EYFS

Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Welcome to all our Cedar Park children and their families.

We look forward to an action packed half-term full of fun learning.

Please see a member of staff if you have any questions.

Mrs Franek and Mrs Van

The EYFS Team:

Mrs Franek - Nursery teacher, Forest School and Early Years Lead

Mrs Van - Reception teacher

and our fantastic teaching assistants:

Nursery based

Miss Moore (Monday-Friday)

Miss Calam (Monday-Friday)

Reception based

Mrs Warner TA and EYFS PPA teacher cover

Mrs Crocker (Wednesday morning / Thursday - all day)

Miss Wilson (Friday - all day)

Our Summer 1 topic is:

‘Animals’

We are looking forward to an action-packed half-term full of fun learning.

Weeks 1 and 2: Pets.
Key text: non-fiction books and powerpoint pages (Reception and Nursery).
In addition, we will be reading a variety of picture books and rhymes.

Further learning: Can you name some pets? Can all animals be pets? If your pet becomes unwell where would you take it to?

Draw a picture of your favourite pet animal and label it.

EID celebration:

On Friday, 19th April the whole school will be celebrating Eid. Please see Tapestry for further details when we return to school after the Easter break.

Week 3: Farm Animals

Key texts: various picture book stories, non-fiction books and powerpoint pages.
Pig in the Pond by Martin Waddell and The Three Little Pigs, a traditional tale.

Further learning:

Can you name some farm animals? What sounds do they make? Who looks after the animals on a farm?

What are the names for the following baby animals?

Horse
Cow
Hen
Pig
Duck
Sheep
Goat
Mouse
Donkey

Weeks 4 and 5: Big and Small Wild Animals.

We will be thinking about the animals we might see in a zoo or at an animal park. If you wanted to take home an animal from a zoo or animal park, which one would it be and why? How would you look after it? What would you feed it?

Key texts: Dear Zoo, by Rod Campbell (Reception and Nursery).
Walking Through The Jungle, by Stella Blackstone (Nursery).

Further learning:
Draw your favourite wild animal - where is its natural habitat? Can you describe it? Can you write a letter to a zoo asking for an animal - which animal would you choose? Can you make a flip-flap booklet or page? Which animal would you have hiding under the flap? Could you write a clue or have one ready to say so we could have a guess? Can you name some animals that live in the jungle? Can you describe a jungle?

Week 6: Dinosaurs.

Do they still exist? Can you name some dinosaurs? What name is given to a meat-eating dinosaur? What name is name is given to a plant eating dinosaur?

Key texts: Various dinosaur stories, poems, non-fiction books and powerpoint pages (Reception and Nursery).
Stomp, Chomp, Big Roars! Here Come the Dinosaurs! By Kaye Umansky and Nick Sharratt (Nursery).

Further learning:

Can you draw a picture of your favourite dinosaur and label it? What does 'carnivore mean'? Can you make a play dough dinosaur or make a dinosaur using junk materials?

For further information about our learning, please see our half-termly EYFS Curriculum Newsletter.

Please feel free to add any home learning in your child's journal on Tapestry.

Do come and speak to us, should you have any questions.

Mrs Franek and Mrs Van

EYFS Phonics:

We follow Supersonic Phonics Friends:

https://www.supersonicphonicfriends.co.uk/

Nursery:

Maths

https://masterthecurriculum.co.uk/nursery-maths-scheme/

Reception:

Power Maths

https://www.pearson.com/international-schools/british-curriculum/primary-curriculum/power-maths.html

Read to Write

https://www.literacycounts.co.uk/readtowrite

Other schemes we use in EYFS:

3D PSHE

https://dimensionscurriculum.co.uk/product/3d-pshe-early-y

Art

https://www.accessart.org.uk/primary-art-curriculum/

Developing Experts (Science) - EYFS planning overview will be available shortly

https://www.developingexperts.com/

Music

https://charanga.com/site/

https://pe.getset4education.co.uk/

https://pe.getset4education.co.uk/lesson/eyfs/introduction-to-pe-unit-1?years=1006,1007

Further information about the EYFS can be found on 'Parent Zone' - 'Information for EYFS Parents'.

A weekly guide:

Wednesday (return day)
Reading and shared (wordless) books, reading records and library books:
These need to be returned so they can be changed and ready to go home every Friday.
Nursery children will not have a shared book until after half-term.

Friday (going home day)
Reading and shared (wordless) books and reading records:
Books go home. Please make a short comment about your child's reading and interest in their book/s. If you have any queries, please come and see us.

Reading books and records should be kept in your child's book bag every day as they may be shared with an adult in school (see above for return details).

Reception children - books will not be sent home until week 4 (29.09.23)

Nursery children will not have a shared book until after half-term.

Library:
We have a fantastic school library with an excellent range of picture books for our EYFS children to enjoy choosing from and to share with their family at home.
We plan to visit the library every Friday to select one book to bring home every week. Please make sure that your child's library book is returned after five days (the following Wednesday morning). Unfortunately, we are not able to issue a new book unless the previous one has been returned.

PE:
Children wear their PE kit to school for the day. They can wear shorts or their usual jogging bottoms with their House T-shirt.

General Information:

Our Philosophy

At Cedar Park School, our philosophy is to value every child as a unique individual, who enjoys learning and thinking for him or herself. Our aim within the Early Years Foundation Stage is to provide a happy, safe and stimulating environment, which allows all children to feel secure and valued and therefore ready and eager to learn. We provide a supportive and secure environment in which every child can flourish and learn at their own pace and in their own individual way. Our role is to stimulate and encourage their development and enjoyment of learning through a variety of different activities, both adult directed and child initiated in secure indoor and outdoor situations.

We believe the relationships which the children develop in the Early Years, with each other and with our staff, are central to their happiness and will lay the best possible foundation for them to become independent lifelong learners.

Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum Intent

Children in our Early Years phase follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, which consists of seven areas of learning. We teach children by ensuring challenging, playful opportunities across both the prime and specific areas of learning. We recognise that all children develop and learn at different rates and so our EYFS curriculum is designed flexibly to meet the needs of all individuals. We support individual learning through our skilful interactions and observations which lead to detailed next step planning. The Characteristics of Effective Learning underpin our curriculum and pupils learning, through an enabling and well-planned environment we ensure we provide meaningful opportunities for playing and learning, active learning and creating and thinking critically. As children utilise and develop these characteristics, they become effective and motivated learners who demonstrate high levels of well-being and involvement.

Characteristics of Effective Learning

The characteristics of effective learning underpin our pupils learning within the Early Years Foundation Stage. The ways in which they engage with others and their environment – playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically – underpin learning and development across all areas and support children to remain effective and motivated learners. We make judgements about a child's demonstration of the Characteristics of Effective Learning at their particular age / stage of development and whether or not the learning behaviours defined within these characteristics describes the child.

Leuven Scales of Well Being and Involvement and Well Being

The Leuven Scales acknowledge the critical importance of a child’s emotional well-being on the quality and depth of learning. We use the Leuven Scales to indicate a child's level of Well-Being and Involvement at the time of assessment (low, medium or high level).

Well-being is defined as ‘the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy’. Involvement is defined as ‘the fact of being involved with or participating in something’. The Leuven Scales support accurate and authentic summative assessment of a child’s knowledge, skills, understanding and learning behaviours.

Tapestry

We use Tapestry to record children’s knowledge, skills and learning dispositions in individual Learning Journals, and to assess the characteristics of effective learning. It is a consistent and reliable way of demonstrating progress through the EYFS.

Through daily observation and interaction, we can build a rich and accurate understanding of each child across all aspects of learning and development. Observations are shared with families. You can share all the wonderful things you do with your child at home using Tapestry, by uploading via the website or App.

Whilst we would love to show you all the wonderful things your child has been doing throughout the day, it is not practical as we value the importance of being with the children and not always having a tablet in between us. Therefore, some weeks you will have more observations than others because we have been engaging and playing and didn’t want to stop the flow to take a photograph or video clip. Our observations are then used to support our ongoing assessments on Target Tracker.

Assessments are meaningful and impact on our children’s learning and development as we use them to inform next steps, which are personalised and challenging.

At the end of Reception, Learning Journals can be downloaded for you to keep and treasure.

Forest School at Cedar Park

Forest School is a magical place....

Forest School is an inspirational process that offers all learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a natural environment with trees.

Principles Of Forest School:

Forest school....

Takes place in a woodland setting on site which children cannot access during break times; this supports the development of a relationship between the learner and the natural world.

Uses a range of learner-centred processes to create a community for development and learning.

Aims to promote the holistic development of all those involved, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners.

Offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves.

Thank you for your support.

Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Mrs Franek (Forest School Lead)

Further information about the EYFS can be found on 'Parent Zone' - 'Information for EYFS Parents' and on Tapestry.