Welcome to our Early Years Unit

Welcome to Class 1
 
Take a tour of our indoor and outdoor learning environments
Staff
Class Teacher : Miss Alexander
Teaching Assistant and Early Years Language Specialist: Miss Lynda Cree
Class Assistant and 1:1 Support: Miss Sophie Priestley
Our Learning Journey
 
Welcome

Welcome to our Early Years  page. At Belford Primary School we work as a foundation unit, which means that Nursery share our learning environment and classroom with our lovely Reception class. As teachers, we work collaboratively to plan and enhance all the areas of the classroom to provide exciting learning opportunities for all of our pupils. We are a small foundation unit of approximately 25 pupils. Many of our Nursery pupils are eligible for extra nursery hours and choose to claim their 30 hours with us. Other pupils are entitled to 15 funded nursery hours, we are flexible with these families and offer top up sessions should they wish. We also offer sessions for 2 year olds.

To find out if you are entitled to a 30 hour place please follow this link:

https://childcare-support.tax.service.gov.uk/moreinfopar/1/?returnURL=%2Fpar%2Fapp%2Fextendedentitlement

 

Our Values

At Belford Primary School we are passionate about learning in the early years. We believe that by developing a strong foundation based on the prime areas of learning, communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, and physical development we can ignite the children curiosity and enthusiasm, build their capacity to learn and form relationships that will enable them to become lifelong learners.


These prime areas are then strengthened and applied through four specific areas.

  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Understanding the world
  • Expressive arts and design

We aim to facilitate good, structured, play opportunities, both indoors and outdoors through a strong mix of adult led teaching and child initiated learning, supporting children to become inquisitive, curious learners who can question things around them. Much learning is planned for outdoors; we believe there is no such thing as bad weather – just inappropriate clothing.

 

The EYFS framework is changing slightly from September 2021. This new EYFS framework will be valid from 1 September 2021.  

Early Years Curriculum

Please download our termly curriculum documents here for more information about what we will are learning and to see examples of our work.

These topic webs show what knowledge and skills we intend to teach the children. We also follow the children's interests on a daily basis which gives us an even broader curriculum.

Progression Models
 
Our Progression Models show how our children will develop their skills and knowledge in each Area of Learning so that they can experience a broad curriculum. These experiences will support our children from the transition from Reception into Year One.
 
Please click on the links below to view the different Progression Models.
Early Years Important Information

Please click on the  links below to find out important information about the Early Years.

 
Characteristics of Effective Learning

We also integrate the Characteristics of Effective Learning into all aspects of the EYFS curriculum. These are: 

  • Playing and Exploring - engagement. This incorporates finding out and exploring. Playing with what they know and being willing to have a go.   
  • Active Learning - motivation.  This is how involved the child is, how well they concentrate, keep trying and how they enjoy achieving what they set out to do.   
  • Creating and Thinking Critically - thinking.  Do they have their own ideas, how they make links with their learning and choose ways to do things.
School Prospectus for Parents
Useful links
 
Here are a few educational links that we use in School, which you may enjoy sharing at home with your child.
 
 
Nursery and Early Reception focus on Phase 1. As the children move through Reception they focus on Phase 2.
 
 

To keep active, burn off some energy or just have a dance, follow the link below. There are lots more action videos, songs and dances on youtube.com that are suitable for early years children too.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=go+noodle

 
 
Working with Parents
 
Working in partnership with parents is key to our approach; we encourage a positive friendly approach. Each morning and handover you are greeted with a friendly comment and encouraged to share how your child is each day. We enjoy sharing positive learning opportunities that your child has achieved each day. It is really important to us that you know each day what your child's strengths have been.
 
We will be moving from Tapestry to School360 which  is a secure online Learning Journal to record photos, observations and comments, in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, to build up a record of your child's experiences during their time with us. 

We also invite parents into school regularly to a class assembly, to consolidate and share our learning. We enjoy hosting Play and Stay sessions where parents have the opportunity to observe a lesson taught and then play in the learning environment with their children. This is a great opportunity for you to discuss your child's learning, their progress and to give your input to their learning journey.

 

 

 

A typical child's development

It is  widely recognised the vital role that parents have in supporting their children's learning and development. Parents need to know what to expect in relation to their child's development through the different age bands of the EYFS. 

What to expect, when? is a simple guide which takes parents through the expectations of each age band in the EYFS and how they can support their children's learning and development. 

Please open the link to find the parents guide of what to expect in the Early Years.
Phonics and Early Literacy Skills
 
Nursery
The children will learn to develop their early listening skills and language development using Early Years Talk Boost. We also use  Neli which focus's on vocabulary, listening and narrative skills. When the children are ready we then use the Sounds Great Approach which is a systematic approach to early phonics. This will cover listening to speech sounds, Syllable segmentation, Syllable blending: compound words, syllable deletion,  onset rhyme blending, rhyme awareness and  onset identification.
 
Reception
 
Phonics is a way of teaching children to read and write. At Belford Primary we follow the 'Read Write Inc' scheme. Throughout the autumn term children will be learning to say, read and write set 1 sounds and will be developing their skills in segmenting and oral blending e.g. c-a-t... cat.

 

Please open the following link for some guidance on what phonics is and how you can help your child with their phonics learning at home:

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-age-4-5-reception/

 

For guidance on how to pronounce sounds, watch the following video:

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading-owl/find-a-book/read-write-inc-phonics--1/phonics-pure-sounds-video

 

Literacy

We begin each term with a focus book and will learn to label and talk about our emotions, characters, settings, events and the ending. 

As a class we convert texts into story maps and create actions to develop our knowledge and understanding of stories and language.  Reading and storytelling should be a magical experience for children and so we provide a wealth of active and interactive learning experiences to inspire their imaginations and encourage them to see themselves speakers, listeners, writers and readers.

Reading is a bonding experience for you and your child and plays an important role in their development. Please follow the link below for some tips for reading with your child:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHMl70ZmxIQ

 

Writing, drawing and mark making

Children begin their journey towards writing by making marks. The marks children make slowly begin to have more meaning for them. You can support this by saying "tell me about your drawing/writing" or "I'd love to know more about this". Encourage children to engage in purposeful writing and model this for them e.g. you could write a shopping list or a birthday card with your child. Provide a range of interesting mark making materials such as crayons and paint brushes and encourage your child to use their fingers. They can mark make on paper, the ground or set up a tray with flour, sand or shaving foam. They can mark make with anything and on anything! The more they explore, the more they will see themselves as writers.

 

Name writing

Your child's name is an important part of their identity. We encourage them to write their names regularly as part of purposeful writing. You can encourage your child to write their name on the back of their drawings and to create name labels e.g. when they make a lego tower they can label it with their name or they could create a name sign for their bedroom door. 

 

 
Maths
Nursery children follow the DfE Patterns and Numbers alongside EYFS Statuary Framework.
Reception children follow First4Maths which gives a broad and balanced approach alongside the Statuary Framework.
 

This term we'll be developing our maths skills in topics such as matching and sorting, comparing amounts, comparing size, mass and capacity and exploring pattern. There is lots of things you can do at home to help your child. Singing songs is important in developing their counting skills and there are lots of counting to 20 songs available on youtube.com, many of which your child will know from school.

 

Engage in practical counting throughout the day. How many red cars can you see on your walk home from school? How many chips are on your plate? 

We can count anything… claps, jumps on the spot, steps as we walk up the stairs.

 

Look out for numbers, shapes and patterns in the environment and talk about them e.g. shapes you see on the way to school and numbers on car registration plates and house doors, numbered aisles in the supermarket, patterns on your clothes and shapes of objects around your home. 

You can sort and order objects and talk about similarities and things that you notice... it is all about exploring and talking.

More learning in Class 1