Personal, Social and Emotional Development

This is crucial for very young children in all aspects of their lives and gives them the best opportunity for success in all other areas of learning. By the end of the reception year, most children should:

• Continue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn
• Be confident to try new activities, initial ideas and speak in a familiar group
• Maintain attention, concentrate and sit quietly when appropriate
• Respond to significant experiences, showing a range of feelings when appropriate
• Have a developing awareness of their own needs, views and feelings and be sensitive to the needs, views and feelings of others
• Have a developing respect for their own cultures and beliefs and those of others
• Form good relationships with adults and peers
• Work as part of a group, taking turns and sharing fairly
• Understand what is right and wrong and why
• Consider the consequences of their words & actions for themselves and others
• Dress and undress independently and manage their own personal hygiene
• Select and use activities and resources independently
• Understand that people have different needs, views, cultures and beliefs, that need to be treated with respect
• Understand that they can expect others to treat their needs, views, cultures and beliefs with respect

Mathematical Development

This area of learning includes counting, sorting, matching, seeking patterns, making connections, recognising relationships and working with numbers, shapes, space and measures. Mathematical understanding can be developed through stories, songs, games and imaginative play, encouraging children to enjoy using and experimenting with numbers. By the end of the reception year, most children should:

• Say and use number names in order in familiar contexts
• Count reliably up to 10 everyday objects
• Recognise numerals 1-10
• Use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems
• In practical activities & discussion begin to use vocabulary involved in adding and subtracting
• Use language such as ?more' or ?less' to compare two numbers
• Find one more or one less than a number from 1-10
• Begin to relate addition to combining two groups of objects and subtraction to ?taking away'
• Use language such as ?greater' or ?smaller', ?heavier' or ?lighter' to compare quantities
• Talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns
• Use language such as ?circle', or ?bigger' to describe the shape and size of solids & flat shapes
• Use everyday words to describe position
• Use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems

Physical Development

This is how children can improve their skills of coordination, control, manipulation and movement. It helps children gain confidence in what they can do and enables them to feel the positive benefits of being healthy and active. By the end of the reception year, most children should:

• Move with confidence, imagination and in safety
• Move with control and coordination
• Travel around, under, over and through balancing and climbing equipment
• Show awareness of space, of themselves and of others
• Recognise the importance of keeping healthy & things which contribute to this
• Recognise the changes that happen to their bodies when they are active
• Use a range of small and large equipment
• Handle tools, objects, construction & malleable materials, safely & with increasing control

Communication, Language and Literacy

This area of learning includes communication, speaking and listening in different situations and for different purposes, being read a wide range of books and reading simple texts and writing for a variety of purposes. By the end of the reception year, most children should:

• Interact with others, negotiating plans and activities and taking turns in conversation
• Enjoy listening to & using spoken & written language & readily turn to it in their play and learning
• Listen attentively, responding to what they've heard by relevant comments, questions or actions
• Listen with enjoyment, respond to stories, songs, music, rhymes & poems and make up their own
• Extend their vocabulary, exploring the meanings and sounds of new words
• Speak clearly & audibly with confidence & show awareness of the listener ie use of ?please' & ?thank you'
• Use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences
• Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings and events
• Hear and say initial and final sounds in words and short vowel sounds within words
• Link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet
• Use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words
• Explore and experiment with sounds, words and texts
• Retell narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on language patterns of stories
• Read a range of familiar and common words and simple sentences independently
• Know that print carries meaning and in English, is read from left to right, top to bottom
• Show an understanding of the elements of stories, such as main character, sequence of events and how information can be found in non-fiction texts to answer questions about where, who, why and how
• Attempt writing for various purposes, using features of different forms ie lists, stories & instructions
• Write their own names and other things ie labels, captions and begin to form simple sentences
• Use a pencil and hold it effectively to form recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed

Knowledge and Understanding of the World

Children will develop the crucial knowledge, skills and understanding that help them to make sense of the world. This forms the foundation for later work in science, design and technology, history, geography and information and communication technology. By the end of the reception year, most children should:

• Investigate objects and materials by using all of their senses as appropriate
• Find out about and identify some features of living things, objects and events they observe
• Look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change
• Ask questions about why things happen and how things work
• Build and construct with a wide range of objects, selecting appropriate resources and adapting their work where necessary
• Select the tools and techniques they need to shape, assemble and join materials they are using
• Find out about and identify the uses of everyday technology and use information and communication technology and programmable toys to support their learning
• Find out about past and present events in their own lives and in those of their families and other people they know
• Observe, find out about and identify features in the place they live and the natural world
• Find out about their environment and talk about those features they like and dislike
• Begin to know about their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people

Creative Development

Being creative enables children to make connections between one area of learning and another and so extend their understanding. This area of learning includes art, music, dance, role play and imaginative play. By the end of the reception year, most children should:

• Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or three dimensions
• Recognise and explore how sounds can be changed, sing simple songs from memory, recognise repeated sounds and sound patterns and match movements to music
• Use their imagination in art & design, music, dance, stories, imaginative & role play and stories
• Respond in a variety of way to what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel
• Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative & role play, movement, designing & making and a variety of songs & musical instruments