Welcome to our Early Years Class

  We have a full time Reception and part time Nursery.

Our Early Years team is made up of Mrs Smith, Mrs Spencer, Mrs Hallinan, Miss Taylor, Miss Allen, Miss Downes and Miss Mawdsley.

We have an open plan classroom and outdoor space which is well resourced and provides children with high quality early education and an enabling environment to learn new things and practise skills.

During the day, children have the opportunity to take part in a balance of adult focused learning (such as phonics and maths) as well as rich play-based learning, which is carefully supported by the adults in the class. We provide an inclusive environment where all the children’s needs are carefully considered and managed. We support all children to access learning, make progress, and succeed at their own level. The mixture of different learning styles helps children to embed knowledge and develop important skills needed for learning. The children in Early Years are highly motivated and active throughout the day.

We follow the educational programmes set out in the EYFS statutory framework and work towards the early learning goals which we assess in the summer term of Reception and indicate if the child is working towards or at the expected level. There are 7 areas of learning in the EYFS which are divided into the prime and the specific areas. The prime areas include communication and language, physical development, and personal, social, and emotional development. The specific areas include literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, and expressive arts and design.  For more information please see our vision below.

Within the first 6 weeks of starting school, we assess each child using the national ‘Reception Baseline Assessment’. This information will be the starting point for helping parents and carers to understand how we will support your child between Reception and Year 6. More information can be found below:

Reception Baseline Assessment

We complete ongoing discreet assessments throughout the year to ensure we have a clear picture of the children’s development and whether the child needs extra help or further challenge. We use Target Tracker to record observations and these are shared regularly with parents/carers.

How to help at home

Practise phonics with your child, supporting them to –

• Read and write sounds, blend sounds in words to read, segment sounds in words to spell.
• Getting dressed and undressed independently including –
• Put on and take off their coat, gloves and hat.
• Zip up their coat, fasten trousers and shoes.
• Turn clothes the right way round eg jumpers, coats.
• Encourage your child to care for their personal needs independently –
• Going to the toilet independently, washing their hands.
• Using a knife and fork at meal times.
• Play games together including – Counting games, sharing and turn taking, board games and I spy.
• Get those fingers moving! Play with playdough, use scissors, build with Lego, thread beads, paint and draw.

Phonics is a major part of teaching in EYFS. There is lots of information about this on our phonics page.

Reading at home – parents’ role:

• In Reception we teach the children to decode, and then have 3 Reading Practice sessions in groups every week, where children read the same ‘matched-decodable’ book as a group each session, and discuss it with an adult.
• We then send this book home. Your child should be at least 90% fluent with this book. Let them read it to you and build up to 100% fluency. Praise them, encourage them, it’s them ‘showing off’ to you how well they can read, so the book should appear to be ‘easy’ to read for them. Read it to mum, dad, sister, nan, and whoever else they can!
• All children will bring home a book for sharing and pleasure. This is a book they have chosen that interests them – they might not be able to read all the words, so help them, read it to them, talk about it, explain what any unfamiliar words mean, and build up a love of reading with them.
• These two very separate approaches will hugely help them – decoding on their own with the Little Wandle decodable book, and Reading for Pleasure with the book for sharing – 5 minutes a day, little and often, or more if you have time – thank you in advance for your support with this!
• In Nursery children will take home a reading book each Monday and these are to be returned the following Monday.  Sharing stories with children is vital to their early reading skills and promoting their love of reading, so we encourage the children to choose the books they wish to take home and share.

We learn through “play” and although we follow an overarching theme, the majority of our provision is led by the interests of the children.  Our learning takes place both indoors and outdoors with both areas being supervised by adults at all times.  The children are encouraged to be independent learners and make their own choices about their learning through play.

Our PE day is Tuesday for Reception and Friday for all children.

The children have access to free fruit/veg, a healthy snack and water every day. Children also receive free milk until they are 5. After age 5 you can pay for your child to receive milk.

Please check our ClassDojo page for regular updates and photos of our learning.