The Early Years Foundation Stage at Lady Boswell’s Primary School
An overview of practice, policy and procedure
At Lady Boswell’s we believe that a positive Reception year is essential for our children’s progress and development
It is during this year we put in place the foundations for life long learning.
Curiosity and Awe
Collaboration
If children are settled and happy during the Reception year then the teaching of the following key skills can begin:
Compassion
Confidence
Communication
Creativity
The EYFS Curriculum
• This is different to the Curriculum for children in Years 1-6
• It is divided into 3 ‘Prime’ areas of learning and 4 ‘Specific’ areas of learning
• The Curriculum was reviewed and updated for the academic year 2021/22, so is slightly different to what you may have experienced if you have an older child who recently went through reception.
How are your children taught?
There are several different teaching and learning approaches we use every day at Lady Boswell’s
Child initiated: The action of a child choosing to extend, repeat or explore an activity. This activity may or may not have been introduced or prompted by an adult. It is the child’s innovation within or of the activity which is important and relevant to child initiation. An adult may be present and may be supportive but not directive.
Sustained shared thinking: a learning activity which occurs when two or more individuals 'work together' in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate an activity, extend a narrative etc.
Teacher directed: An input defined, structured and delivered by an adult to a child or group of children, usually whole class. It focuses on the direct teaching of skills and knowledge with a specific objective in mind.
Our Timetable
“Teacher Led” learning
These sessions are pre-planned activities led by a teacher . Objectives for these are taken from the Development Matters guidance.
A TL session begins as a whole class. Across the week the Teacher or Teaching Assistant works with all the children in smaller targeted groups. We call them ‘Table Teams’
These sessions are designed to teach children key skills and expand their existing body of knowledge
The children have to come and have a go at the activity… but they are all lots of fun
TL sessions are planned to cover objectives from each of the Curriculum areas of learning.
Both Teachers and Teaching Assistants teach TL sessions.
Half of our adult lead sessions generally happen inside and half happen in our outdoor area.
P.E, Guided Reading, Forest School and Phonics
P.E is a whole class Teacher Directed session. Sometimes it happens in the hall and sometimes it happens outside. Our PE session is on a Monday.
We have a Forest school session once a week on a Friday. Forest school is Teacher Led, we set up and guide children to different activities but encourage self exploration and investigation
Guided Reading is a Teacher Directed session. GR happens every morning (once the children are settled into their full time routine). Across the week the children read in a group with their teacher, the other class teacher and Tas as well as support from Parent helpers.
Phonics happens everyday for 30 minutes, there is a whole class input and some fun games and activities. We use an accredited phonics scheme; Little Wandle. This is a Teacher Directed time.
A little more about Phonics…
Phonics is the method used to segment the sounds in words for spelling and blend sounds for reading.
It is the link between letters (graphemes) and the sounds (phonemes) they make.
Phonics is simply the system of relationships between letters and sounds in a language.
The Phonics Scheme
The scheme we follow is called Little Wandle and is divided into five phases taught in reception and year 1, with each phase building on the skillsandknowledgeofpreviouslearning.
In phonics, reading sounds made by different letters is taught alongside writing them and children are taught to form letters correctly. The sessions are fun and interactive with lots of games to keep the children motivated and engaged. Children are constantly encouraged to apply their phonics learning to their reading and writing inavarietyofcontextsthroughouttheday.
Helping at home
Robotictalking -Wordsaremadeup fromsoundsandchildrenneedtobe abletohearthesesoundsindividually. Sometimeswhenyouareplayingyou cansaywordsasifyouwerearobot (sayingthesoundsseparately)andsee ifyourchildcanworkoutwhatyouare saying
Ispy–Saytherhyme‘Ispywithmylittleeyesomethingbeginningwith (instead______’andthefirstlettersound oflettername)oftheobject.
Sound buttons- when sounding out unfamiliar words put sound buttons beneath the individual letter sounds and for digraphs and trigraphs use sound sausages.
Repetition- Spend a few minutes each day practicing reading and spelling tricky words and recognizing graphemes.
Independent Learning
This is our child initiated learning time
Independent Learning is a time for hands on exploration, investigation, collaboration and learning through play
The children can learn wherever they want in the Reception unit, this means they can use any of the inside or outside areas in the EYFS area.
Our Teachers work alongside our children as partners in play, skilfully developing the children’s next steps for learning
We encourage children to collaborate with each other to evolve their own learning opportunities
We provide a wealth of resources and provocations for our children to use in Independent Learning, to inspire and motivate their development.
During Independent Learning we take time to work closely alongside our children to assess them, working out how to help them make progress and grow
CONTINUOUS PROVISION
In Independent Learning, there are a number of resources available all the time for children to use whenever and for whatever they like. We are always adding to our resources. Remember children are creative genius’ and what looks like junk is treasure to them; a cardboard box can be a million things if you open your mind
Examplesofcontinuous provision
ENHANCED PROVISION
Sometimes our children struggle to find something to learn all on their own
Enhanced provisions provide topic based starting points and challenges for different subject areas from which the children can build their own learning experiences. The children have access to enhanced provision in both the inside and outside environments.
How will we assess the children’s progress?
We use a document called ‘Development Matters’ to help us to understand whether your child is making good progress throughout theyearineachofthe7areasofthecurriculum
When your child learns, explores or experiences something new we will record it in a Learning Journal. This will either be a physical learningjournalorviatheironlinelearningjournal.
Online Learning Journey
How will we assess the children’s progress?
Each term we will look at the all the evidence we have collected, including special moments shared from home and decideasanoverallbestfitjudgementwhetheryourchildis
• Meeting the expectations (doing everything as expected)
• Needing a bit more support or guidance in this area, or
• Doing more than is expected at this stage
How will we inform you?
Interim Reports will be sent home once every big term to keep you up to date with the progress your child is making.
Parent Consultation Evenings:
Wednesday 3rd and Wednesday 10th January 2024
Thank you for reading.
