EYFS

Welcome to Reception at Wylde Green Primary School

At Wylde Green Primary School we believe every child is unique and deserves the best possible start in life to support them to reach their full potential. The Reception Year lays vital foundations that children build upon as they progress through our school.

Intent - we aim to:

Deliver a high-quality, child-centred approach which enables children to achieve their full potential from their unique starting points.
Provide a safe and nurturing environment in which children can grow in confidence and resilience to become independent life-long learners and well-rounded individuals socially and emotionally.
Develop and foster strong relationships with children, and respectful partnerships with parents, which enable children to develop a sense of community and what it means to be a good citizen.
Ensure that disadvantaged and SEND children are provided with additional support to enable them to thrive and make good progress.
Prepare children for the next stage of their learning and ensure that children are emotionally as well as academically prepared for the Key Stage 1 curriculum.
Classrooms and outdoor ares ae organised for continuous provision. We ensure that activities and experiences allow children to display the characteristics of effective learning and teachers make use of both indoor and outdoor spaces. We recognise that learning outdoors is important for children to explore the world around them.

Implementation - How we achieve our aims:

Our EYFS curriculum is -

child-centred......thematic......awe-inspiring......inclusive......challenging

A robust approach -

Our EYFS curriculum is underpinned by the statutory EYFS Framework and the non-statutory Development Matters guidance. Our curriculum ensures that learning is centred around the four principles and that learning opportunities provided to our children cover the seven areas of learning.

Four Principles -

The Unique Child

We recognise every child is unique. With support and nurture, all can become independent, resilient and confident learners.

Positive Relationships

We recognise the importance of strong relationships with children in order for them to feel safe and empowered to learn.

Enabling Environments

We provide enabling environments in which experiences respond to individual needs, and there ae strong partnerships with parents.

Leaning and Development

We recognise that children learn and develop in different ways and at different rates, but our provision is inclusive for all children.

Severn areas of learning -

Prime Areas:

Personal. Social & Emotional Development

Communication & Language

Physical Development

Specific Areas:

Literacy

Mathematics

Understanding the World

Expressive Arts & Design

Characteristics of Effective Learning -

Engagement - Playing & Exploring

The learning environments and activities planned are engaging for children, and appeal to their individual interests. Sensory lay experiences stimulate their curiosity and allow them to explore new materials, objects or ideas. Providing activities and toys tat they know allows them to feel comfortable in the learning environment. Children have the freedom to explore a wide range of activities and are encouraged gently by adults to 'have a go' at trying new things and taking risks.

Motivation - Active Learning

Activities are regularly changed and enhanced, and children are kept motivated by the inclusion of open-ended tasks; problem-solving activities that promote questioning; and the introduction of new or unusual objects and artefacts to explore, which instil a sense of awe and wonder. Activities encourage children to work collaboratively to promote talk, concentration and sharing of ideas. Perseverance is fostered by adults encouraging children to keep trying.

Thinking - Creating & Thinking Critically

We create activities to encourage children to express themselves. Open-ended or problem-solving tasks support children in thinking critically and encourages them to explore new vocabulary and deepen their understanding. Adults help children in making connections to prior learning to support them in learning new concepts.

Language-rich environment:

We know that strong language-skills are a determiner in future academic success. Our setting is a language-rich environment in which talk is part of daily learning and exploration. Adults talk to children and children talk to each other, using the new vocabulary learnt. The daily sharing of stories also supports children in developing their vocabulary and their exposure to new words and phrases. Children also use new words and structures within their imaginative play.

Strong Pedagogy:

Our Reception team is well-trained and the EYFS lead provides training and support, as required. Practitioners use a range of pedagogical approaches to support and enhance children's learning. These include child-initiated play, adult-led focus groups, direct instruction, scaffolding and enquiry-led learning. Adults know when to sensitively interact and when to take a more active guiding role.

Assessment:

Assessment is part of our daily practice. We carry out statutory baseline assessments in September and learning is planned in accordance with the needs of our children. Teachers carry out ongoing formative assessment through observation and discussions with the children. At the end of the year, children are assessed against the statutory EYFS Early Learning Goals.

Preparing for Key Stage 1:

Our children are well-prepared for Key Stage 1 as we have high expectations of all. Our Reception year lays strong foundations in all areas of learning and children are supported to be emotionally ready for the next stage of learning. As the year progresses in Reception, children engage in more directed collaborative tasks and they learn to become more independent, focused, active and resilient learners. This is based on the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework and the Development Matters non-statutory guidance, alongside children's interests and development needs.

Impact - How we know whether we have achieved our aims:

Children make strong progress from their individual starting points as a result of the offer of a broad curriculum which meets the needs of every child.
Children enjoy coming to school and feel happy and safe. They demonstrate high levels of engagement and motivation which supports them to become life-long learners.
Children develop strong, positive relationships with adults in school. Parental engagement in their children's learning is effective.
All children access a balanced and challenging curriculum regardless of backgrounds, needs and abilities. Those with SEND make good progress.
Children demonstrate strong characteristics of effective learning. This is evidenced in both their motivation to learn and their engagement.

Phonics and Early Reading

From the beginning of Reception, children are taught to read on a daily basis using a programme of systematic synthetic phonics (SSP).At Wylde Green Primary School, we follow Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised as our SSP programme, a scheme following Letters and Sounds and validated by the Department for Education.

Lessons are structured as followed:

Revisit and review - activate prior knowledge by practising recognition and recall of previously taught grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) and further development of fluent reading of previously taught tricky words.
Teach and practise - the explicit teaching of a new GPC, including pronunciation of the new phoneme, oral blending, reading new words which include the GPC and the teaching of new tricky words.
Practise and apply - practise and apply the new knowledge from the "teach" part of the lesson, read captions or sentences, which include the new GPC or tricky word, and spelling of words which include the new GPC.

Assessment takes place daily during phonics lessons to immediately identify pupils who require extra practice and support. In addition, half-termly assessments take place which help to inform planning and identify pupils who are at risk of falling behind.

For more information about Phonics in Reception, please refer to our English section on the school website.

Reading Practice Sessions

As well as daily phonics sessions, children in Reception read worth an adult at least three times per week. The books read are matched closely to each child's reading ability and are fully decodable. The reading practice sessions focus on a key reading skill each day:

Day 1 - decoding and the application of phonic skills
Day 2 - prosody (the use of fluency and expression when reading aloud).
Day 3 - comprehension (understanding of the meaning within the text).

Each week books are sent home for pupils to practise their reading skills. The school uses Collins Big Cat as our reading scheme, which is affiliated to and supports the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised SSP programme.

The teaching of reading is of paramount importance. However, we also aim to instil a love of reading in all our pupils. This is achieved through a range of initiative which promote reading and reading for pleasure.

Daily story times - where high-quality works of children's literature are shared with pupils. Books are carefully selected to engage and challenge as well as broaden pupil's understanding of the world.
Book Talk - pupils are invited to share their favourite books from home with their peers. These sessions allow teachers and pupils to discuss a range of authors and genres and develop and grow our school as a reading community.
Parental workshops - to provide parents with information on how to support their children at home when learning phonics and with reading at home.
Other initiative - celebration of World Book Day, twice-yearly visiting book fayre, parents reading with their children in class, year group author and reading nooks and corners.

Tips for supporting reading with your child at home

Supporting your child's reading at home is one of the most impactful ways to encourage their literacy skills and foster a lifelong love of reading and learning.

Read together regularly - make it a daily habit, even if it is just for 10-15 minutes.
Be a role model - let your child see you reading and enjoying books.
Provide a variety of reading materials - books (fiction and non-fiction), comics, poetry. Exposure to different formats keeps reading exciting.
Discuss what you have read together - ask questions, make predictions, and talk about the story or book to help with comprehension and make reading interactive.

Early Writing

Throughout pupils' time in Reception, there are regular opportunities for pupils to develop their writing skills. At the beginning of the year, an emphasis is placed on pupils being able to communicate their ideas verbally. This supports pupils in the composition of simple sentences. Stories, nursery rhymes and poems are regularly shared with pupils so that they become familiar with the structure of narratives. The retelling of favourite stories and events provide pupils with a purpose for writing, whilst finger games prepares them with the necessary fine motor skills. Pupils engage in a range of preparatory writing activities based upon a shared class book. These activities may include the use of puppets, small world characters, role-play and hot-seating, in order to generate ideas for writing in the form of simple phrases and sentences. We also develop pupils' fine motor and gross motor skills to support with the physical demands of writing.

As part of the process, we provide pupils with words to use in their writing, in the form of word mats. Providing words or phrases to start their sentences really helps pupils to feel confident to begin the writing process. Different sentence starters are provided according to the style of writing that is being taught. The writing tasks set relate to the stories and topics which interest the pupils in Reception.

Transcription skills in Reception

The process of transcription is an integral part of the writing process and is comprised of two key elements: spelling and handwriting. Spelling and letter formation is taught explicitly in daily phonics sessions through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised (the systematic synthetic phonics scheme used at Wylde Green). In addition, pupils are given further spelling practice throughout continuous provision.

Vocabulary

New words are introduced to pupils in Reception each week. Pupils hear the words within the context of a sentence. Pupils verbally practise the words within sentences. Strengthening pupils' understanding of vocabulary is reinforced through our reading curriculum and the books that are shared with pupils during story time sessions.

Tips for supporting writing with your child at home

Supporting your child's writing at home will have a positive impact on their literacy skills. You can support your child in many ways . Listed below are a few suggested ideas:

Keep a stock of writing supplies - pencils, crayons and notepads.
Writing in the environment - notice print and labels within the environment when you are out with your child, such as street names and shop signs.
Write lists and cards - encourage your child to write messages and notes to relatives and lists for your shopping.
Retell or re-write recently read stories - orally retell a story or use storyboards to help structure a story you have recently enjoyed together.

Early Maths

Maths is essential to everyday life, crucial to science, technology and engineering, and necessary to manage personal finance and gain successful employment. At Wylde Green Primary School we aim to teach children a secure and adaptable understanding of maths through the teaching of fluency (the rapid and accurate recall and application of facts and concepts), reasoning and problem-solving.

Children in Reception are taught maths every day. They access maths activities through indoor and outdoor continuous provision tasks, which provides an opportunity for them to rehearse key skills they have learnt within discrete teaching sessions. Where children have gaps in their learning, they may also access additional maths interventions.

At Wylde Green we follow the White Rose Maths scheme of work. This scheme adopts a mastery approach to maths in which children develop a deep understanding of number and other concepts. Rather than advance onwards through material in a linear fashion, children are taught to broaden and deepen their understanding.

One element of this approach is the use of concrete, pictorial and abstract representations of mathematical ideas.. For example, when learning to combine two amounts, children will do so by using concrete apparatus such as beads, counters or Numicon. They will proceed to seeing things represented pictorially, for example as 'part-part-whole' representations. Finally, children will adapt an abstract approach, such as a simple written method. Children will be encouraged to represent mathematical ideas in different ways as they progress through their Reception year. Children are encouraged to talk about their reasoning and provide explanations to demonstrate a depth of understanding.

Children complete termly assessments in maths which tests their competency in the areas that have been taught.

Tips for supporting maths with your child at home

There are lots of ways to support your child with maths. It is important to promote the significance of maths and numbers by finding opportunities to talk about numbers and patterns in everyday life. This could include shopping, cooking, sport and time. Completing puzzles and playing board games will help to develop children's thinking skills. It is also important to emphasize that everyone can succeed in maths - adults who have had negative experiences learning maths can pass these on to their children in the way they talk about the subject.

If you would like to learn more about the White Rose Schemes and supporting resources please click here White Rose Maths.