spring Term 2018

We are really excited about our new topic 'Homes and Houses'. We will start the term by learning an abundance of new vocabulary: we will practise this in the role play area which will be an estate agents. We will be out and about in the local area looking at the different types of houses and buildings we see everyday on the way to  school. We will revisit one of our favourite fairytales 'The Three Little Pigs'  and use our amazing imaginations to innovate our own versions. We will be investigating the properties of different building materials by asking questions and finding our own answers. Later in the term we will apply this knowledge to building bug hotels for the spinney.  In maths we are going to develop our understanding of addition and subtraction answering questions such as 'How many are left?' and 'How many do you have altogether?'

Autumn 2017

Welcome to Topaz class. This term our theme is 'ourselves'. We will be learning all about our new friends, talking about our families and things that are special to us as well as how to keep ourselves healthy and strong. Please take the time to read our curriculum letter which outlines the terms learning in more detail.

Summer 2017

Spring Term 2017

Welcome to the Spring Term. the children are growing in independence, skill set and knowledge. To reflect this our topic of 'Homes' aims to develop the children's knowledge and understanding of the world around them. The children  will take a tour of their local environment to learn about the different types of houses and will be visited by an Estate Agent. They will investigate materials and learn how to sort and describe them; they will observe similarities and differences as well as changes over time. The children will continue to develop their skills with the much loved variety of construction kits by planning and building more amazing structures! 

Autumn Term 2016

We welcome a new academic year with a fabulous new class of children. This term we learn all about 'Ourselves'. We will learn about our bodies and investigate our senses. We will talk about our favourite things and our families, celebrating the ways we are different. We will continue to develop our phonics and early maths skills, focusing on ordering numbers and addition. We will be sharing superhero books and talking about our special powers and talents!

Welcome to the summer term! This term we are learning about journeys.  We will plan and take more walks around the local area; preparing picnics and learning more about road safety. Our shared writing will focus on adventure texts which will develop our skill of story mapping.  We will follow tadpoles and caterpillars on their journey to becoming frogs and butterflies. We will share stories of our holidays and favourite places to visit as well as reviewing what Biskit has been up to over the past year. A very busy time ahead as we prepare for the next step to our journey at Winhills.

We are very excited to start our Spring Term 2016. This term we are learning under the theme of 'Homes'. We will be walking in our local area to identify features of our own environment and compare those to homes in other countries. We will continue to expand our knowledge by looking at the homes of different animals. We will develop our reading skills, blending those sounds we have learnt and increasing our sight vocabulary. We will role play in an estate agents and quiz real estate agents that come into visit! So much to look forward to!