Early Years

Intent

At St Peter’s Brafferton we aim to provide children from the age of two to five with a happy, vibrant foundation which fosters a love of learning. Our intention is to offer an enriched curriculum providing children with a wide range of new and exciting experiences. We develop the children’s social and emotional wellbeing through nurturing environments, positive relationships with adults and peers and strong links with parents. We embrace our school’s Christian values of kindness, inclusivity and community.

Our aims:

• To offer stimulating and inspiring provision where children feel safe and secure enough to take informed risks within their learning and play
• To encourage children to develop independence and develop interests within a nurtured, enabling environment
• To promote valuable curriculum opportunities both inside and outside
• To have the highest expectations for all children and provide them with an unlimited opportunity for development
• To understand that every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
• Parents/Guardians feel informed and supported about their children’s learning journey

Implementation

We follow the EYFS curriculum and develop the Characteristics of Effective Learning. We have a strong emphasis on the Prime areas of learning: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development as these are important foundations for children to feel confident, to take risks and interact with the world around them.

Within both of our Early Years settings each area of learning and development is implemented through purposeful play, including a mix of planned adult-led activities as well as child-initiated activities. Children’s individual needs, interests, and stages of development are taken into account to plan a challenging and enjoyable experience. Purposeful play opportunities are planned to present new knowledge in meaningful contexts to expand children’s schemas.       

• Both settings have a carefully designed curriculum, which includes children’s interests and is supported through Development matters. In Helperbees, the planning is themed initially with a new story each week, which guides some of the provision. The staff within Helperbees create a board of learning that has happened within the setting which is then shared with parents. In Class 1, the Reception children have the opportunity to help design their own curriculum and sometimes the children join in with the Year 1 learning. Reception children have a circle time and share what they would like to learn about, or the curriculum ideas are sourced from observations from adults. We then take the children’s ideas and include planned activities and provision for learning opportunities within their chosen theme.
• Reading is an important part of our curriculum to develop a love of reading and promote mark making/writing opportunities. Each setting values the significance of daily Storytime. Each week in Helperbees, the children will be introduced to a new book. In Class 1, the reception children have ‘Super Six/Fab Five’ hand-picked books each half term exploring vocabulary choices, understanding of the world and to develop comprehension skills. Books explored in Helperbees and Class 1 will be embedded in our provision through activities, story sessions and on display for children to access independently. Through this, children begin to internalise new vocabulary, language patterns and begin to retell stories.
• To deliver quality phonics provision we have fidelity to Read Write Inc. Reception children are taught through daily sessions. Pre-school children are initially exposed to oral discrimination of sounds and when they are deemed ready the children are introduced to the Nursery section of Read Write Inc.
• In Mathematics, we are inspired by the White Rose Scheme supported with the NCETM Mastering the number planning. Reception children focus on a number for a week or two, investigating everything regarding the number including number bonds, formation and what is the number made up of. This can be for the numeral itself, to the money represented or the name of the shape with the same number of sides.
• We record ‘wow’ moments using the online journal ‘Evidence Me’ or within a Learning journey in Reception, some of these observations are shared and interacted with parents.
• Outside learning is considered very valuable and important to our children’s holistic development. Additionally, Helperbees and Class 1 children both have half termly slots to attend weekly forest schools’ sessions
• Our children have opportunities to explore the local area and further afield from inviting visitors in, attending church, going on school visits and being a part of the wider and local community
• Our inclusive approach means that all children learn together, but we have a range of additional intervention and support for children who may not be reaching their potential or are showing a greater depth of understanding and need further challenge.
• Transitions entering and transferring within our setting is of vital importance to our children’s wellbeing. Staff within Helperbees offer a flexible transition, working closely with parents to settle the children into the provision. This is achieved through options such as staggered starts or stay and play sessions. Children that enter our Reception class are from both our internal preschool provision and through external providers. Both Early Years settings work closely together to make transition into Reception a simple process. Children aged 3-4 have opportunities throughout the year to come and visit and play within the Class 1 environment. Helperbees and Class 1 also experience joint events together. The Class 1 teacher visits both the internal and external nurseries to see children within their current setting building relationships as soon as possible
• Throughout the year children are tracked termly on our school’s internal tracker (Insight) to show their progress and development across the seven areas of learning. These judgements are informed from observations, discussions and shared within pupil progress meetings
• In Reception, children take part in weekly PE sessions, music sessions and singing sessions which promote skills in Expressive Arts and Design and Physical Development

Impact

• Children will feel happy, valued and safe within our environment
• Children will have positive and nurtured relationships with staff
• Parents will have positive relationships with staff from an open communication
• Children will have developed positive learning attitudes and be curious about the world around them and seek to find out more
• The foundations provided will have prepared the children for KS1 particularly within the prime areas of the EYFS framework
• Children will have the skills and experiences to tackle and overcome challenges, including managing conflict
• In Helperbees, when a child reaches the age of two, their key worker completes a two-year progress check. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) requires that parents and carers must be supplied with a short-written summary of their child’s development in the three prime learning and development areas of the EYFS: Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Physical Development; and Communication and Language, when the child is aged between 24-36 months. This means that caregivers to the child are aware of any emerging needs and the progress that the child has made.
• At the end of the Reception year, all children are formally assessed against the 17 Early Learning Goals (ELG) creating an Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP). This is based upon ongoing observations, written records, and parental/carer communications. This information is then communicated to parents and carers in the child’s end of year report where there is opportunity for it to be discussed with the class teacher. In preparation for transition this information is then shared within the Class 1 team. The EYFSP results are reported to Local Authority, who monitor and moderate the judgments made

Intent, Implementation and Impact statement

 

Early Years at St Peter’s Brafferton

We have two early years classes at St Peter’s Brafferton: Helperbees Preschool (ages 2-4 years) and Reception in Class 1. Both classes are linked with planning, progression of knowledge and skills

 

Staff in Early Years

Mrs Anderson – Headteacher

Miss Ellis – Early Years Lead and Reception teacher

Andrea Holmes – Preschool Manager for Early Years

Abi Gledhill, Bronwyn Baker, Rachel Leach, Trish Gledhill, Michelle Skeet- Preschool Assistants

Teresa Lott, Kelly Calley, Katie Dowding – Early Years Teaching Assistants

 

What your child will learn in Early Years?

Your child will learn by doing things for themselves, by exploring and investigating, watching and listening, talking and discussing, creating and communicating. 

All children follow a curriculum called the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and this is broken down into 3 prime aspects and 4 specific areas of learning.

EYFS Statutory Framework link Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework – GOV.UK

Personal, social and emotional development

One of the prime aspects of your child’s first year at school will be a focus on their personal, social and emotional development, and their teacher will be aiming to give them a good start to their school experience by helping them form positive relationships, build confidence and self-awareness, as well as manage their feelings and behaviour.

Physical development

Physical development is important too: you will hopefully notice that they are starting to move more confidently and to understand how to look after themselves and be healthy.

Communication

The final prime area this year is communication. Children learn through speaking and listening first and foremost, and this year you may notice your child communicating in a variety of ways at school — for example, through stories, in conversations with adults and their friends, or through facial expression, movement or dance.

Specific Areas of Learning

For the specific areas of learning, your child will learn the basics of literacy — reading, writing and phonics. We use a specific phonics scheme called Little Wandle, there are further details on the website. In maths, we will cover numbers, simple sums, shapes, spaces and simple measuring.

Your children learn about the world, too, exploring different people and communities, and how we can use different forms of technology in our learning. Finally, imagination and creativity are championed in the area of expressive arts. Your child will explore different media and materials and be encouraged to use their imagination in a range of different experiences.

 

Phonics at St Peter’s Brafferton

We use Read, Write, Inc as our Phonics programme across school. Parent guide to Read Write Inc. Phonics – Oxford Owl

 

How can you help your child?

Your child will be informally observed throughout their time and the teachers will use the observations to assess your child’s learning, you can follow the observations on our learning walls.

Read

Read to your child and encourage them to read to you. Read anything and everything, not just the Read, Write, Inc books. Real books, with pictures, rhyme and enjoyable stories are crucial here. Try to encourage your child to talk about the pictures, or to make predictions about what will happen next. 

Encourage your child to recognise and read print when you are out shopping, on the bus or at the park. For examples; A for Aldi, M for Morrisons etc.

Please fill in the Reading Diary each time you read with your child. This can be a really useful communication tool.

Once they start phonics…

Talk to your child about individual letters (especially the letters in their name) and their sounds. Singing songs and nursery rhymes really helps them to find out more about letters and sounds. Play I-spy when you go out (using the sound the letter makes, rather than its name).

Maths

For maths, there are all sorts of ways to encourage number recognition. Try to involve your child in using numbers at home by singing number rhymes and songs or by encouraging them to recognise and read numbers when you are in the car. When shopping, ask them to select the number of apples or bananas you need — they’re helping you out, and learning at the same time.

 

Toileting and getting dressed independently

And finally, it is really useful if you can encourage your child to have a go at dressing themselves at home so that they can do themselves during the day. We also need your child to be able to go to the toilet and wipe themselves.

 

Transition information

Each year we plan carefully for your child’s transition to school. We invite the children in for 3 school visits in the summer term (dates are released each spring term):

Visit 1- stay and play with parent (1 hour session)

Visit 2- morning session for children

Visit 3 – morning session plus lunch

We also work with our Preschool and other local nurseries to visit children in settings and speak to key workers. This helps us with a smooth transition.

 

Communication between home and school is essential in the early years so that children can thrive at St Peter’s Brafferton