Learning in Early Years

Welcome!

We are very pleased to welcome all children to their first year at Keresley Grange.

Starting school is an exciting process, but it can also be very daunting. We aim to work with you and your child in making this transition as smooth as possible.

The Early Years Teams

The Keresley Grange Reception Team are Mrs Oliver, Miss Palmer, Mrs Loughran, Mrs Hammond, Miss Wykes.

The children are taught within class groups, with mixed group work being an integral part of practice during teaching and learning times. The children will work closely not only with the teacher, but with all of the staff during their time in Early Years. This will support their smooth transition in to school life, allow us to tailor their learning and of course reassure them during this new beginning!

Independent Challenge Time

The Early Years environment is set up with different learning areas, to cater for the individual learning styles of the children. There are mathematics, writing, creative, malleable, discovery/science, reading, construction, junk modelling, puzzle, technology and role play areas. We regularly change our environment to meet the children’s interests, our curriculum themes and to put a thrill into learning new skills.

During the school day, children have ‘Independent Challenge’ time. This is when the children are able to access resources and learning activities that have been set up in the classroom, for them to choose independently. During this time, we have adult led and child initiated activities, which are run alongside independent learning. As the year goes on, this time will become more structured. We are very lucky to have a fantastic and well-resourced outdoor area, just for Early Years children. They have access to this throughout the day, no matter what the weather, so they will need to have a pair of wellies in school at all times.

Group Time

During group learning times, the children will gather on the carpet for more structured lessons. After their main learning, the children may then be split into smaller groups to allow for focused group support and so that they can practice new skills, matched to their learning needs. These learning sessions will be phonics, writing, maths and expert sessions. We will also read and learn stories and play circle time games, where we will build the children’s self-confidence and self-awareness.

Phonics, Writing and Reading

One of the main things we will be doing in school is teaching your child to read and write. At our Keresley Grange, we use Read, Write Inc to teach your child phonics. This is a systematic programme which provides the children with the sound recognition, blending and segmenting skills for them to read and write effectively.

Initially, the Reception children will learn the first set of sounds (including the alphabet and the phonemes: sh, ch, th, ng and nk.) and how to form these letters correctly. Further practise will be sent home weekly to reinforce and ensure your child retains this skill. This will prepare your child for reading and writing and is the first step for them in becoming a reader and writer.

We will hold a meeting for you (as soon as we are able!) to share our approach to phonics, so that you are able to support your child at home in the same way that we do at school.

We cannot encourage you enough to share stories with your child at home. Please come and ask us for recommendations of quality books. Your child will be sent home a reading book when they are ready to begin their reading journey.  Please ensure this is kept in their book bag and is returned to school every day.  During the spring term children will be given the opportunity to loan a school library book every week. When returned the children will then have the opportunity to choose a new book.

The enjoyment of stories and storytelling is a priority, which will enable the children to join in and retell some of the key features of stories and become familiar with story language. 

In the Early years, reading and writing are two of our main foci. We will differentiate our teaching to meet your child’s needs, while supporting them to achieve the age related expectations and when possible to achieve a greater depth of learning.

Drawing Club 

Drawing Club is an approach that immerses children into a world full of imagination. We at Keresley Grange fully embrace drawing club and can see the joy it brings to our children. It is through drawing club that we open up the magic world of tales and story to children whilst at the same time enriching their language skills, developing their fine motor and share a really special time with them. Drawing Club is a fantastic place to start a child’s experience of school ‘Literacy’.

Drawing Club is based upon the 3M principle. These are making conversation, mark making and mathematics. We use a book, traditional tale or an animation as a portal for the week. Children learn new, exciting vocabulary that we revisit each day of the week. We draw characters on a Monday, settings on a Tuesday and we ‘wonder’ on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

We add maths to our drawings by talking about shapes, doubling, halving, addition, subtraction etc… We might be drawing a troll with a spherical shaped head, 2 strong, wiry hairs on his chin and double this amount coming out of each ear. Children observe as the teacher models drawing club each morning and then get the opportunity to complete their own drawings. They are invited to join drawing club and can borrow ideas from the teacher or create their own amazing ideas to share. One of the most exciting parts of Drawing Club is adding secret symbols and codes to our drawings. We always draw a secret symbol that can make anything happen! Sometimes we press them and aliens or unicorns become 3 times bigger, pencils turn into chocolate or hair turns multi-coloured! We then add a password to make the secret symbol work. This can be a mark, letter, digraph (2 letters that make one sound), a word or a sentence. As children make progress and become more confident with their phonics, their passwords develop and move towards phrases and sentences.

Mathematics

Our maths learning ensures our children develop their early maths skills, as well as recognition of the importance of maths in the real world. The children are taught songs, rhymes and number stories to reinforce number recognition.  They will learn how to master one-to-one counting skills, recognise and identify numbers and amounts that match them, how to form numbers correctly and to be confident in counting forwards and backwards to 20 and beyond. 

Maths also includes opportunities for children to learn about shape, space and measure through a variety of learning opportunities which will ensure the children have a solid foundation for their further maths learning. Some examples of this include water play when children learn about capacity through filling and emptying containers and comparing how full they are. During role play activities, the children use maths vocabulary to share between the children in their group. As the children develop their maths skills, they will begin solving problems including doubling, halving and sharing.

Our learning for each half-term...