Beech Class
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) begins at birth and ends when a child is 5, at the end of the reception year. The Early Years unit at Alveley Primary School caters for children aged 3 - 5 years old, traditionally the nursery and reception classes.
The Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework published in 2012 (updated in 2014) by the Department for Education that sets the standards for the development, learning and care of children from birth to five.
The EYFS Profile summarises and describes children’s attainment at the end of the EYFS. It is based on ongoing observation and assessment of the three characteristics of effective learning throughout the three prime and four specific areas of learning. There are 17 Early Learning Goals associated with the 7 areas of learning. The children are assessed against these goals at the end of the Reception year.
Characteristics of effective learning:
- playing and exploring
- active learning
- creating and thinking critically
The prime areas of learning:
- communication and language
- physical development
- personal, social and emotional development
The specific areas of learning:
- literacy
- mathematics
- understanding the world
- expressive arts and design
This booklet, "What to expect, when?", looks at the stages of development before the Early Learning Goals and may be of interest to you. We use these stages to track your child's progress before they have reached the ELGs.
In EYFS at Alveley School, we follow a child led approach to play based learning with the belief that each child develops at his or her own pace. The teachers and teaching assistants support and develop the children in their learning, focusing upon the child's interests and taking opportunities to support and extend their learning in a meaningful context. Play is a child's work, we follow their personal exploration and natural inquisitiveness to extend and develop learning opportunities.
This positive ethos is at the heart of the EYFS at Alveley. It is extremely important that the children feel happy and comfortable within the setting; where they are constantly supported and encouraged. The children's achievements are recognised and celebrated. This ethos allows for and encourages problem solving, resilience, curiosity and high levels of engagement. All adults recognise the importance of developing a strong, positive, trusting relationship with each child, knowing each of them as an individual.
Pupils are gradually introduced to more teacher directed activities, whereby the learning experiences follow the children’s interests, linking to a termly topic. Initial ideas of enhancements and stimulus within the environment link to the termly topic and allow children to further develop their learning.
To maximise learning opportunities, the children have daily access to both an indoor and outdoor classroom, and are encouraged to make their own choices. The environment is carefully planned to develop the children's learning experiences.
EYFS
Summer Term in EYFS
Some EYFS class pupils have returned to school this half term. They have enjoyed continuing their class topic of Journeys. Other pupils are continuing with home learning using their weekly learning packs linked to the class topic.
Please click here to visit the home learning page.
“This week in Early Years we have been reading stories about things growing, linked to the stories Jack and the Beanstalk and Handas Surprise. We have written about which animal took the fruit out of Handas basket and what we think is at the top of the beanstalk! We have looked at whole part models in our numberwork in class and in the forest. We have a tray of vegetable tops we are growing to turn into a jungle for the animals. At dinnertime we had fun on the field with the bubbles!”
Role play shop Virtual Assembly
Cherry challenge in forest school Fruit machine maths
Bubbles Growing vegetable tops
Handas surprise story
Spring Term in EYFS
We have enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year within EYFS this week. We began by listening to the Chinese New Year story and were really interested in the animals. We played hide and seek finding animals around the classroom . Next we found out how Chinese New Year is celebrated ,we made dragon decorations and enjoyed recreating the Chinese dragon dance we had seen. We also loved cooking and eating a Chinese stir fry
November in EYFS
Nursery and Reception invited Parents and Carers to join us for lunch. We all made our own pizza with Caterlink. After lunch our grown ups enjoyed sharing our Catch Up, Craft and Cake session. We made Christmas cards, decorations and calendars. It was also a lovely opportunity to reflect on all of our learning and development over this term.
In EYFS it has been lovely to welcome lots of new Nursery friends this term. We have enjoyed engaging in a wide range of activities within the continuous provision.
We are so lucky to have our own Forest School; this term we have been visited the forest each morning, exploring the world around us and developing our understanding. We love the endless possibilities that the forest has to offer; from hunting for bugs, collecting leaves, climbing trees and splashing in muddy puddles and much more our visits to the forest are always busy and bursting with learning opportunities.
This term our topic is ‘All About Me’, it was lovely to take time to look at ourselves in the mirror and have a go at painting self-portraits. We have taken time to get to know each other and develop friendships.
As part of our topic we have been exploring our village where we come to school, we thought carefully about the places we would like to visit. Each Wednesday morning Reception have had the opportunity to go on a trip, making connections between our own real life experiences and our classroom learning.
We began with a trip to the local shop! Before going we chose a recipe from the book and wrote our shopping list. While we were at the shop we worked in pairs to find the cake ingredients and pay for each item. When we returned to school we baked and decorated our cakes!
The following week we walked up to the church, we really enjoyed our walking taking time to stop and use our senses to explore the world around us. When we arrived at the church we were really interested to walk around the church ground and look at the beautiful building. We noticed the big lock on the door and decided that we would like to ask the Vicar if we could visit again and go in.
Our next trip was to The Old Chapel (and we would definitely love to go back!). We were very excited to visit for a drink and a cake in the tearoom as a treat. After enjoying our visit we made thank you cards for the ladies in the tearoom.
Next we decided to visit the brook; we had walked over the bridge on our previous trip to the church. This time we stopped and the brook to listen carefully and look closely at the water. We thought of songs and rhymes we knew (Once I Caught a Fish Alive, Five Little Ducks and more!) and sang them from the bridge.
After talking to Rev. Neil in assembly we were invited to go back for a tour of the church, this was really special. We listened so carefully to find out all about the history of the church and then enjoyed an opportunity to explore and ask questions. Lots of us had visited the church before and shared experiences of Sunshine Corner and Messy Church Sessions.
