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Friday 16th October 2026

I can't quite believe we’re a week away from half term. The past seven weeks have flown by! Over the past fortnight we have been focussing on 2D shapes in Maths and managed to link it to our digital learning. We used J2E to digitally paint our houses using different 2D shapes before recording ourselves naming the shapes used and what they were used for on the house. For example, square windows and rectangles for doors. This week's Maths has very much linked to our ‘my house, my home’ topic where we started the week by sorting and classifying our family counters into the correct houses before counting and comparing how many people lived in each house to see which families were the biggest and smallest.  

This linked well to our Wesh where we have been learning the colours. We named each of the colours of the houses and counted the amounts in Welsh. We have enjoyed playing our splat game where one of the pupils names a colour in Welsh for two children to find and point to it the quickest. The winner stays on. It's been very impressive! In Reception, we love to sing so of course we have learnt the ‘I can sing a rainbow’ song in Welsh too.  

We have also been collecting and recording data about who has a sibling in the class to also compare whether our class has more brothers or sisters. This has sparked some really engaging conversations and has allowed the pupils to get to know each other better.  

We have also completed our first fortnight of read write inc. I am so pleased with how hard the children are trying to learn, recognise and form the sounds as there are some tricky ones but we will keep trying! The children have been focussing on trying to write their names independently to help with recognition and spelling as well as trying hard to understand which letters are tall and which are short! 

Our provision over the past fortnight has looked at many different areas and skills. We have used different modes to create autumnal pumpkin art from water colours, pencils and chalk. We have enjoyed ending the week by starting to create pumpkin art inspired by Yayoi Kusama who is a Japanese artist that creates art through patterns. We have also been building construction ramps to test the speeds of cars, building different routes, some of which included balancing as well as sorting buttons into piles of big, small and different colours BUT only using a pencil and no hands to guide them for pencil grip support! Finally, with the focus of 2D shapes last week, we have made different pictures using them as well as created our own using lollipop sticks and playdough! What a busy fortnight! Whatever your plans for the weekend, I hope you have a lovely one! Take care, Mrs Calderwood 

 

Friday 2nd October 2026

Yet another fortnight has passed In Reception and what a busy one it has been.  In Maths we have been learning about repeated patterns and making our own ones using loose parts. We have also been busy learning our numbers between 0-12 and how to correctly form them by using the rhymes. We know that 0-9 has a rhyme and 12 we need to combine! Forming numbers aren't the easiest but I was so pleased with how hard the children tried, and they all had a go. We have also been practicing forming numbers in the sand to help with our motor skills.  

We have been busy discussing different emotions and what makes us feel them using our emotion cards and figures. This led nicely into our Welsh where we learnt how to say the emotions and have been singing our Mr Hapus ydw i song.  

For our topic work, we have been talking about who helps us at home and why. The children gave lots of great answers and reasons which was great. This week we celebrated our first Harvest festival at the church. I'm sure you'll agree the children were amazing and all sang their song 'Harvest time is here again' beautifully.  As we have had our first harvest festival it was important to talk about what harvest is and where our food comes from so our children understand it's importance. If you were able to bring in a donation for the food bank, thank you so much! As all of Reception are a part of the Charity Committee it meant a lot to show our support for our local Monmouth Foodbank. 

Next week we commence our Read Write Inc sessions. If you were able to attend the workshop on Thursday afternoon, I want to thank you again for supporting your child's school and home learning.  

Whatever your plans are for the weekend, I hope you have a lovely one!  

Take care, Mrs Calderwood 

Friday 18th September 2026

Croeso! Welcome to Trellech! It has been a pleasure getting to know all of the children over the past three weeks. They have all had an amazing first full week of school and I'm sure they're all ready for some rest this weekend. 

 Since starting back, the children have been busy learning the classroom and school routines, creating their Usk show entries, making their self and family portraits along with creating their 'all about me' pages.  It was great to watch the children draw their portraits and listen to who is in their family. Thank you for sending in your family pictures, it's lovely to see them next to the children's pictures and giving our classroom a 'piece of home.'  The children have had their first P.E sessions where they have been working on basic skills through different movements and paces. They were all very excited to finally go into the school hall and use the big space. Their 'All about me' pages look fantastic and have been a great start to their learning journals. The children spoke about their favourite foods, colours, toys and things they like to do! We have also been using the photos of our houses to design our topic pages for ‘My House My Home.’ The children have been doing their best to use the photos to help them copy and recreate them in their drawing. This has allowed us to talk about shapes, colours and amounts from looking at the doors, windows and chimneys.  

In Maths over the past fortnight, we have been looking at ordering numbers up to five and 12, as well as recognising them and showing what they look like as an amount.  If you get the chance, please try and practice counting to five and ten and using anything at home to make different amounts within these numbers for further support. 

I am so proud of the children and the start they have had so far, especially with building resilience and facing new challenges each day with them in their stride. I look forward to seeing what the rest of the year holds for us as a class. Whatever your plans for the weekend, I hope you have a lovely one and we look forward to welcoming both the children and you back on Monday. Take care, Mrs Calderwood