Curriculum

In our Foundation Stage we have Nursery and Reception aged children. 

Phonics

Nursery follow the Read Write Inc. Nursey scheme exploring and promoting read-a-lot, talk-a-lot, and sing-a-lot children.

Spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development in the revised 2021 Early Learning Goals. The aim is to reduce the language gap between children from language-rich homes and those who are not.

These three things make the biggest difference to reduce the language gap:

1. Reading aloud

2. Teaching children poems and songs

3. Talking with children

In the last term of Nursery before children start Reception, children are taught to say the sounds of letters with the help of mnemonics and to blend the sounds into words. This gives them a flying start before starting Reception.

Reception follow the Read Write Inc. Scheme and have daily 'Speed Sounds' phonics sessions which are always fun and engaging! The children learn to be confident in recognising single letter sounds and digraphs moving onto blending sounds and segmenting words, which then help them in their reading and writing. All children participate in a phonics session each day. These focussed sessions are short, sharp blast of 10 minutes at the start of the year building up to 45 minutes by the end of the year.  Practising 'Speed Sounds' and 'Red Words' at home is hugely beneficial in consolidating your child's knowledge and understanding.

Reading

All children are invited to choose a story book each week to take home. Repetition is crucial to your child’s development and I would advise that you read your child’s chosen story book to them each day for a week. You could start by looking at the pictures and asking your child what they think is happening then read the story. Is it what they predicted from the pictures? As you get further through the week your child should be able to ‘jump in’ and fill in some of the words in the story because they have become familiar. Lastly, when reading the story and pointing to the words are there any words your child recognises as familiar? Can they tell you what the word is?

In addition, and when appropriate, Reception follow the Read Write Inc. reading books. We will start with the Blending books and Ditty Photocopy Masters before moving on to the Red Ditty and Story Books. We practise the Speed Sounds, Story Green Words, Speedy Green Words and Red Words and use them to develop fluent reading. We use the Questions to Talk About in each book to develop our comprehension. 

Maths

We teach Maths every day and follow White Rose Maths scheme. This scheme of work is practical and fun, embracing the values and pedagogies of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Counting at home or in the car aloud is another great way of helping your child develop their understanding of number. One of our favourite games at school is seeing how many numbers can we find in the school environment?

We use Development Matters as a framework to support children's development throughout their time in EYFS at Kneesall. Below are two documents that show what the F1 and F2 children are learning to do during the year through our carefully planned curriculum,