September 2027 intake
Walkergate Community School
Starting school is the beginning of something brilliant.
Reception is one of the most important years in your child’s education. It’s where confidence, curiosity, and a love of learning take root. With our own woods for weekly forest school and a team that knows every child by name, we make sure it’s a wonderful experience for children and for families.
About Reception at Walkergate Community School
A statutory year, built on play and relationships.
Reception is a statutory year of schooling, not just an extension of nursery. Children work across all seven areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, building the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that will carry them through primary school and beyond.
At Walkergate, we take a play-based approach because the evidence is clear: this is how young children learn best. Play in our Reception class is rich, well-planned, and purposeful. Our practitioners are skilled at extending learning through careful questioning, the right resources, and an environment that invites curiosity at every turn.
Reception children continue to have weekly forest school sessions in our own on-site woods, den building, exploring the bug hotel, and cooking over the campfire, alongside daily Read Write Inc phonics and a curriculum that recognises the different experiences every child brings through the door.
National Offer Day: [check current-year date]
Start date: September 2026