Your Child’s Reception Year

There are 7 areas of learning and development. The curriculum for Reception at Grange Primary is in accordance with the Areas of Learning and Development as in the publication Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) which can be found here: https://www.early-education.org.uk/development-matters-early-years-foundation-stage-eyfs-download This curriculum promotes teaching and learning to give children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life. There are 7 areas of learning and development. The prime areas support development in all other areas. They are: Personal, social and emotional development Physical development Communication and language The specific areas are: Literacy Mathematics Understanding the world Expressive arts and design

Personal, Social and Emotional Development Aspects of personal, social and emotional development include: making relationships, self-confidence and self-awareness, and managing feelings and behaviour. Children develop skills to; play co-operatively and take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activities; show sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings, and form positive relationships with adults and other children; become confident to try new activities and speak in a familiar group, talking about their ideas; talk about their own and other’s feelings, behaviour, and its consequences, and know that some behaviour is unacceptable; work as part of a group or class, and understand and follow the rules; adjust their behaviour to different situations, and take changes of routine in their stride. We use a scheme of work called SEAL to support PSED at from Nursery through to Year 6.

Physical Development Aspects of physical development include: moving and handling, and health and self-care. Through activities that take place indoors and outdoors, including PE with a Sports Coach and Forest School sessions, children develop physical skills to: show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements, moving confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space; handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing; understand the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet; manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs, including dressing and going to the toilet independently.

Communication and Language Aspects of communication and language include: listening and attention, understanding and speaking. Communication and language runs through every activity and aspect of school life. Children need to develop the skills to: listen attentively in a range of situations and respond to what they hear with relevant comments, questions or actions; give their attention to what others say and respond appropriately; follow instructions involving several ideas or actions; answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about their experiences and in response to stories or events; express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs; use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future; develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas or events.

Literacy Aspects of literacy include: reading and writing. During regular adult-led literacy sessions, children work in small groups. Many of the activities from these sessions are also accessible during child-initiated sessions. These activities enable children to develop skills to begin to: read and understand simple sentences by using phonic knowledge to decode regular words, and read irregular words by sight; understand and talk about what they have read; use their phonic knowledge to write words; write some irregular common words; write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others.

Phonics Children have daily phonics sessions and are introduced to four new letters and sounds each week. The most common sounds are taught first so that children have access to a larger number of words more quickly and therefore gain confidence. We teach ‘pure sounds’ which can then be ‘blended’ to read words and ‘segmented’ to spell words. When children are secure with linking sounds to letters we introduce digraphs and trigraphs – these are groups of letters that make one sound such as ai as is rain. In addition to daily phonics sessions children read books that are linked to the phonics phase they are working on during regular adult-led guided reading sessions.

Reading We begin by looking at picture books with children and encouraging them to make up their own stories using the pictures. This is an essential early reading skill. As confidence in our phonics sessions grows we introduce books with words. Books are colour banded according to levels used nationally. Children are assessed regularly in order that they progress through the colour bands. Learning to read relies heavily on your support at home. Reading with your child as often as possible is essential to their progress!

Writing THINK IT - SAY IT - WRITE IT - READ IT Children will use emergent writing spontaneously when free to experiment. They then use letter like shapes and spaces to resemble writing they have seen. Next children use familiar letters, usually those found in their name repeatedly. The next step is to link sounds to letters and begin to segment to spell words. Children then compose sentences verbally and attempt to write several words to communicate their ideas. Finally children write full sentences including finger spaces, capital letters and full stops. THINK IT - SAY IT - WRITE IT - READ IT We use a cursive handwriting style throughout the school.

Mathematics Mathematical development is split into two sections Numbers - looks at counting objects, recognising and ordering numbers, knowing the number that is one more and one less, calculating including counting on or back, solving problems including doubling, halving and sharing. All these activities involve working with numbers to 20. Shape Space and Measure - involves naming and describing 3D and 2D shapes, talking about patterns, position, size, weight, capacity, distance, time and money. In school we will be teaching maths in several blocks of work throughout the term, and children will return to some areas several times to build upon their learning. Aspects of mathematics include: numbers and shape, space and measure. During regular adult-led mathematics sessions, children work in small groups. Many of the activities from these sessions are also accessible during child-initiated sessions. These activities enable children to develop skills to begin to: count reliably with numbers from one to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number; use quantities and objects, add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer; solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing; use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems; recognise, create and describe patterns; explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.

Understanding the World Aspects of understanding the world include: people and communities, the world and technology. Through finding out and exploring, children develop what they know about the world by: talking about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members; understanding that other children don’t always enjoy the same things, and are sensitive to this; recognising similarities and differences between themselves and others (including families, communities and traditions), places, objects, materials and living things; talking about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary; making observations of animals and plants, explaining why some things occur, and talking about changes; recognising that a range of technology is used in places such as homes and schools; selecting and using technology for particular purposes.

Expressive Arts and Design Aspects of expressive arts and design include: exploring and using media and materials and being imaginative. Children are encouraged to have their own ideas and make choices about how to do things. Through active learning and enabled environments, we aim for children to enjoy and achieve by being engaged in: singing songs, making music and dancing; safely using and exploring a variety of materials, tools and techniques whilst experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function; using what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes; representing their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role play and stories.

Assessment Every day your child will be supported in a small group in an adult-led activity in literacy or maths. The work that children do in these sessions is kept in literacy and maths books. Every Thursday at 3.00pm we hold a drop-in session for you to come and look at books with your child - they will really enjoy showing you what they have been working on. Children are also encouraged to have their own ideas for learning and make choices about how to do things during child-initiated sessions. Many of the activities from adult-led activities are also accessible for these sessions which children often choose to revisit and develop. Observations of children are collected from these sessions and each half term we send home a booklet so that you can see what your child has been learning during their own child-led activities. There are two parents evenings, one in the Autumn term and one in the Spring term where together we will look at the progress that your child is making. At the end of the year you will receive a copy of your child’s Foundation Stage Profile Report. This will inform you whether your child is either emerging towards the expected level, at the expected level, or exceeding the expected level for each of the 17 aspects in each of the 7 areas of learning.

Supporting your child at home Reading at home - Children choose which books they bring home from a selection of books at the appropriate level. We change books with children in class once a week. Reading books can be changed as often as you like - just remind your child to put the red Reading Diary in the boxes in the classrooms first thing in the morning and we will change books the same day. Please remember to write in the red Reading Diary whenever you read at home. Word Books and Maths Skills – Each of these books has a target for your child to work towards, suggestions for activities and the resources you will need to complete each one. Have a go at the activities with your child - we recommend 5 to 10 minutes 3 times a week on each book. There is no hand in date for this homework - when you think that your child is confident with the target they are working on just remind them to put their book into the homework boxes in their classroom and we will assess them again as soon as we can. If they have achieved their target we will then give them the next one to work on. Children will also be bringing home a topic scrapbook to complete - this is a mini project that links with the topic we are doing in school. Details are attached when we send it home – children have about six weeks to complete this homework. Talk homework - children will sequence a series of pictures in school and then bring their work home to talk to you about for a few minutes that night. These do not need to be returned but we will be talking about the pictures again in school the next day. We are very lucky that children at our school have access to two fantastic learning websites at home - Espresso and Education City.