Homerswood Primary and Nursery School           

The Foundation Stage for Early Years Education covers the seven areas of learning and the three Characteristics of Effective learning.

The seven areas are split into the Prime Areas and the Specific Areas.

The Prime Areas are seen as the building blocks for learning.

The Characteristics of Effective Learning is looking at HOW the child learns.

The Aspects of the Areas of Learning & Development.

The Characteristics of Learning

How we develop children’s learning

• In Early Years, we strongly believe that a child learns best when they are interested, motivated and engaged.
• We strive to pick topics and activities that rotate on a two yearly cycle, based on the children’s interests. We find this out by having class discussions and drawing upon the observations we have made of the children throughout their time in class.
• The children have a mix of adult led activities {where a specific skill will be taught or practised} and child initiated learning, which the children can access independently.

Child Initiated Learning

Child initiated learning time is really important as it allows children to explore the environment, make choices, have their own ideas and develop imagination and confidence while making friendships or playing on their own.

During this time adults will be interacting with the children, playing alongside them, observing them, building confidence with praise, encouraging them to learn by trial and error, helping them to build on their own interests and develop their understanding.

We will constantly be helping to develop children’s confidence by celebrating their unique contributions and ideas and teaching them that it is okay to make mistakes, thereby extending their play to develop their learning all of the time.

We believe that all of this will develop their independence and enable them to have their own thoughts and ideas, which they can feel proud about.

Phonics

We follow the Letters and Sounds framework to teach phonics with Jolly Phonics to support the learning.

In Nursery, the children play lots of listening and sound games to get them ready to hear the different sounds which make up a word. By the end of the year the children will have been taught the sounds of the letters in the alphabet.

In Reception, we recap the letter sounds and start to practice blending words, so that the children are able to read and spell simple words and then move onto sentences.

We integrate phonics into our daily routine. It is taught in a concrete session and then the children are encouraged to use what has been taught during child initiated learning through a range of different resources and games.

How we assess children

We assess how well the children are doing through our observations of what they are doing during child initiated learning and during adult directed learning.

All these assessments show snap shots of children’s achievements and progress in relation to the EYFS curriculum. “Next Steps” will be noted in some of the observations, which will give parents an idea of what needs to be worked on next. Photographs of the children, observations and evidence of learning are collated in a Learning Journey which is a celebration of a child’s time in the Foundation Stage. Learning Journeys are shared with parents regularly and we also encourage parents to share with the Foundation Stage team photographs and celebrations of their child that have occurred at home.

Further information

If you require any further information about the Foundation Stage at Homerswood Primary and Nursery School please do not hesitate to contact us via admin@homerswood.herts.sch.uk

We will be happy to individually discuss any concerns you have, or arrange a visit of our setting at a convenient time when restrictions are lifted. You may also find useful the following two videos that show our Nursery and Reception learning environments at the current time.

https://homerswood-primary-and-nursery.primarysite.media/media/what-does-our-nursery-classroom-look-like

https://homerswood-primary-and-nursery.primarysite.media/media/what-does-our-reception-classroom-look-like

Foundation Stage

Two-Year Topic Overview

First Year

Second Year