We are excited to welcome you to the Yew Tree family and we are really looking forward to working with you and your child this year. We have lots of exciting activities planned for the busy year ahead, and cannot wait to share these experiences with the children. We really value your support and the role you play in your child’s education, so if you have any queries or questions, please do not hesitate to speak to a member of staff.

Meet the Reception Team

We're really lucky to have such a supportive, friendly team in the Early Years. 

The staff that will be supporting your child in their learning journey this year are:

Teaching Staff:

RA - Ms. Horsley

RB - Ms. Hall

RC - Ms. Byron

Support Staff: 

Ms. Galloway, Ms. Grice and Ms. Henden.

Other Staff:

Early Years Lead: Ms. Fry.

PPA Cover (Monday Afternoon): Ms. Ditchfield, Ms. Beech and Ms. Hudd.

PE Days

PE will take place ONCE A WEEK for Reception children.

RA - DAY TO BE CONFIRMED

RB - DAY TO BE CONFIRMED

RC - DAY TO BE CONFIRMED 

Children are required to wear a PE kit in Reception. 

Please bring PE kit in a labelled bag to leave in school for the half-term.

Please click here to see the clothing uniform policy for more information.

Forest School

Forest School will take place ONCE A WEEK for Reception children.

RA - DAY AND START DATE TO BE CONFIRMED

RB - DAY AND START DATE TO BE CONFIRMED

RC - DAY AND START DATE TO BE CONFIRMED

Children are required to attend school on their Forest School day in uniform and bring outdoor clothing and footwear in a labelled bag. For more information about Forest School at Yew Tree, please click here.

Curriculum Information

All of the work we do in Reception goes towards developing your child in the 7 key areas of learning; Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Physical Development, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, and Expressive Arts and Design.

All of our work in these areas will be documented by photographs, videos, mark making, artwork and other pieces of evidence on Tapestry in Online Learning Journals. You can find more information about Tapestry below. Your child will work in small groups each day completing guided maths and writing activities, as well as a daily phonics session to develop their reading and listening skills. These activities will develop key skills for your child, as well as being fun and interesting to engage them with their learning.

We also follow a 'creative curriculum', which is a thematic approach to delivering aspects of the curriculum. All of our topics provide lots of stimulating activities for your child to choose and explore. 

Our Topic

Our current topics are "Let's Explore" and "Build It Up".

Head over to our school Twitter(X) page where you will find exciting photographs of our learning. Click here to access our school Twitter(X) page. Learning will also be shared on your child's Tapestry account.

Let's Explore

This project teaches children about the environments that they share with others, including their homes, school and places in the local community. In this project, the children will explore their class environment and school grounds so that they feel settled and happy in their new surroundings. They will learn about the local environment and find out about places they have visited on holiday. They will look at and create maps for journeys.

Build It Up

This project teaches children about structures and materials and gives them the opportunity to work in groups to create collaborative structures. In this project, the children will explore structures in the world around them. They will learn about materials and their properties, and will have the chance to work independently and in groups to design and make marvellous structures.

Phonics

At Yew Tree children are taught phonics using the Sounds Write phonics scheme. The children are taught sounds in unit chunks which correspond to the reading books they will bring home. Phonics sessions are comprised of different elements which include: symbol search, word building, word reading, sound swap and sentence reading. Below are some resources that will give you an understanding of how phonics is taught at Yew Tree.

Tapestry is a secure Online Learning Journal to record photographs, videos, observations and comments, in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, to build up a record of your child’s experiences during their time with us. This system allows us to work with parents and carers to share information and record the children’s play and learning in and outside of the classroom.

Click here to view the Tapestry Agreement letter.

Click here to redirect to the Tapestry webpage.

If you do not yet have access to your Tapestry account, please speak to your child's class teacher.

Contact

Yew Tree Primary School

Birchfield Way

Yew Tree Estate

Walsall

West Midlands

WS5 4DX

Tel: 01922 626926

Email: enquiries@yewtree.sandwell.sch.uk 

We also use Class Dojo to communicate relevant information. 

If you do not yet have access to Class Dojo, please speak to your child's class teacher.