Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage! In Reception, our indoor and outdoor classrooms are full of exciting learning experiences every day. The Reception team is comprised of a team of teachers, Miss Whitman and Mrs Hartley, and teaching assistants, Mrs Hensman, Mrs Hutchinson and Mrs Cavill. We all work together to make your child’s time in Reception the best that it can be!
Our Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum lays a solid foundation for children, with a focus on developing the whole child and ensuring ‘school readiness’. We are committed to giving our pupils the best possible start to their school life, equipping them with knowledge and skills that ensure their wellbeing and success, now and in the future.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage, we aim to develop and broaden the range of children’s learning experiences, to enable them to become well rounded, independent and enthusiastic learners who enjoy coming to school. Every child is treated as an individual and offered a variety of experiences which are carefully designed to further their development process.
We strongly believe that every child can and should succeed. We ensure that all children have the opportunity to flourish and learn in a safe and nurturing environment, where children can form strong, warm and supportive relationships with the adults in the EYFS.
The children will learn through a combination of adult guided and child initiated play opportunities. Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them.
We plan child initiated and adult guided activities that promote children’s development and learning based on the ‘Development Matters’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage. The information below gives an insight as to how we will incorporate our topics into the 7 areas of learning from the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.
- Curriculum Newsletter
- Long Term Overview
- EYFS Snapshot of Medium Term Plan
- Weekly Plan Example
- Daily Timetable
Curriculum Overview
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Through circle times and together time sessions, the children will be developing self confidence and self awareness by listening to others and talking about themselves and their interests.
They will learn about and abide by our school rules, and will begin to understand why such rules are needed.
Sharing, team work and building positive relationships will be a focus, particularly during child initiated play opportunities.
Communication and Language
In Reception the children will often use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences in play situations. This is encouraged within our exciting role play and small world areas!
Children will learn how to express themselves and speak to others, particularly during Character Education sessions, showing awareness of listeners’ needs.
During our daily Story Time, children will listen to stories, accurately anticipating key events and respond to what they hear with relevant comments, questions or actions.
Physical Development
This term, we will focus heavily on learning how to get changed for PE independently. The children will need to bring their PE kits every Monday ready for PE and they will bring them home each Friday. The children will also learn about balance and co-ordination when using a range of apparatus.
As well as large scale movements, the children will develop their fine motor control by engaging in tasks such as threading, sewing, drawing and writing.
Literacy
At Witham St. Hughs Academy we follow and teach the ‘Read Write Inc Programme’. This is a structured reading and writing phonics programme. Each day your child will receive a phonics lesson, which will be catered to the exact learning needs of your child, in carefully planned differentiated groups.
Their phonics book bag book and ‘sharing’ book will be changed weekly. You can support your child by listening to them read their phonics book bag book regularly and also by reading their ‘sharing’ book to them at home.
Story time will occur daily to develop a love of reading!
Mathematics
The children will take part in daily Numeracy sessions, where they will be given opportunities to order, read and write numerals up to 20. They will also learn to understand numbers and represent these in a variety of ways, whilst practicing their counting and reasoning skills.
During their child initiated time, Reception will learn to sort objects as well as follow and create simple patterns. We will also look at and describe basic 2D and 3D shapes in the environment.
Understanding the World
In Reception we enjoy taking our learning outdoors! Please ensure that your child always has suitable outdoor clothing appropriate for the weather, as they will spend time outside every day.
The children will be finding out about the world around them including people who help us and different types of families. Often, the children will lead this learning, coming up with their own questions of what they would like to find out, researching this and then presenting their findings to their peers. The children love to explore, learn and inspire others with their key question learning!
Children will continue to learn about different cultures and celebrations, including Diwali and Christmas.
The children begin to develop the skills needed to operate simple ICT equipment. Reception will enjoy learning through using computers, iPads, and other technology.
Expressive Arts and Design
In Reception, we try to make all learning as creative and fun as possible. Many areas of learning will be taught in a creative way!
Daily, the children will encounter opportunities to role play, paint, draw, make music, sing, dance and be imaginative.