Welcome to our EYFS page. Below you can learn more about what we do. To see the children's learning in action, please visit our Autumn 1 Gallery, which contains pictures of some of the learning that the children have been participating in. It will give you a good flavour of what life is like for a child in Reception at St Peter's.

Intent

The children who become part of the Early Years foundation Stage family at St Peter’s C of E Primary Academy will learn through engaging, high-quality, fun, inspiring, play-based experiences, learning opportunities and enrichment, regardless of their starting point. As an EYFS team, and effective role models, we will provide high-quality interactions in order to develop and deepen the children’s learning opportunities and characteristics of effective learning. We will deliver our curriculum through a balance of adult-led, child-led and child-initiated experiences, activities and provision based on themes, stories, celebrations, events and interests. We treat our children as individuals and our curriculum aims to enrich the whole child.

Our children will grow up in a school underpinned by our core values of Trust, Service, Humility, Forgiveness, Koinonia and Justice. These values, coupled with an environment where each child is cherished and valued as an individual, enable our children to flourish and be the best that they can be. The long-term outline grid (attached at the bottom of the page) shares with you the overview for the possible learning experiences across the year and the opportunities that may arise through our themes. These experiences will be planned to support the children to make developmentally appropriate steps through their learning journey and are supported by the Non-Statutory EYFS Development Matters guidance. Alongside this, the children will have daily access to a well-planned and resourced continuous indoor and outdoor provision that will be regularly enhanced to suit the developmental needs, interests of the children and themes for learning.

Implementation

Here at St Peter’s we believe it is extremely important to develop the whole child. Our priority is to ensure each child grows as a happy, well-rounded individual who is prepared for adult life. We love to learn through real experiences, we love to learn outside and we promote a sense of community. We are a warm, strong, nurturing school family who care about every single child and support each individual to follow their dreams and to become the best they can be.

Enrichment opportunities and community links will play an important part in helping the children to build memorial learning and understanding.

All these opportunities will develop the whole child. Staff build nurturing, warm, strong relationships with each individual pupil. No one is left behind and children will be given the opportunities and support needed to achieve their potential. Children at risk of falling behind are quickly identified and are supported through interactions, experiences, play, time and interventions to help them to continue to achieve.

We prioritise communication and language and create a ‘language rich’ environment through the use of songs, nursery rhymes, stories, vocabulary building, sentence stems and starters, partner talk, and providing constant opportunities for quality interactions between adults and between peers throughout the day. Interactions are positive and progressive, allowing children to flourish and gather words at pace in order to become confident communicators.

Impact

We assess the impact of our curriculum through ongoing dialogue, baseline assessments, summative records of children's understanding by topic and ongoing questioning and formative assessment.

For an overview of our programme of learning in Reception, please see the Long-Term Plan document below.

Phonics

In Reception, children begin their phonics programme. As a result of this, children learn to read rapidly. To support your child, you can practise the identification and pronunciation of key sounds at home. At St Peter's, we use the Little Wandle phonics programme. There are key documents attached below, including the half-term overview, which shows you what we will be teaching in the autumn term, and pronunciation guides. 

For videos that help with supporting your child at home, please follow this link: Parent Phonics Videos

More information about phonics can be found on our Phonics page in the curriculum section. 

What have we been doing?

We have been having lots of fun in Reception. Please click here for our autumn 1 gallery.