Foundation Stage Unit & KS1

Welcome back

We hope you all had a lovely Summer and enjoyed the lovely sunshine that we had. We are so excited to be sharing the next part of your child’s learning journey with both them and you. In all that we do, we aim to build Relationships, be Respectful, be Resilient, be Resourceful and be Reflective; these values are also reflected in all areas of our learning, and we regularly refer to them.

During their time in nursery and reception the children are exposed to language rich, play based opportunities that support them to develop their social interactions, creativity, communication and understanding of the world while building strong foundations for literacy, numeracy and problem solving. Each half term children will focus on a different engaging topic that will support their development.

During the first half of the autumn term, we will explore the theme ‘Who Am I?’, allowing children to develop a strong sense of identity and belonging while continuing to build their friendships and exploring the learning environment. They will explore their own interests and what makes them and others special, share their own families and learn about different types of families, explore their own feelings and emotions, talk about their home and different types of homes and learn about the different parts of a body.

In the second half of the term, we will focus on the theme ‘Who helps me?’ which enables the children to build a strong sense of community, develop their social skills and knowledge on how to stay safe and healthy. Children will explore who helps us at home and in school and learn about the different job roles of the people that help us in the community.

It is integral that children develop a life-long love of reading which we will support by providing regular opportunities for adults to talk to about the books they read with the children and what they experience in the world around them. We will share both fiction and non-fiction books, build on their listening skills and sing songs, rhymes and poems together.  

During the first couple of weeks the children, in Reception,  will come home with some wordless books. This pre-reading is a brilliant opportunity for the children to talk about what is happening in the story. This develops their language skills, vocabulary and comprehension.

The children will also follow the RWI phonics scheme which helps them to read fluently. In the first term they will learn single letter Set 1 sounds and then begin to practice these in words through oral blending. To help your child keep up with the RWI programme, we will record what the children have focused on in their phonics lessons each day in their reading record. Additional to the formal Phonics programme, we provide many opportunities to develop early Literacy skills through games and the indoor and outdoor enhanced provision. These will often be linked to the children’s topic work to develop their vocabulary and allow them to retell stories and develop their imagination and creativity.

The children in the nursery will be developing their understanding of subitising, fewer than and more than. They will also be learning about different shapes and repeating patterns.

In Reception we follow the Mastering Number programme. This helps to secure strong early maths skills and allows children to develop a deep understanding. In the first term children will focus on developing their subitising(recognising quantities without counting) and counting skills. They will also explore the composition of numbers within 5 and start to compare sets of objects. Alongside daily whole-class teaching sessions, there will be a range of child-led opportunities to develop mathematical skills through meaningful play during indoor and outdoor continuous provision.

Themes (Understanding of the World/ Expressive Arts and Design)

During our topic work linked with ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Who helps us?’ the children will have opportunities to enjoy a wide variety of inspiring experiences including creating artworks (inspired by famous artists like Frida Khalo) using a variety of materials. As part of learning about different festivals children will make and taste apple flapjack, create collage fireworks, make clay Divas and create their own Christmas decorations to name a few. The children will learn about the months of the year and the changing seasons.

They will also take part in Forest School sessions on a rotation basis throughout the year. Class 1 will have Forest School in the first half of the Autumn term. This is a great opportunity for them to continue their learning outdoors, develop teamwork and grow respect and gratitude for the outdoor environment. For Forest School please can children bring in:

PE/Physical Development

Children have a range of daily opportunities to improve their physical development in both their gross and fine motor skills through indoor and outdoor continuous provision.  There will also be a weekly PE session on a Tuesday afternoon which will focus on developing functional skills.  The children are welcome to leave their PE kits in school, and we will send them home if we feel they need washing or at the end of each half term.

PSHE/Personal, Social and Emotional Development

This is such a crucial part of your child’s education and underpins everything that we do.  Through all our activities, every child will have the opportunity to develop their personal, social and emotional skills, learning how to get on with each other and to have mutual respect and responsibility.  We will introduce and explore our school values: building Relationships by being Resilient, Resourceful, Reflective and Respectful as well as our school motto; ‘Aim High, Be Resilient & Take Care of Each Other’.  Often, we will have a focus on specific elements of PSED in activities such as circle time and with a programme called SCARF (Coram) using specialised resources and stories.  The SCARF themes this term are: ‘Me and My Relationships’ and ‘Valuing Differences’.

Homework:

In Reception we ask you to support your child’s learning by helping them read 5 times a week. As previously mentioned, this begins with wordless books to develop language comprehension and will progress as the term continues to include the practising of Set 1 sounds and words. We will be sending home copies of Set 1 sounds and later in the term words. We ask that children practice these at home regularly to support their confidence. We will send you links to the RWI Portal to support with this.

For Maths home learning we will start with the online educational programme NumBots and then move on to DoodleMaths towards the end of the Autumn Term. We will provide you with information on how to access these and we will set weekly tasks on Class Dojo for the children to complete.

We carefully plan the curriculum to suit the learning needs of all our pupils and make them excited to learn. Where possible, the curriculum areas are linked to provide context to their learning and allow them to delve deeper into the topic.

During this term, the children will be developing their understanding of place value, counting up to and back from 20 and then 100. They will be learning about how the numbers can be represented in different ways and also look at how a number can be partitioned into tens and ones. The children will also be learning about the operations of addition and subtraction, developing their mental recall of the addition and subtraction facts for the numbers up to 10 and the number 20 (Year 2). We will finish the term, by learning about the different 2D and 3D shapes. The children in Year One and Year Two will also be following the Mastering Number programme. This helps to secure strong maths skills and allows children to develop a deep understanding. In the first term children will focus on developing their subitising(recognising quantities without counting) and reinforcing their understanding of the composition of numbers within 10.

The pupils will have daily opportunities to read through Read Write Inc and have access to our class books where the children can explore a wide variety of genres. To help your child keep up with the RWI programme, we will record what the children have focused on in their phonics lessons each day in their reading record. Please support your children’s learning by regularly engaging with stories and books at home; this can be listening to them read, reading to them or discussing what they have read.

In English, we will begin by looking at ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, followed by ‘The Bear and the Piano’ where various writing outcomes will be generated such as story writing, character descriptions, poetry and letter writing. The children will also be writing a non-chronological report on Mary Seacole. Throughout the term, we will explore other texts to develop our writing skills and encourage pupils to apply the various grammar, punctuation, spelling and handwriting content taught.

‘Animals, including humans’, make up our topics in Science this term. Pupils will be looking at the different types of animals and the different things that they eat. They will also learn about the senses and human body parts. The children will also be learning about the life cycle of humans and different animals.

In our History topic we will be learning about the history of hospitals and the impact that Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale have had on our hospitals.  The children will also be learning about Winsford Cottage Hospital.  In Geography, we will be learning the similarities and differences between the UK and Jamaica.

In Design Technology we will be looking at designing and making our own stockings. Therefore, developing our sewing skills. Our Art work will focus on developing our drawing skills. We will be taking inspiration from the artist Quentin Blake.

For Computing, the children will be exploring and learning about information technology around us and then digital photography. In Music, each unit adapts an integrated approach where games, elements of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch etc.), singing and playing instruments are all linked.

In our Religion World Views, we continue to follow units within the Devon Agreed Syllabus. The children will be studying the units: ‘Who is Jewish and how do they live?’ and ‘Why does Christmas matter to Christians?’  Within RSE (relationships and sex education) will be exploring ‘Relationships’ and ‘Growing and Changing’. These topics will be taught through the Coram Life Education SCARF resources, who have a useful family page on their website if you would like to know more.

They will also take part in Forest School sessions on a rotation basis throughout the year. Class 1 will have Forest School in the first half of the Autumn term. This is a great opportunity for them to continue their learning outdoors, develop teamwork and grow respect and gratitude for the outdoor environment. For Forest School please can children bring in:

PE/Physical Development

Children have a range of daily opportunities to improve their physical development in both their gross and fine motor skills through indoor and outdoor continuous provision.  There will also be a weekly PE session on a Tuesday afternoon which will focus on developing functional skills.  The children are welcome to leave their PE kits in school, and we will send them home if we feel they need washing or at the end of each half term.

Homework will continue to be set each week. This will include:

Communication:

To help us share our adventures with you, we use Class Dojo. Each week we will share what we have been doing in class. We will also use Class Dojo to share additional messages with you. As your child’s class teacher, I am keen to receive any feedback you may have which will support your child in their learning journey in Class 1. If at any time you want to let us know anything extra, or if you have any questions or concerns, do please ask us at school drop off or pick up or arrange a meeting (telephone or face-to-face). Alternatively, you can message us on Class Dojo or contact the admin team in the office who can forward emails to us or arrange meetings. Similarly, you can pop a message in your child’s Reading Record. It is so important that we keep communicating about the needs of your little ones so we can work together to support them. Please do look at the weekly newsletter where there are school updates and useful dates.

The children’s well-being is of paramount important to us and as a school we aim to create a happy, healthy environment for all. If you have any worries or questions, please do not hesitate in coming to see us.

Thank you

Miss C Gee(Class Teacher), Miss M May, Mrs Daniel, Mrs Rose and Mrs Hutchins