Any Reception teachers here? How are you fitting everything into the day??

[JulietSierra]

Daily handwriting lessons are the straw that’s broken this camel’s back!

Whole class phonics, group phonics, whole class maths, group maths, whole class maths meeting, drawing club, RE and RSE, one to one reading ….I was squeezing it in and just about coping. But now I need to do daily whole class and small group handwriting too. I’m seriously going to have to bring them in and do it over lunchtime.

No time at all to be in provision with the children. Madness.

Is anyone managing and if so please tell me how.

I'm not a Reception teacher but that sounds insane! Can you not combine some together? Like can handwriting not be absorbed into phonics? Why are you doing whole class AND group maths and phonics? I would have thought this early on in Reception, you'd be doing continuous provision for most of the class while you work with small groups? Or are you a school that uses very formal learning right from the start?

I teach Reception.

The key here is you say you 'need' to do all of this. You don't 'need' to do all of that at all.

Who is asking you to? I would be asking them how on Earth they expect you to fit it in.

I do daily whole class phonics (although we only started this week, after Baseline). We will do Kinetic Letters (handwriting scheme) daily, whole class, although we haven't started this yet. I teach daily whole class maths. Each carpet session is approximately 10 minutes at the moment and will rise to 15, then 20 minutes as the year goes on.

Once the year is fully underway, we do one or two pieces of writing per week in their book and one or two maths group work sessions per week. Every child is heard read 1-1 once a week, either by myself or my TA (we alternate, half the class each). No phonics or handwriting groups, just interventions for those who need it. We don't do drawing club. It looks lovely, but it's not essential to do. Two PE lessons a week, one circle time, two UW 'topic' carpet sessions a week (REis covered in this, we don't do weekly lessons in Reception) and one music lesson. That's about it.

You are trying to do way too much. You need to speak to whoever is putting this ridiculous pressure on you as that's not normal and is way too formal for Reception. Most of their learning comes through accessing the continuous provision and putting the skills into practice, not through carpet sessions and adult led group work. It's not KS1.

Just to add, we've done Kinetic Letters for years so daily handwriting is not a new thing at all for us. It's literally 10 minutes a day and is so important. I totally understand the new emphasis on handwriting, for those schools who didn't do it daily before. It really doesn't need to be onerous though.

Thanks for the replies.

To answer a few questions, our phonics scheme dictates that we do 2 x group activities each day following the whole class input. That’s non negotiable.

The new writing framework has (non statutory) guidance on handwriting which our academy trust insists we follow. We need a short whole class input followed by daily handwriting practise for every child. To make it worse, we have to teach handwriting in letter families which doesn’t link with the letters we’re teaching in phonics.

I do a daily whole class maths input followed by just one small group each day. Forgot to mention that as a catholic school, we also have two assemblies each week (moving to four per week by summer term) and 3x RE lessons per week.

Its crazy 😩

You need to tell them it's too much. It's unfortunate some phonics schemes are so ott. It's a totally unnecessary overkill to do daily group work in addition to a whole class session.

As you said, the writing framework guidance is not statutory. You can easily cover the daily practise whole class. No need for group work too.

I understand your hands are tied somewhat, but you need to speak up when something is unrealistic and unmanageable. It really doesn't all need to be done the way your school are insisting.

3 RE lessons a week on top of assemblies is too much. Is there a desperate church linked to the school pushing for this because they've got falling congregation numbers and are trying to get children to the faith?

I'd suggest embedding some of the RE into other areas/continuous provision - through stories, role play, music etc.