Intake Primary School
Foundation Stage
You can email Mrs Robinson, Mrs Stubbs or Miss Revill on fs2@intake.sheffield.sch.uk.
Photography
At Intake, our practice is shaped by the four guiding principles of the EYFS:
- every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
- children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
- children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
- importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates.
And the Characteristics of Effective Learning:
- Playing and Exploring
- Active Learning
- Creating and Thinking Critically
Children’s experiences in Foundation provide them with a strong start to their learning journey here at Intake Primary School. Our children are supported positively to become independent, engaged and motivated learners alongside developing their understanding of what it means to be a successful Intake citizen.
Our curriculum enables children to develop in the three prime areas of learning; Communication and Language, Physical Development and Personal, Social & Emotional Development alongside the specific areas of learning; Literacy, Maths, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts & Design. We do this by considering not only the learning aspect of children’s journey in their first year at our school but equally how every part of our day can enable our children to succeed.
We know that all 7 areas of learning are important and interconnected; therefore, experiences occur across many different opportunities offered through our curriculum. Direct adult-teaching is offered as part of our curriculum alongside an enabling environment that provides a wide range of learning experiences. Learning opportunities are provided both indoors and outdoors. The focus of learning and skills are mapped out on our long-term overview however, teaching & learning is adapted to support the developing needs of the children and to enable opportunities to follow the interests of the children.
We aim to:
- Provide a challenging and creative environment, both indoors and outdoors, which will develop curious, confident and independent learners.
- Introduce children to a wide range of vocabulary and high -quality language which are revisited and embedded throughout the year.
- Allow children time to practise and develop ways of communicating effectively both independently and with others.
- Provide an environment which is safe, secure, healthy and inclusive and where children feel happy.
- Encourage children to adopt a caring and positive attitude towards themselves, each other, the school environment and the world around them.
- Provide parents and carers with the information they need to support their child; working together with school staff.
We pride ourselves on:
- Offering opportunities for children to develop their independence from the moment they start with us
- Embedding daily routines that enable children to demonstrate their independence
- Establishing high expectations that can be built upon year after year
- Fostering an enjoyment for reading and retelling stories
- Using high quality texts across the curriculum to support learning
- Knowing our children, their needs and their abilities in order to support them to develop
- Providing a high- quality enabling environment with a range of opportunities linked to all areas of learning
- Ensuring that children develop their early language and literacy skills including their early reading and phonics knowledge
- Enabling children to acquire a wide range of vocabulary and offer excellent opportunities for language development
- Delivering high quality adult-led sessions linked to a variety of areas of learning
- Identifying early those children who may need extra support to be successful
- Providing children with a wide range of experiences that support them to develop their knowledge and skills in order for this to be built upon during more discrete teaching in Key Stage 1
- Providing parents with information throughout the year about what they can do to support their child
As a result, our children are:
- Independent
- Positive about themselves and others
- Confident with routines and clear about expectations
- Effective communicators
- Willing to have a go at a variety of task with a positive and resilient attitude
- Excellent Intake citizens
How to help at home:
· Make sure they are in school and arrive on time - being settled and ready to start their lessons is incredibly important to how they learn
· Embed a regular night time routine that ensures they get enough sleep – bath time, a story and snuggle at the same time each night
· Share conversations with your child, this helps to develop their language skills and their listening and attention
· Use increasingly more complex vocabulary and offer more interesting word choices from the ones they are used to
· Encourage your child to talk in full sentences
· Help your child to recognise and write their first name and surname
· Develop gross motor skills through climbing, exploring, running, playing sports etc.
· Develop fine motor skills through drawing, painting, cutting, sticking, Lego etc.
· Teach your child how to dress and undress themselves
· Count to 10, then 20 and beyond
· Recognise, write and order numbers to 5, then 10
· Learn about time. What part of the day it is when you have breakfast, lunch, tea, bath time and bedtime - use words such as morning, daytime, midday, afternoon and night time
· Talk about which day it is each day and what the day will be tomorrow or what it was yesterday to extend their language
Reading
We teach early reading through the Read, Write, Inc. scheme. Your child will begin to learn all the single sounds first and then the digraphs. Once they know the first five sounds we will begin to teach them to blend sounds to read words. Please help your child to practise their sounds and word reading skills as often as possible (ideally daily). We provide a sounds workbook and corresponding words to read. Once your child can do this confidently, your child will have a reading book to practise and a reading for pleasure book from our classroom library.
We teach systematically and rigorously at school, this combined with regular practise at home will give your child the very best start to their school life.
How to help your child read at home:
· Read a variety of stories and information texts to them and always discuss what you are reading to build their vocabulary and comprehension skills
· Practise the sounds and words they are learning at school either from their sounds workbook, yellow RWI book or those at the front of their RWI reading book
· Listen to them read their school reading book -little and often is the best way
· Share books with them - read their reading for pleasure book to them, your child could ‘jump in’ with words or sections they can read by themselves or that they remember
· Never let your child struggle - if they can’t read a word then jump in, say the word quickly and let them move on
· Look out for our RWI parent workshops where we will discuss how we are teaching your children to read and write and how best you can support them
· Visit the parents section of the RWI website: https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parents/ to watch short, helpful information films
· Visit the Oxford Owl reading at home pages for additional information: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk - we will provide a login for your to access e-books
· For further information, please read our RWI policy