Welcome to FS1 Transition and learning to read Meeting

Staff Trish Larkin Frances Poppleton Ann Billings Angela Kelly Andrea Lamb

EYFS Curriculum http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/03 /Development-Matters-FINAL-PRINT-AMENDED.pdf

The Key Skills & Differentiated Challenges Characteristics of Effective Learning Playing & Exploring; Engagement Active Learning; Motivation Creating & Thinking Critically; Thinking Differentiated Challenges Incredible Fantastic Amazing

Growth Mindset What is a growth mindset? Has your child ever said to you ‘There’s no point, I’ll never be able to do it’ or avoided doing something because they’ve failed at it in the past? Feelings like this can be related to what children believe about what makes them ‘good’ at something – whether it’s school work, sport, or even their ability to manage their emotions and behaviour. Some children will tend to give up on challenging tasks easily, or avoid tasks they’ve failed at before. They tend to believe that being ‘good’ at a particular activity is a fixed state, and is something they can’t control. In psychology, this way of thinking is called a ‘fixed mindset’. Others might bounce back quickly from failure and be more likely to explore how they can get better at doing something. They tend to be children who believe that you can improve your abilities by practising, or by finding a different way to achieve your goal. This way of thinking is called a ‘growth mindset’, and developing it can help make children more resilient for life. There are lots of small things you can do every day that can help your little one develop a growth mindset.

How can the way I praise my child help develop a Growth Mindset? It’s natural to want to praise children when they do something well, but we need to do this carefully. Research suggests that the type of praise that we use can have a big impact. It's all a matter of context in fact and even positive praise can encourage a fixed mindset. Praising our children by saying things like “you’re a natural!” or “you seem to be able to turn your hand to anything!” without clarity of the process by which they got to that point can lead to the belief that being good at something is out of their control. In other words understanding how they got there is the key. This focus on being good at something might lead to children feeling happy in the short-term, but confused when the reason they were praised is not evident. If children believe that they succeeded in something simply because they are gifted, they can end up re-evaluating their abilities if it doesn’t go as well next time. Instead the grown-ups around the child can focus praise on the effort they’ve made to get to that point of triumph, the strategy they used or the outcome itself, saying things like “you’ve worked so hard on this, well done!” or “you get better every time because of all the practise you’ve been doing” or “you have found a great way to do that, it worked out really well”. This kind of feedback helps to develop children’s resilience to failure as it teaches them what to do when they are challenged or fail – try again, try harder or try a different way, all things that are within their own control. This type of praise is sometimes called ‘process praise’ and Dweck’s research found that children were more motivated when their parents used more of this kind of praise.

EYFS Curriculum Map We follow Development Matters for the objectives to assess that our children are progressing as expected. However, we take their ideas and interests to plan our curriculum and topics. Currently we are looking at our favourite things – a topic in which children will learn more about themselves and others as they compare their likes, dislikes and things they have in common.

FS1 Timetable Day Events Monday - Wednesday Physical Development opportunities daily. Teacher inputs – focusing on communication and language, maths and topic (taken from children’s interests)

Learning to Read Learning to read is an amazing process that is so natural – you probably won’t even remember learning how to do it. “I just could!” However . . . The reality of learning to read is very different. Done successfully – we experience the first bullet point. The hard work has already started when you read books with them when they were a baby.

dad has the ball come and play Sally Sally holds the ball I can play ball vell She says dad has the ball come and play Sally Sally holds the ball I can play ball well She says From the childs point of view what are we expecting There are two main approaches to decoding the message. Giving the “translations” for the code or being encouraged to solve the problem by using other clues such as picture clues, repeated words, Need a balance of the two approaches. A child will use all these strategies when given the opportunity to do so. 1)A love of books and developing an understanding of how stories are structured. The practical way books work. AND 2) the ability to decode words using phonics. An over emphasis on one or the other can cause problems for the child. There are many skills needed when learning to read.

Translation dad has the ball and plays with Sally Sally holds the ball I can play ball well She says

First things first! At home and school children learn to enjoy books and so will want to read them for themselves a lot of different stories a lot about the world they live in a wider vocabulary to enjoy talking about the pictures and get to know that the writing tells a story. So as children share books they learn about how they work. They can come to school with a lot of knowledge already. if havent got it makes it more difficult Children come with a wide variety and levels of experience Talk about home books and library books. Also in school

In school and at home children learn how to choose the book they want by looking carefully at the front cover where to start how to turn the pages from front to back, one at a time that we read from left to right that book language is different from the way we talk.

In school and at home children learn… To tune into the sounds around them and learn to distinguish between them. In school we do this through Phase One of the “Letters and Sounds” curriculum.

How you can help at home… Talk about the every day things you do What you see as you walk along Share books Sing songs and rhymes Make up stories Talk about a TV programme you have watched Talk about places you have been Plan shopping together Help your child tune into sound. (See Phase One activities) You are your childs first teacher. You taught them how to walk, talk, There are many things you do that will help lay the foundations for reading…

Library Books Children take part in reading activities and share books with adults in the class. Wednesday or Friday children take home a library book of their choice – the pack may include a toy. Return this when you have shared it a few times so that another pack can be chosen by your child. If possible please fill in the book review as you talk about the book together . Encourage your child to draw a picture – perhaps include a WOW! Note.

Please read regularly – make it enjoyable

EYFS Reward System Pupils are rewarded for positive behaviour with ‘Class Dojo’ points. You can access a report from home to see how well your child is doing in class. n FS, as a reward for receiving the most points, green or pink Dojo will spend time with that child.

Home-school Communication

Uniform is not compulsory in FS1 Uniform – Black shoes or black trainers Velcro fastening Indoor P.E kit: Black/navy shorts & white T-shirt/polo shirt Outdoor P.E kit: Black/navy shorts & white T-shirt/polo shirt, trainers (dark tracksuit for cold days) Long hair to be tied up Jewellery – Only watch – no earrings No nail varnish No valuables

Lunchtimes School lunches are provided by SK Solutions there is a sample Lunch boxes are kept inside the room

Queries & Problems If you have any queries or problems please approach your child’s teacher, Mrs Billings or Mrs Poppleton, in the first instance. If you feel the need to discuss the matter further with a different member of staff please make an appointment with Mrs Larkin as leader of EYFS If further advice is required, or if the matter is still not sorted, appointments can then be made with Mrs Messham our Deputy Head or Mrs Maude, Outwood’s Headteacher.

‘Where every child is recognised as being unique’ Thank you ‘Where every child is recognised as being unique’