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Welcome to Reception

Our Intent for Early Years / Foundation Stage

We are committed to providing the best possible early education for all our children in Greenshaw Learning Trust.

The unique child

We want our children to be independent thinkers and effective communicators who are capable, confident and self-assured. We want our children to be constantly developing their curiosity and resilience whilst learning to be strong through positive relationships where there is equality of opportunity for all.

Enabling environments

We believe in providing all children with a safe and stimulating environment that builds on each individual’s wants, needs and interests.  We value the importance of our outdoor and indoor environments and believe that these offer children the opportunity to think creatively and critically and develop problem-solving skills.

Learning and development

Our children have the opportunity to learn through play. Learning will be active, engaging and suitably challenging; recognising that children develop and learn at different rates.

Adults provide high quality interactions, are role models for learning, teach children skills and provide experiences which ensure their well-being and success now and in the future. Fundamental to this is consistently high quality learning opportunities that develop a rich vocabulary, practise and review skills and knowledge so that what children know, can remember and do is strong. Our children benefit from strong partnerships between all adults and parents/carers.

Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning

Through playing and exploring we want children to be given opportunities to investigate activities with a ‘have a go’ attitude. We expect learning to be active and encourage children to use their own ideas and make links within their learning by creating and thinking critically. 

OUR LEARNING:

As part of our learning we cover 7 distinct areas:

Your child will be engaging in learning that spans the breadth of these areas through a combination of self-directed and adult directed learning.

OBSERVATIONS:

A huge part of what we do is to observe the children during the day, so we can assess what their next steps in learning should be. Your help in this area is essential for us to build up a complete picture of how your child learns. 


READING:

We start our phonics lessons from the very beginning of reception and at Woodlands we follow the Pearson's Phonic Bug and Bug Club programme.  Phonics Bug is the dedicated phonics strand of Bug Club, a core reading programme that can be used for independent and guided reading from Reception to Year 6.  Your child will be given their own unique login to Bug club. 
 

Assessment 

Our curriculum supports children to achieve the early learning goals (ELGs) and an overall 'Good Level of Development' by the end of EYFS.  It also prepares the children for Year 1. Assessment is carried out through observation and interactions by teachers, children and parents / carers.  These are recorded in learning journals and floor books to achieve a holistic view on a child’s development. 

Ongoing assessment is an integral part of the learning and development processes. Teachers and support staff observe and talk to the children while they are learning, playing and interacting with others in order to identify their level of achievement, interests and characteristics of effective learning.  These observations are used to both shape future planning and to support or challenge a child ‘in the moment’. Teachers use this to identify gaps in learning and to shape future planning and provision. Parents and carers are involved in the process through the use of ‘Evidence Me’, which allows interaction and the sharing of information between home and school.