Stottesdon CofE Primary School

Teme Class

Teme class is for our Reception children and we maintain close links to the nursery.

Our Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum

Our EYFS Curriculum has been designed to reflect the nature of our beautiful environment, the seasons of the year and the nature around our school. It aims to teach the children how their environment compares to other places, cultures and nature in other parts of the world. It is therefore unique to Stottesdon C of E Primary school. Each topic planned is included in the curriculum for very specific reasons and we want to ensure that all children leaving the Early Years are ready to start the Key Stage 1 curriculum. Each topic is exciting and challenging with: themes based on our two-year cycle; supporting observations of children’s needs; their interests and experiences; their stages of development across the seven areas of learning. The combination of these will enable the children to achieve and go beyond the 17 Early Learning Goals.

Link here the EY Curricular Goals and Early Learning Goals.

Prime Areas

Children in the EYFS should mostly develop the three prime areas first. These are:

Communication and Language;
Physical Development;
Personal, Social and Emotional Development.

These prime areas are those most essential for children’s healthy development and future learning. As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in four specific areas.

Specific Areas

Literacy;
Mathematics (please see here for the overview of the mastering maths programme we use);
Understanding the World;
Expressive Arts and Design.

All seven main areas of learning are incorporated into the outdoor curriculum and planning is cross curricular across all areas. Throughout the EYFS curriculum we are always incorporating children’s skills and development under the characteristics of effective teaching and learning by providing opportunities to support playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically.

For more information here is a parent guide: What to expect in the EYFS?

Forest School

Forest Fun is an opportunity for the Reception and Nursery children to have new, creative experiences in the outdoor environment in a safe way. Through purposeful and careful planning of Forest Fun experiences children will have opportunities to learn about the natural environment, how to handle risks, increase self-esteem, improve concentration, and most importantly to use their own initiative to solve problems and co-operate with others.

We aim to foster a love and respect for the natural world through stimulating natural learning experiences, inspiring children to value biodiversity and develop a strong understanding of how to promote environmental sustainability. The children will experience a minimum of two terms, on a Friday afternoon, to immerse themselves in nature and deepen their knowledge and understanding of the flora, fauna and living things that surrounds them in their local environment.

The forest space, a short walk from our school, has been provided by the Muggleton and Datlen-Gough Families. The space will be utilised with lessons adapted to compliment the ever-changing conditions, resources, and challenges of the natural world through the seasons.

Forest Fun learning experiences create endless opportunities for cross-curricular links to Science, Mathematics, English, Geography and Art.

Curriculum

Teme Class runs a two year rolling programme, in align with Stottesdon Gateway Nursery so that they are able to carry out joint activities where appropriate.

This term we are learning about 'Journeys and Holidays'. If you would like further information about the topic - please click on the relevant link below for a parent friendly curriculum map.

Reception Baseline Assessment

The reception baseline assessment (RBA) and our own additional activities is a short, task-based assessment of child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin Reception. The assessment can take place at any point in the first 6 weeks of a child starting reception by the class teacher. The assessment will form the start of a new measure of how schools are helping their pupils to progress between reception and year 6. During a short one-to-one session, children will do a number of practical and interactive tasks. Children can answer questions verbally or by pointing or moving objects. The assessment has been designed to be inclusive and there are modified materials available – this means it is also accessible to children with special educational needs or disability (SEND) or English as an additional language (EAL).

End of Reception Assessment

In the final term of the year, an Early Years Foundation Stage Profile will be completed for each child. This provides parents and carers, practitioners and teachers with a well-rounded picture of a child’s knowledge, understanding and abilities, their attainment against expected levels, and their readiness for year 1. Throughout their year in Reception, the children will be observed and assessed through their learning in order to gain insights and make reasonable judgements against the 17 Early Learning Goals. We will use the terms ‘emerging’ or ‘expected’ to describe our judgements (under the new guidance the term ‘exceeding’ has now been removed).

The EYFS Teachers discuss any cause for concern in a child’s progress, especially in the ‘prime’ areas of learning, with the child’s parents. A strategy of support is agreed upon and recorded on the class provision map, discussions with the school SENCo and other agencies may be needed.

Parent Partnership with Reception

As outlined in the ‘Statutory Framework for Early Years Foundation Stage’ 2021

‘Good parenting and high-quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up’

We agree parents and carers have a significant role to play in the lifelong education of their child. We strive to create and maintain partnerships with parents/carers as we recognise that together, we can have a significant impact on a child’s learning. We welcome and actively encourage parents to participate confidently in their child’s education and care in numerous ways:

· Transition Sessions before starting Reception

· Being welcoming and approachable and having an open-door approach for parents to voice concerns/ask questions;

· Inviting them to a parent consultation in the Autumn and Spring terms to discuss how their child has settled and share progress and next steps for learning;

· Inviting parents into school termly for our ‘Come and Learn With Us’ sessions;

· Encouraging parents to read with their child at home and make comments in their reading record books;

· Providing curriculum planning overviews for each topic, each term, highlighting how they can support their child at home;

· Inviting parents into school for ‘parent phonics’ sessions to demonstrate how we teach phonics and help them support their child;

· Welcoming parents as volunteers into our school and hear readers;

· Written contact through the Reading record and weekly school newsletters.

· Sending home ‘WOW’ slips designed to enable parents to record achievements.

· Having regular access to their children’s online ‘Class Dojo’ (Reception) and valuing the on-going contributions that they make to them.

· Parents are invited to a range of activities throughout the school year such as assemblies, workshops, Christmas Nativity play and sports day etc. ;

· We also draw on our links with the community to enrich children’s experiences by taking them on outings and inviting members of the community into our setting to talk about their lives, work and experiences.