Early Years Foundation Stage
At Mawgan-in-Pydar School, we provide pupils with opportunities that inspire them and enrich their lives, encouraging them to develop skills that will enable them to become independent, resilient and successful learners. It is our intent that every child will be given the best possible start to their education to enable them to fulfil their potential, imagine possibilities and make them real.
Transition to school
We aim to make transition into school as smooth as possible. We have strong established links with local preschool settings and wherever possible make visits to see children in their home environment, preschool and talk to their parents/carers and key workers. In the summer term, before they start school, we offer children several afternoon sessions where they can visit to meet their peers, school staff and become familiar with the classroom environment. Having this opportunity to meet each individual child, ensures that they can build positive relationships with the staff so that they feel safe, secure and happy.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Curriculum
The children in Class 1 cover Prime Areas: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development. The Specific Areas are: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. At Mawgan-in-Pydar School we plan activities and learning opportunities for both the inside and outside environments to enable the children to develop in all areas of learning.
Through the seven areas of learning in the Early Years curriculum framework we provide topics that excite and engage children building on their own interests and developing their experiences of the world around them. We aim to ensure that our learning environments, both inside and outside are always stimulating and exciting and that, importantly, they are accessible to all children, regardless of where they are on their learning journey.
At Mawgan-in-Pydar, we are committed to meeting the needs of each individual child. This includes ensuring that each child experiences the full curriculum, is assessed individually and that provision is adapted to support their development and educational needs. We meet these needs by covering the curriculum through the children’s interests and our Cornerstones projects. Our themes are directed by the children’s interests to ensure that they are engaged in their learning. Our planning is closely linked to our observation and assessment of the children and our identification of their next steps of learning.
Phonics is taught daily. At Mawgan-in-Pydar School, from the beginning of Reception, we use a synthetic phonics programme called ‘Read Write Inc’ produced by Ruth Miskin. This equips children with reading and writing skills, which they can apply in their teacher directed and child-initiated activities.
At Mawgan-in-Pydar School, we use Tapestry, an online system to record and share each child’s journey throughout the foundation year. This charts each child’s progress and each child’s Learning Journey is available to parents to keep them informed about their child's learning and next steps. Parents are encouraged to contribute to this.
Working with Parents
At Mawgan-in-Pydar School, we believe that parents are vital partners in a child’s education, and we feel that engaging and working with parents is essential for children to get off to a flying start and achieve their full potential. We strive to involve parents in their child’s learning journey to ensure they know how to support their learning at home. This starts with our transition process before children join the school and continues throughout the year. Parents are invited to Parent Consultation meetings, Reading and Phonics workshops, special events. Parents are welcome to arrange an appointment to meet with class teacher at any time. Each child has their own individual reading book to practise their reading skills at school.
Transition to Year One
The EYFS aims to provide Year one teachers and parents with reliable and accurate information about each child's level of development as they reach the end of the EYFS. At Mawgan-in-Pydar School, we ensure that our children are well prepared for transition between all classes. Before moving to Year one, children make regular visits to their new classroom and meet their new teachers. There is close communication between the EYFS and Year one teachers to ensure that there is a smooth progression into Year one to support and prepare children for the next stage in their learning.
Communication and Language - Wellcomm
This is a programme developed by Speech and Language Therapists at Sandwell and West Birmingham University. The programme uses short, age-appropriate questions to assess areas of language so that we can support your child in their learning journey.
Within our classroom environment we will use the play-based activities alongside our curriculum as a whole class, to help develop communication and language skills.
We send home the activities linked to your child's next steps in their communication and language skills each time the children are assessed. Please have a look at them and play these games at home with your child. They will help to strengthen your child’s language which will support their learning.
Additionally, you can follow this link to support language at home.
WellComm Early Years: Supporting language at home - GL Assessment (gl-assessment.co.uk)
If you are unsure of any of the activities, please come and see a member of the EYFS team and we will be happy to assist you with any questions you may have.
