Starting St. Paul's C.E. Primary School

Children aged three to five (nursery and reception) require access to a play-based Foundation Stage curriculum, with six areas of learning, these are:

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Communication, Language and Literacy

Problem solving, Reasoning and Numeracy

Knowledge and Understanding of the World

Physical Development

Creative Development

The children have continual access to our large, purpose built, outdoor play area, every day, in all but extreme weathers. Lots of learning happens out here, through a wide range of activities and resources. Many teaching activities take place outdoors. It is a very important part of our provision.

PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Children are helped to learn these important skills through their free choice play and in planned sessions with their key person. We try to foster an atmosphere of care, cooperation and self-control, where children can share, take turns and help each other. We help to develop children's self-esteem by developing an atmosphere where a child's efforts are valued by staff and other children.

COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

Speaking and listening skills are a very important part of your child's development. We encourage talk during play and we develop children's confidence to talk about their experiences and interests.

Your child will learn phonics for reading and spelling. Basic phonics skills are taught to nursery children, such as hearing different sounds, hearing rhythm in chants and rhymes and identifying rhyming words. Once children have learned to identify sounds within words, letters are taught, and therefore children learn to spell and read. Once reception children are learning to recognise letters, a pack is sent home for children to practise each night.

At school we will be sharing books together, creating stories, listening to the stories others create and discussing pictures. We have a quiet book area where children can 'read' familiar stories and tell stories with puppets.

We teach specific reading skills to reception children in large and small group sessions each week.

Reception children visit the school library each week to borrow a book to share with parents at home. Nursery children borrow weekly "Talk Talk" bags, they choose these with their carer as they arrive at school each Tuesday and return them each Monday. Reception children bring reading scheme books home each night, in their book bags and hand them in each morning.

Mark-making happens in many parts of the classroom and is highly encouraged to enhance play. We encourage children to form letters correctly, but will make sure that each child is ready to write letters by a variety of activities which develop manipulative skills. They will be proud of their work; drawings and squiggles soon develop into recognisable letter shapes and eventually into sentences.

PROBLEM SOLVING, REASONING AND NUMERACY

Your child will get lots of practical experience of working with numbers to make sure that they understand concepts. They will also participate in oral and mental maths activities with a big emphasis on counting in different contexts. Number rhymes are an important part of this. 

There will be lots of opportunities for your child to develop maths vocabulary such as the language of addition, subtraction, shape, space and measure. 

Specific maths objectives are taught in large and small group practical activities and learning is further developed through play in many areas of the unit. 

We have a well resourced maths area, both indoors and outdoors, where children can continue to develop and practise their skills.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD

This area of learning involves children having lots of experiences, with opportunities to investigate and ask questions and to use a wide range of resources. It includes areas of science, history, geography, food technology, information & communication technology, design technology, religion and culture.

Amongst other things, children will:

* handle natural objects

* investigate properties of water, ice, wet and dry sand

* use construction kits and materials

* investigate the outdoor environment

* plant seeds and care for plants

* bake and cook

* use computers, an interactive whiteboard, CD players and programmable toys

* handle topic related resources in our science area or interest table.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

In this area of learning, children develop gross motor skills such as whole body movement and coordination, balance, negotiating obstacles, using large equipment and awareness of space. They also develop fine motor skills, such as pencil control, manipulating small equipment and malleable materials and using tools like scissors.

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

This area of learning develops art, music, dance, singing, imaginative play, role play. Children are encouraged to respond imaginatively to their experiences by using the many resources in class. We have a creative area, a painting area and a malleable area. We have indoor and outdoor role play areas. We have lots of 'small world' toys to match children's interests.

To fulfil the aims of the school, and of the Foundation Stage curriculum, we provide opportunities for your child to learn through their own interests and through well-planned adult directed tasks. We provide a variety of interesting, relevant adult directed activities with specific learning objectives, designed for your child's needs at that time. We also provide a large range of resources and activities, which your child can choose to access. Children will feel they are 'playing' and a great deal of learning will happen through play.