Early Years Foundation Stage/Reception

Starting school is a very special time in a young child's life. We all want to see our children happy and settled, and a good start at school is important for long term social and educational benefits. At Forge Wood Primary School we do everything possible to help our Reception children settle in happily.

Here are just a few things we do to help the transition of pre-school to reception flow smoothly:

• We meet with the majority of the children’s current nurseries and pre-schools to find out about your children in their current settings.
• We host a 5 week school readiness programme attended by parents/carers and their children followed by a transition meeting in early July for all parents/carers to meet the class teacher and the Reception team, learning more about what it's like to be in Reception at Forge Wood.
• We offer a Stay and Play session for parents/carers to attend with their child in the Summer term
• A home visit for class teachers to meet your child in their own, familiar environment.

 

Please see below a selection of quotes from some of our parents who attended the school readiness programme.

"Getting used to going into the class without a parent and bonding with teachers"

"Seeing the staff and the school, and having my child see and spend time at the school. Helped a lot" 

"You guys did a great job I can't think of anything to add. My daughter didn't hesitate to enter class at the start of the term because of those sessions. Thank you" 

"Dropping the children off in the reception area for the final settle in. It took off the pressure of the first day of school. Also, the teddy bear keychain and the poem were very useful and the helped make the moment more special. The lunch at school was also a very good experience for us."

 

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is a play-based framework that sets out the learning and development stages for children as they grow from birth to the age of five, recognising that children develop more rapidly during these first five years than at any other time in their lives. The framework ensures children are given a broad range of knowledge and skills with which to build a strong foundation for school and life. The EYFS sets out seven important inter-connected areas of learning. Of these, three are Prime areas crucial for building children’s capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive in their environment. These three prime areas form the foundation for the remaining four specific areas of learning.

 

The EYFS Framework recognises that an effective learning and development process depends on each child having opportunities to interact within positive relationships and an enabling environment.  At Forge Wood, these documents are used to guide teachers in their assessments of the children, inform of appropriate stages of development and guide provision and questioning with regards to next steps.

 

Communication and Language  - giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations.

Physical Development - providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their coordination, control, and movement.Gross motor skills provide the foundation for developing healthy bodies and social and emotional well-being. Fine motor control and precision helps with hand-eye coordination, which is later linked to early literacy. Repeated and varied opportunities to explore and play with small world activities, puzzles, arts and crafts and the practice of using small tools, with feedback and support from adults, allow children to develop proficiency, control and confidence.

Personal, social and emotional development - helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities

We also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. The specific areas are:

Literacy - encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write

Mathematics - opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures

Understanding the World - guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment

Expressive Arts and Design - enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology

Our staff will ensure there is a balance between activities led by children, and activities led or guided by adults. Learning takes place indoors and outdoors, through play, exploration and creative thinking. As children grow older, and as their development allows, there will be a gradual shift towards more activities led by adults. This will help children prepare for more formal learning in Key Stage 1.

In planning and guiding the children’s activities, our staff will reflect on the different ways that children learn. These characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:

Playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;

Active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements;

Creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

The curriculum we will provide, meets the requirements set out in the revised EYFS syllabus and focuses on developing the children’s skills in line with the Early Learning Goals. Our school will fully support the principle that young children learn through play and by engaging in well-planned, structured activities.

During the EYFS, the adults within the setting continually make observations of the children’s progress in order to inform future planning and “next steps” for each child. This is recorded on Tapestry and shared with parents.

We teach early reading through synthetic phonics; this is where children learn to blend sounds to read whole words. We begin phonics in Reception and is completed when the children are fluent and confident readers. The children will learn to recognise 44 sounds in the English language and the many ways of writing these sounds (e.g. ay/ai, oy/oi). The English language is not just made up of decodable words, therefore we teach the children how to recognise and read tricky words known as ‘red’ words (e.g. the, said, could).

The children learn each sound through a hook by using pictures which match the shape of the letter; for example ‘s’ looks like a snake and ‘a’ looks like an apple. This helps the children to learn to read and write the sounds easily and to be able to segment and blend words to read sentences. From this, the children quickly experience the joy of accessing books and feeling like readers. Effective assessment is then used to accelerate every child's progress so their learning is individually catered to them. Read Write Inc. also supports the children’s handwriting and spelling development as they learn to form their letters visualising the picture and saying the handwriting pattern they learnt with the sound.

 

Children learn to read words by blending sounds (Fred talk) eg. c-a-t = cat, sh-o-p = shop. In order to do this they need to say the pure sounds ('m' not 'muh', 's' not 'suh' etc.) as quickly as they can, and then blend the sounds together to say the whole word.

Please click here for further information and also visit the phonics page of our website

 

Using Tapestry – A Guide for parents and carers

You can download the Tapestry app to your phone or tablet (see logo above) or you can go to the website: www.tapestryjournal.com

How does Tapestry work?

Tapestry provides each individual child with their own Learning Journal held online. Parents and carers are given their own log-in using their email – you should have received an email link and using this you can set your own password. If you do not currently have access please inform school and we can resend the email link. Staff are given a secure log-in and they can then upload observations, photos or videos and set work, plus see any comments/observations parents have added.

What is the PIN set up for?

When you access Tapestry through a mobile phone or tablet, please set a unique PIN when you log in for the first time. This will be required whenever you return to the application or after the screen has locked

How do I change my settings on the computer?

At the top right of your screen you will see your name, and selecting this will give you the option to ‘Edit Preferences’. Choose this option and you will be presented with a screen giving you the option to change your email address and password. You also have the option to receive an email whenever a new observation is added to your child’s Learning Journal – just tick or untick the relevant box if you would like to change this setting.

How do I change my settings on iPhone/iPad/Android?

To change your settings on the iPhone/iPad app, click the 'gear' button on the top right hand side of the application. This enables you to change your password and/or email address.

How can I view my child’s Learning Journal?

Once logged in, you will see your child’s observations/work on your home screen in a list – selecting any one of these will open up the observation for you to look at. You may add comments in the box at the bottom of the observation if you would like to - and we would love to receive such comments!

How do I add an entry to my child’s Learning Journal?

Choose the ‘Add Observation’ option (or the 'plus' icon on your iPhone/iPad/Android) and add the relevant information in the boxes on screen. Photos and videos may be uploaded by choosing the ‘add media’ option. When you have saved your observation, you may go back to the home screen at any time by choosing ‘home’.

Here are some useful links to help understand the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework more:

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2

What to expect in the EYFS: https://www.haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/what-to-expect-in-the-eyfs-guide-parents.pdf

Birth to 5 Matters: https://birthto5matters.org.uk/

Development matters: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/development-matters--2

Please have fun exploring some of the sites below to enhance your child’s learning experiences at home!  Always review the sites ahead of time so that you can help your children find the best resources available within the sites. Some offer a great number of games, songs, stories, videos etc. so it is important to know the site well in order to support and develop your child’s learning.

www.busythings.co.uk

Excellent site built around the 7 areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage. You can access a free 7 day trial but you need to subscribe after this period to access the content – various subscription packages available.

http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm

Great site with some free phonics games

www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies

Many games often recognised by children from their favourite programmes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories

cbeebies stories and rhymes.

http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/

Interactive books and reading activities to share with your child at home.

http://www.funwithspot.com/

Try creating your own Spot story.

http://www.ictgames.com/

Some excellent numeracy and literacy resources

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html

Lots of maths and literacy games

www.boowakwala.com

Many games and songs including those relating to festivals.

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=37

Games of varying quality to support different areas of learning.