Welcome to EYFS at Whitgreave
Here at Whitgreave we believe that ‘getting it right’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage allows children to build the vital foundations in their learning and development that are required for successful learning in the future. We are proud of our EYFS and our children love coming to school to learn a vast range of new things. Our curriculum is divided into prime and specific key areas of learning and development.
The prime areas of learning:
The specific areas of learning:
Characteristics of Effective Learning:
Within EYFS at Whitgreave we currently have provision for children aged 3 – 5 years old and offer tailored and exciting learning opportunities for all children depending upon their age and stage of development. We have two separate rooms – Nursery and Reception. Children access the correct provision for their age group.
Nursery Provision
This is our provision for our children aged 3 and 4. We currently offer both morning and afternoon Nursery sessions with the capacity for 26 children in each session. A typical day for your child in Nursery will consist of adult focussed tasks and child initiated learning. Lessons and activities are carefully planned to meet the needs of your child and take into account all 7 areas of learning but with a focus on the prime areas of: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development. The Nursery environment is planned and resourced carefully to give children a wide variety of playful learning experiences. As a Nursery operating within a school environment, staff plan sessions carefully to enable your child to be as ‘school-ready’ as possible.
Reception Classes
Our Reception classes are two-form entry, meaning we can have 60 children on roll in our two classes. Within the Reception unit children will complete their daily sessions in smaller ‘Key –Groups’ and will be allocated a Key-Group Leader to enable them to build effective relationships.
A typical day for your Reception aged child will consist of adult focussed tasks and child initiated learning. This approach enables the children to encounter a wide range of learning and experiences and to prepare them for their future education.
Uniform
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Girls |
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Working Together
Here at Whitgreave we recognise the benefits of and hugely value the relationships we have with parents. We understand that parents can give us an invaluable insight into their children’s learning and development and this helps us to inform our practice within the classroom. We use a system called Tapestry to help us to communicate with parents about their children’s learning within the classroom. As a parent you will receive photos and videos of the activities your child is participating in during the day, you will also be able to send photos and messages to staff to show them the things your child is doing at home. This on-going communication really helps us to form a rounded picture of each child and their learning and development. We also operate on an open-door policy and all staff members are happy to discuss any issues or concerns with parents and will also be delighted to
share the positives too!
Outdoor Learning
We know that children enjoy learning in lots of different ways and understand the importance of using the outdoor space to support all areas of learning. We have a wonderful outdoor area that was redesigned and updated in 2020. It now incorporates lots of different learning areas. Each one of these spaces lends itself to a different area of learning and development e.g. clamber stacks for gross motor development, a stage for imaginative play and a two story den which allows us to take a range of lessons outdoors.
Children within the EYFS can also utilise the Forest School space during our ‘Welly Wednesday’ sessions. These sessions are led by our trained Forest School leader and supported by the EYFS staff, they include lots of fun activities including; den building, bug hunts and campfires. Welly Wednesdays are a firm favourite with both staff and children because they offer such a new and exciting learning environment.
Transitions
We know that moving through each phase within their learning journey can be very daunting for a child of any age, so within EYFS we aim to make all transitions as smooth and as stress free as possible for our children. We plan sessions which enable the children to meet their new class teachers in their current learning environment. This may mean that staff move around within school to other classes to meet, interact with and teach children who are about to move classes, or this may mean that staff visit other settings to meet the children who are moving to Whitgreave.
The next phase of transition allows children to ‘visit’ their new classrooms and get to know this new environment before it becomes their permanent learning space. Staff also hold detailed transition meetings to enable new staff to gather all of the necessary information about the children who are moving to them. At Whitgreave we pride ourselves on the consistency we have in our systems across the entire school. This means that children are familiar with expectations and ‘how things work’ as they move from one year group to another and helps to make the whole process smoother.
Quotes
These are some quotes from both Parents and our Children
Parent Quotes
“Lovely staff, very caring, they’ll do their upmost for the children. They treat you like family.” NH Mum
“Great staff, the kids always come out with a smile on their face, only wish the school day was longer!” ST Dad
“Staff are warm and friendly. It works well for the children to move forwards from EYFS onwards. I like that they use Tapestry on a daily basis so I can see what they are doing. it gives me good feedback about their day.” CW Mum
“My children always love to come to school, they always have a smile on their faces. They talk about seeing their friends and teachers. They love bringing work from school home to show me and Mum.” ZA Dad
Children’s Quotes
“I just love coming to this school and being in Reception!” RP
“I like playing with the toys and all my friends.” ZR
“I love all my teachers because they are kind.” VT
“I like literacy because we listened to the Monkey Puzzle story and then I wrote all about it.” KI
“I love school because we have so much fun!” KW
“I love Welly Wednesday the best!” LM
