To Love God and to Love One Another
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Reception (EYFS)
At Hampreston, the Reception team aim to cultivate an environment which supports and challenges the learning needs of all children, whilst inspiring creativity, curiosity and independence. We closely follow the Early Years Foundation Stages (EYFS) framework, ensuring that children’s learning and development are mapped to strong path of skills progression.
Within this framework are seven areas of learning, which include:
Prime areas of learning:
1. Communication and Language (Listening, attention and understanding; and Speaking)
2. Personal, Social and Emotional Development (Self-regulation, Managing Self and Building Relationships)
3. Physical Development (Gross motor skills and fine motor skills)
Specific areas of learning:
4. Literacy (Comprehension, Word reading and Writing)
5. Maths (Number and Numerical patterns)
6. Understanding of the World (Past and present; People, culture and communities; and The natural world)
7. Expressive Arts and Design (Creating with materials and Being imaginative and expressive)
Our Reception classroom has been purposely designed so our very youngest children have their own self-contained little world with toilets and a bespoke outdoor learning environment. There is a full-time teaching assistant and very often an additional adult to support the children. Children are taught in small, focused groups by the teacher or teaching assistant and often on a 1:1 basis or in pairs by any additional adult support. At other times the children choose their challenges, activities and learn through their play, also known as Continuous Provision. There is a role play area that often changes identity, guided by the children’s interests and ideas.
Importantly, at Hampreston, the EYFS framework’s three Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) play a key role in our planning and implementation of the curriculum.
These characteristics include:
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Playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
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Active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
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Creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things
By embedding these three characteristics, we ensure that children learn through a variety of ways, all of which are engaging, stimulating and interesting, thereby supporting each child’s unique learning needs.
Lessons are planned to accommodate all levels of attainment but we are very aware that children are at a developmental stage in their learning. We listen to children read three times a week during our Little Wandle Phonics time. Parents are encouraged to listen to their children read at home.
The children are carefully nurtured and the happy, positive experience they have in Reception sets the tone for the rest of their school life at Hampreston.