Early Years Foundation Stage In the Foundation stage there are 17 Early Learning Goals within 7 Prime and specific areas. Assessment is informal and usually involves observing children in their child initiated play. The child is usually not aware they are being assessed.   Towards the end of the year, the informal assessments are used to reach a judgement for the 17 Early Learning Goals (ELGs) in the EYFS Profile. They assess whether each child has achieved the ELG; this is expressed as: · attaining “expected” (reaching the level of development expected for the end of reception), · “exceeding” (attaining beyond the ELG), or · “emerging” (not yet attained the ELG). Parents will receive a report that includes the teacher’s assessments for all the ELGs, and information about each child’s characteristics of learning; how they play and explore, take part in active learning, and create and think critically.

Characteristics of Effective Learning

Personal, Social and Emotional Development Encourages children to be independent and to interact with other children and adults. Helps children to become confident, safe, secure and ready to learn from new experiences. They are confident to speak in a familiar group, will talk about their ideas, and will choose the resources they need for their chosen activities.

Communication and Language Encourages children to develop conversational skills. Children express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs Children play co-operatively, taking turns with others. They take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activity They answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about their experiences and in response to stories or events. Will help children to develop listening and concentration skills. Enables children to begin to hear sounds in words and discriminate between sounds.

Physical Development Supports children’s healthy development. Provides opportunities for using a range of large and small equipment. Helps them to develop a sense of space around themselves and others. Encourages balance. Develops practical skills such as dressing, undressing etc

Literacy Will help children to learn to read individual words and eventually, simple stories independently. Encourages children to develop pencil control and to begin to make marks on paper.

Mathematics Helps children to count, read and order up to 20 and beyond. Helps children with more, less, addition and subtraction in play Encourages them to use mathematical words such as greater, smaller, heavier, lighter, more, less etc and Develops skills in comparing and sorting objects. Supports children’s understanding of shape and size including 2D and 3D shapes.

Expressive Art & Design Inspires children to explore colour and colour changes and helps them to explore shape and texture using all of their senses. Develops an interest in music, singing and music-making. Develops confidence and imagination.

Understanding of the World Helps children to gain an understanding of their world (Geography) Encourages them to look at changes over time (History) Encourages them to explore and investigate (Science) Helps to develop designing and making skills (D&T) Will give your children the opportunity to understand and use information and communication technology (ICT).

Focus Weeks Project Learning Reading Books Learning Logs Sounds & Words Special days (e.g Minibeast Party) Parents Evening

Phonics

The Rose Review of Early Reading Phonics and Early reading High quality phonic work should be taught systematically and discretely as the prime approach used in the teaching of early reading The Simple view of reading Both word recognition and language comprehension are necessary to achieve fluent reading Progression and Pace Learning should be at a brisk pace but sensitive to children’s developing abilities Broad and rich language curriculum Phonics work should be set within a broad and rich language curriculum

How do our children learn to read and write? Discriminate between sounds Hear what good readers sound like Learn letter sounds Learn letter formation Learn to blend to read Learn to segment to spell Learn to read tricky and high frequency words

How to encourage children to be good readers from the start.

Phonics Terminology A phoneme you hear A grapheme you see

Synthetic phonics refers to an approach to the teaching of reading in which the phonemes [sounds] associated with particular graphemes [letters] are pronounced in isolation and blended together (synthesised). For example, children are taught to take a single-syllable word such as cat apart into its three letters, pronounce a phoneme for each letter in turn /k, æ, t/, and blend the phonemes together to form a word. Synthetic phonics for writing reverses the sequence: children are taught to say the word they wish to write, segment it into its phonemes and say them in turn, for example /d, ɔ, g/, and write a grapheme for each phoneme in turn to produce the written word, dog.’ Definition adopted by the Rose Report We also need to remember to teach other activities alongside synthetic phonics to enable children to read words which are not decodable and to avoid children being over reliant on phonics which can compromise fluency and comprehension.

Say the sounds in a particular way Jolly Phonics Learning the /s/ sound Action: Weave your hand like a snake, making an ‘s’ shape, saying ssssss Say the sounds in a particular way

Sound, story, song and action Jolly Phonics Sound, story, song and action

Blending (For reading): Recognising the letter sounds in a written word. E.g c-u-p sh-ee-p Merging them into the right order to pronounce the words cup and sheep Segmenting (For spelling) : Identifying the individual sounds in a spoken word (e.g h-i-m. s-t-or-k) and writing down letters (grapheme) for each sound (phoneme) to form the words him and stork.

Grapheme Key Vocabulary Diagraph- 2 letters making one sound (ai, ee,oo) Trigraph- 3 letters making one sound (igh, air, ear) Split Diagraph- Where the two letters are not adjacent (a-e, e-e)

Our phonics sessions Revisit and Review Teach Practice Apply

Phase One Outcomes Explore and experiment with sounds and words Listen attentively Show a growing awareness and appreciation of rhyme, rhythm and alliteration Speak clearly and audibly with confidence and control Distinguish between different sounds in words Develop awareness of the differences between phonemes

Phase Two Outcomes Children know that words are constructed from phonemes and that phonemes are represented by graphemes They have knowledge of a small selection of letters and sounds/ phonemes/graphemes. They blend them together in reading simple CVC words and segment them to support spelling.

Phase Three Outcomes Children link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet. They recognise letter shapes and say a sound for each. They hear and say sounds in the order in which they occur in the word, They read simple words by sounding out and blending the phonemes all through the word from left to right. They recognise common digraphs and read some high frequency words.

Phase Four Outcomes Children are able to blend and segment longer and more complex words. They apply this skill when reading unfamiliar texts and in spelling.

Phase Five Outcomes Children will: use alternative ways of pronouncing the graphemes and spelling the phonemes recognise an increasing number of high frequency words automatically. apply phonic knowledge and skills as the prime approach in reading and spelling when the words are unfamiliar and not completely decodable.

Phase Six Outcomes Children will: Apply their phonics skills and knowledge to recognise and spell an increasing number of complex words. Read an increasing number of high and medium frequency words independently and automatically.

There are patterns or regularities that help to determine choices or narrow possibilities Children need to explore these patterns through word investigations.

Support children to use phonics as the initial approach to reading and writing. Encourage children to re read a sentence to achieve fluency. Encourage children when appropriate to begin sounding out in their head. Give children other strategies...e.g Can the letter name help? Read ahead, use the picture for clues, does it make sense?

Pencil Hold-Tripod grip

Tricky Words

How can you help your child? When children are in the initial stages of phonics sound talk as often as possible Play simple phonics games to support phonics learning Help your child become a good reader by encouraging enjoyment of books and stories and by encouraging fluency in reading through repetition.