- Year 1 98.2%
- Year 2 95%
- Year 3 98.2%
- Year 4 97.3%
- Year 5 98.2%
- Year 6 96.5%
- Year 7 94.5%
Welcome to Phoenix Foundation Stage 2016 -2017
We will be adding lots of information to our Foundation Stage page. Please check regularly for updates, information and photographs of our learning. Don't forget to read our regular Foundation Stage Newsletter to keep up to date with FS learning and events.
If you have any comments about your child's development and learning, please write them on post it notes. You can find these in a basket by the door. We will add them to your child's learning story.
Foundation Stage Staff:
Phase One Leader and Foundation Stage Teacher: Mrs Casson
Unqualified Teacher: Mrs Christopher
Support Staff: Mrs Renshaw, Miss Wilding & Miss Cotton
Important information:
Reception times: 8.50- 3.10
Our Nursery session is currently only an afternoon session from 12.15 - 3.15
Please bring your child into Foundation Stage each morning. As part of our safeguarding, one member of staff will be supervising the door and may not be available to talk. Please speak to any other member of staff should you have any queries or require any information.
Please join your child for a short activity or story at the start of the session. The door will be open for a little longer very morning except Thursday and we hope you take this opportunity to spend a few minutes with your child. We look forward to seeing you there.
IMPORTANT
* Please label all of your child's clothing.
* Ensure that you bring your child into class, do not leave them at the door. One member of staff will be supervising the gate and may not be available to talk. Please come into Foundation Stage and speak to another member of the team should you have any queries or concerns.
* Encourage your child to hang up their coat, find their name and spend a few moments with them sharing a story or an activity, allowing them to feel confident and happy before you leave.
* Please inform a member of staff is someone different is collecting your child.
* Reception children need to have their red reading bags in school EVERY day. Thank you.
*Support your child to develop their skills of independence. Practise putting on shoes, zipping coats and tying laces, children are expected to 'have a go' themselves in school, please encourage this at home.
Our Three R Rules
* Respect
* Responsibility
* Resilience
Children are encouraged to show respect towards others.
They are encouraged to be resilient, have a positive attitude and keep trying.
They have to be responsible, looking after themselves, each other and things they use in Foundation Stage.
We have a busy half term planned. The children will be exploring transport and travel and thinking about the places they would like to go and how they would get there. This will also link to our work on World Wise week when the children will look at different countries around the world. We have started the topic thinking about Space. Through the story 'Whatever Next' by Jill Murphy the children have explored space travel and begun to learn about the planets. They have been learning about space travel and as part of our science week work the children have been learning about Sally Ride the first woman in space.
In Maths the children will use their knowledge of shapes to make models linked to their space theme. They will discuss the properties of different shapes and also use their mathematical knowledge to solve problems including doubling and halving and sharing.
Transition will be a focus for this half term as some children in Nursery are preparing to move to Reception and the children in Reception complete their time in Foundation Stage and make the move into Key Stage 1. The Reception children will be spending time with their new teaching team and the children will be talking about what they can expect to stay the same and what will be different in Year 1. Towards the end of the half term the children will spend time in their new classroom and explore the upstairs environment in groups, looking at the different areas they will access.
There will be a meeting for parents of children starting Reception to discuss the transition and expectations for Reception. More information will be sent home.
We will be completing work based on Refugee and World Wise Week. The children will use the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and talk about danger and how Snow White has had to leave her home and the people who helped her.
If you have any questions please speak to a member of the FS staff. Thank you.
This half term our topic is 'Change'. We will be looking at life cycles and growth. The children will learn about Spring and be encouraged to observe the changes in and around the school grounds. They will be busy planting lots of seeds, caring for them and thinking about what they need to help them grow. They will be observing caterpillars grow and keeping a diary of the changes. The children will also be thinking about how they have grown and changed since they were babies and toddlers.
The children will continue sharing some 'Traditional Tales' reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. They will use their talk for writing strategies to map out the events in the story and learn how to orally retell it. Ask them to tell you the story, is it the same version you were told as a child? What is different? Please talk to your child about how traditional tales can differ.
The children will also be reading stories by Eric Carle including 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and 'The Bad Tempered Ladybird'.
The children in Reception will continue with their daily phonics sessions. Please practise the high frequency and phase 3 tricky words sent home. If you need another set please speak to a member of staff. The Nursery children will be continuing with their Phase 1 phonics, listening for rhymes, identifying alliteration and segmenting sounds they can hear in cvc words such as c-a-t and v-a-n.
Children in Reception will continue with their handwriting practise and be encouraged to write for different purposes. This half term they will be writing letters from Jack to the Giant, a list of ingredients to help the Little Red Hen, instructions for how to plant a beanstalk and they will be identifying and labelling parts of a plant. The Nursery children will continue with their daily mark making and development of fine motor skills through a range of different activities.
In Maths the children will be developing their knowledge of 2D and 3D shapes, identifying examples around school and using them to build with and in their art work. Challenge your child to find examples of shapes in and around your home. They will be comparing heights, measuring using standard and non-standard forms when looking at their 'beanstalks' and finding different ways to measure time. Children will have daily opportunities for counting and ordering and the Reception children will be practising counting in 2's. 5's and 10's as well as consolidating their doubling and halving skills. The children will also be completing maths challenges that encourage them to apply their problem solving skills. Please continue to talk about your own daily use of maths as part of 'Numeracy for Life' work.
The children will be using a range of technology to support their learning and will be encouraged to develop their independence by completing simple programmes on the MacBooks, Interactive whiteboards or on the iPads.
The children will be exploring the work of Artists Vincent Van Gogh and Monet and using their work as inspiration for their own paintings.
As part of our P4C sessions the children will be considering whether Jack was right to climb up the beanstalk, go against his mother's wishes and take the Giants hen. The children will consider making choices and identifying the reasons behind those decisions.
Reception children will continue to bring home their reading books, please try and listen to them read for a few minutes each day and record a comment in their diary.
Children need black velcro pumps for PE, please check with your child that the ones they have in school still fit.
Many thanks for your continued support. We are looking forward to a busy and fun filled half term.
Any questions or concerns please speak to a member of the team.
Spring 2
Ways to support learning at home.
Learning this half term.
This half term we will be continuing our work on Narnia, thinking about the characters and ways we can describe them. We will use our imagination and begin to think about where the wardrobe might take us. The children will use their talk 4 writing skills to support the retelling of some 'Traditional Tales' including 'The Gingerbread Man', 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears and 'Little Red Riding Hood'. The Reception children are being encouraged to apply their phonic knowledge when writing and will be generating their own sentences when writing. In phonics the children will continue to learn new sounds from phase 3 of the Letters and sounds document and practise writing the corresponding graphemes.
In Maths the children will be comparing sizes and exploring capacity and volume. The Reception children will be consolidating their knowledge of money and thinking about halving and doubling. the nursery children will begin to combine two amounts and find the total and count on from different numbers.
The children will be thinking scientifically and carrying out different investigations looking at materials and the effect of different liquids on Gingerbread. They will be talking about what make a 'fair test'.
The children will be using a range of technology to support their research of different topics and they will using the computer to complete a simple program.
As part of our P4C work the children will be considering questions such as 'was Goldilocks right to go into the Three Bears house?' and 'Why did the Gingerbread Man run away?'. The children will also thing about characters they would like to meet any why.
The children will be learning about Lent and how Easter is celebrated and begin to think about new life.
Ice Investigations.
The children had a dilemma today. They wanted to play with their favourite figures but unfortunately Sleeping Beauty and Spiderman had been frozen. The children had to use their scientific knowledge to help free the figures. They had great ideas about melting the ice and what they would need. Some suggested water and Mrs Evans reported that the children were really sensible and talked carefully about the safest way to use the hot water.
The children used the water, salt, food colouring and flour in their investigation and made their predictions about which would melt the ice the quickest.
This half term our theme in Foundation Stage is 'Winter'. The children will be developing their speaking and listening skills through a range of small group activities. They will focus on turn taking, discussion and sharing stories in Key worker groups to develop these skills. The children will learn about the 'Polar Regions' the climate and the animals that live there. Using the floor books, the children will have the opportunity to identify questions they would like to find the answers to and share their own knowledge with their peers.
On Monday's we will have PE with our specialist teacher Kyle and the children will be developing their throwing skills this half term. The children will also be developing their movement skills and use music as a stimulus. The children will be listening to 'Still Life at the Penguin Cafe' and will explore moving like polar animals. They will also investigate materials, and create art work inspired by winter colours and shapes.
In Maths the children will be developing their estimating counting and ordering skills. The Reception children will be completing single digit additions and subtractions and all of the children will explore measurement. Through our PFEG work (financial education - giving children the opportunity to understand money, it's value as well as the responsibilities it brings) the children will be talking about money and jobs and how people are paid for their jobs. This will link to our PLOD 'People who help us'. The children will learn about where money comes from, the value of coins and how people might get paid differently for the jobs they do.
We will be sharing a range of stories including 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' by Michael Rosen, 'Cudldy Dudley' by Jez Alborough 'The Gruffalo' and 'Stickman' by Julia Donaldson. Through our 'Talk 4 Writing' the children will retell stories, use maps to help them sequence the stories and write about their events. The children will continue with their daily phonic sessions, in Nursery, developing their rhyme and alliteration and in Reception developing their knowledge of phase 3 digraphs and blending for reading. Please support your child at home by encouraging them to read every night.
Our 'Philosophy for Children' this half term will be based on some of the stories we have read and will also encourage children to be more responsible. Through discussion the children will think about how everyone is responsible for our environment and children will consider the consequences of their actions. Through stories such as 'Cuddly Duddly' ask questions including 'Have you ever wanted to be alone'? Why? 'How did you feel'? Discuss the issues from the story and how Dudley and his family feel.
As part of our 'Global Learning' The children will be learning about Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated.
The children will also be thinking about how we use numeracy very day in our 'Numeracy for life'. Please support them and identify ways you use numeracy every day.
Autumn 2 in Foundation Stage
This half term we are focusing on Festivals and Celebrations. The children will look at Autumn and discuss the changes they can see in the environment. We will be using the 'chat mat' to talk about Autumnal foods, Bonfire Night, Diwali, Remembrance Day and Animals in Autumn. The children will share a range of stories including 'Owl Babies' by Martin Waddell, 'The Enormous Turnip', 'Room on the Broom' and 'The Gruffalo' By Julia Donaldson and 'Winnie the Witch' stories by Korky Paul. The children will also listen to rhymes and identify rhyming words before having a go at making their own linked to our theme. They will also begin to recite some poetry off by heart.
Staff have recently had training in 'Talk 4 writing' and will be using this approach to support children with their story knowledge and writing. The children will share some stories and learn them using actions and story maps. With this knowledge they will be able to retell stories in detail, become familiar with the structure and then use this knowledge to support their writing.
The children will continue with their daily phonics lessons and will be moving onto phase 3 sounds which includes learning digraphs. A digraph is two letters together that make one sound, examples include 'sh' and 'th'. The children will be practising blending for reading and be encouraged to generate and have a go at writing their own sentences.
In Maths the Reception children will be focusing on addition and subtraction, using lots of different materials to support the development of their mathematical thinking. They will also be looking at shapes, positional language and comparing size, numbers and length.
The Nursery children will have a 'Number of the Week' focus and will be counting and matching numerals as well as identifying numbers in the environment.
As part of our P4C the children will be using the story 'Owl Babies' to discuss some of the themes including 'loss' and exploring different feelings and emotions. Through the themes in our stories they will discuss questions such as:
If you had a magic wand what would you do?
Would you rather be a witch or a fairy? Why?
Would you rather fly or be invisible?
Why?
As part of our 'Global learning' the children will consider celebrations around the world including Diwali and Hannukah and begin to gain an awareness of similarities and differences between people, an awareness of different places, and a positive attitude towards difference and diversity.
The children will explore pattern and colour in art and be encouraged to generate their own 'firework' pictures. They will use iPads and Mac books to support their learning across the curriculum and develop their confidence and competency using technology.
In December we will start our 'Christmas' themed activities, including sharing the Christmas Story.
Early Years Links
www.phonicsplay.co.uk - this site has some free resources and ideas for helping your child with phonics.
www.bigeyedowl.co.uk
www.communication4all.co.uk - lots of resources for story telling