Aims
1. To develop children with both Emotional and Academic intelligence.
2. To provide a broad and balanced curriculum.
3. To make learning fun and to create lifelong learners.
4. To develop the work of individual children according to their age and ability consistent with the requirements
of the National Curriculum, Locally Agreed RE Syllabus and the broader School Curriculum.
5. To stimulate curiosity, imagination and creativity.
6. To encourage each child to use his/her own experiences and environment as a resource for learning.
7. To recognise, value, encourage and develop individual gifts and talents.
The Foundation Stage Areas of Learning are:
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Personal, Social and Emotional Development |
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Communication – Language and Literacy |
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Mathematical Development |
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Knowledge and Understanding of The World |
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Physical Development |
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Creative Development |
Early Years - Play and Practical Experience
The value of learning through play and practical experience is proven, in fact to the extent that in education we see 'Play as being a child's work'. Play must never be under-valued. The children have 'Play' and 'Practical Experience' built into their every day learning experience, e.g.:
Language - through talking, word games of 'snap', 'pairs', 'bingo', 'look, cover, write, check', home corner play, imaginative play, outside play.
Hand Control - Colouring, tracing, cutting out, gluing.
Maths - Sand and Water play for capacity, volume, floating/sinking, weighing, measuring, algebra (patterns), shops (money), playing with polydrons.
Design & Technology - Lego, Mobilo, Polydrons, building bricks, model making, cooking.
Emotional/Social/Environmental - Home corner, shop corner, post office corner. Develops language skills, social skills through interaction with others, stimulates imagination, co-operation, problem solving.
Small World Play - Dolls house, puppets. Stimulates the imagination, language skills, social skills
Art Activities - Develops fine motor control through the use of different media, e.g. chalk, paint, crayons, pencils, scissors, glue.
PE - Climbing, small game skills. Develops gross motor skills, social skills, team skills.
Allowing children 'free' time to play gives them the opportunity to develop and learn in a relaxed manner, and gives the adults in the room the opportunity to talk to the children and develop their imagination and curiosity.
Speaking and Listening
Children are given many opportunities to develop their speaking and listening skills.
These are very important for their all round development.
Reading
The school has a wide variety of books for the children to choose from. Reading is taught systematically in order that children can develop the skills for reading with fluency and understanding.
Reading books are distributed throughout the school according to the age group and abilities of the children, though we recognise that there is value in children re-reading books and sharing a book which is too hard for them with an adult.
We aim to provide a broad reading experience. Children enjoy poetry, simple reference books, listening to story tapes and acting out short plays.
Writing
A lot of preparatory work takes place to give your child hand control – e.g. colouring, tracing, playing with plasticine, lego, cutting, gluing, using a range of media such as paint, crayons, white boards, chalk.
Once a child is ready a clear and legible cursive style of handwriting is taught. Once children have learnt the individual letter formation, the names and sounds that the letters of the alphabet make, they are ready to learn to spell simple words
Topic work provides a valuable stimulus for children's writing and a variety of writing experiences is encouraged: letter writing, 'news', stories, poems and class newspapers.
We aim to develop children's confidence in their ability to write independently, to try to spell words on their own, to use simple dictionaries and word books to find words needed and when the writing is complete, to read their own writing aloud to the teacher. |