A member of Dales Academies Trust
Your child’s ‘Learning Journey’ begins in Early Years.
Early Years is the bedrock of all learning and is a critical stage of your child’s development.
Early Years at Ainderby Steeple CofE school consists of two distinct phases:
1. Ainderby Steeple Pre-School Pupils – (2 – 4 years of age)
2. Reception Pupils (4 – 5years of age)
The Early Years Teaching Team will ensure that children are equipped with a wide range of knowledge and skills that provide the foundation for first-rate progress through their school life and beyond.
Curriculum Intent
- Pupils will develop language acquisition and expand their vocabulary in order to become confident and effective communicators
- Pupils will extend their understanding in personal, social and emotional development in order to become resilient and self-assured learners
- Pupils will learn how to manage their feelings and behaviour in a range of situations
- Pupils will develop their knowledge in early literacy and mathematics
- Pupils will extend their physical key skills including fine and gross motor control
- Pupils will acquire a range of artistic knowledge and key skill application including: drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, textiles, printing
- Pupils will explore the world around them and deepen their understanding of living things and the environment
- Pupils will experience a curriculum immersed in story and literature
- Pupils will begin to transfer their knowledge into the wider environment especially the outdoors and become competent problem solvers
- Pupils will experience and extend their knowledge of phonics through a synthetic phonics programme
Curriculum Implementation
The Early Years curriculum is delivered through:
- Well planned and purposeful play-based activities
- Adult directed lessons and learning activities
- Opportunities for exploration, choice and decision making by the children
- Vocabulary enrichment activities and a vocabulary rich environment
- Non-verbal communication and vocabulary strategies to support the development of both receptive and expressive language
- An effective and validated synthetic phonic programme – Little Wandle
Curriculum Impact
Effective assessment is gathered by practitioners that supports individual learning profiles and is used to accentuate and tailor further learning and knowledge acquisition.
- Floorbooks are used across Early Years to showcase the curriculum offer and evidence pupil learning
- Individual pupil evidence is gathered through a range of sources in Reception including: English/Mathematics/Handwriting Books/Evidence Files
- Classroom displays
- Professional dialogue and regular communication with parents/carers, to obtain an accurate assessment profile
- Effective Phonic Assessment
Early Years Team Leaders
Miss A George – Early Years Leader
Miss A George – Class 1 Teacher
Miss S Kelly – Pre-School Leader
Early Years Teaching Team
Mrs Chilton – Teaching Assistant
Mrs Price – Teaching Assistant
Statutory Framework for the Early Years
Click Here to find the standards that school and childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5.
Development Matters
Click Here to explore the Non-Statutory curriculum guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage.
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised is the chosen validated phonic scheme that is used to deliver effective phonics teaching and learning across Early Years and Year One. Annual phonic parental training will be offered at the start of every academic year; this will enable parents to deepen their understanding of how they can support their child learn to read.
We have chosen to use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised as our systematic phonics scheme.
Please use the link below to access the Parents section of Little Wandle website.
The resources on this page will help you support your child with saying their sounds (phonemes) and writing their letters (graphemes). There are also some useful videos that will enable you to see how your child is taught at school. The videos will ensure that you are confident with supporting your child with their reading at home. You can also find the full Reception and Year 1 teaching programme overview and this will allow you to see what your child will learn and when.
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Please click to access the Phonic and Early Reading Policy.
Please click to access the Handwriting Policy
The Early Reading Leaders are: Mrs Rachel Peart and Mrs Suzanne Link
