Welcome to our Foundation Stage Unit

Our Early Years class consists of Little Acorns (2-4 year olds) and Big Acorns (Reception aged children). We have developed an amazing space for our youngest pupils including an outdoor garden and forest school area.

Our Staff:

Emily Parker – Early Years Teacher
Kay Stevenson – Foundation Stage Senior Practitioner
Alex Baker – Foundation Stage Practitioner
Nigel Brown – Mealtime Assistant

Early Reading – AnimaPhonics – Click here to explore!

Within our Early Years, we develop a strong foundation in Phonics by following a scheme called AnimaPhonics. The children use their understanding of Phonics to develop both their reading and writing skills. They are given many opportunities to read a large range of different reading books, including fiction and non-fiction. The children have access to good quality reading books on a daily basis, both in school and for home. What the children may not realise however, is that they are developing their reading skills all of the time in school, not just by sitting down to read a book but through everything that we do!

Reading should be an enjoyable time for both you and your child so please allow your child to take their time when reading and read little and often.
When sharing a book with your child, it is important that he or she can enjoy and understand in detail the story being read.

Through daily activities, our children develop these Early Maths skills;
• Subitising, accurate counting, placing numbers in order and identifying more/less than a given number
• solving addition, subtraction, doubling, halving and sharing problems
• identifying and describing 2D and 3D shapes
• ordering items by length, height, weight or capacity
• observing and describing patterns
• beginning to use language related to money and time

We follow a play-based curriculum following Development Matters (2021). We have a range of child-initiated and adult-led activities throughout each day.

Each half term we have a different theme following the children’s interests:

Autumn 1- All About Me
Autumn 2 – A long, long time ago
Spring 1 – Celebrations
Spring 2 – On Our Travels
Summer 1 – In The Woods
Summer 2 – Along The Coast

Useful links…