Early Years Foundation Stage(EYFS)
What we say about EYFS at Minety Primary School...
"I believe passionately that children learn at their best when they are happy and relaxed. So our first aim is to help your child settle into school life. We then put in the first building blocks that underpin their whole education.
In reception every child travels on the same journey – as in” The Bear Hunt” some run and some travel on an adults shoulders, in this way we support every child to reach their full potential. We are passionate about reading and have a well developed phonic reading scheme. This then leads into our writing which is always a lot of fun – from scaring the adults by writing 'nit' in the early days, to sending notes to the Head Teacher, reporting our teachers 'wrong doings' (she has been known to jump over the PE bench or spill a drink !). We are huge fans of “Numberblocks” and play lots of games and puzzles to help develop our mathematical understanding." Mrs Madeley (Phase Leader)
Curriculum Intent
To work in partnership with parents and carers to encourage independent, happy learners who thrive in school and reach their full potential from their various starting points.
We aim to build on the children’s prior knowledge, by providing them with rich experiences and challenges to help them develop cultural capital. We use our EYFS curriculum to support learning, consolidate understanding and develop children’s next steps.
To create an indoor and outdoor environment that supports learning.
To prepare children to reach the Early Learning Goals at the end of the Foundation Stage and ensure children make good progress from their starting points.
To support transition into KS1.
We are committed to creating a positive, safe and nurturing Christian environment, where all members of the school community will be respected and valued and SHINE. By SHINE in the EYFS curriculum we mean children:
- Sparkle – show individual strengths and achievements which we celebrate.
- Help – helping and supporting each other, we teach them to do this by modelling help and support.
- Imagine – open up learning opportunities thereby supporting them to imagine the possibilities waiting for them.
- Nurture - grow in their confidence and their ability to care which we help and support.
- Excel – achieve their full potential in the EYFS curriculum to prepare them for their transition into Year 1.
To read our full intent, implementation and impact, click the link:
To read our progression and content for EYFS, click the link:
Useful websites
Phonics
Maths
Numberblocks
Numberblocks is a step-by-step learning journey grouped neatly into five colour-coded levels. Each level introduces ever greater numbers and a sequence of key topics and skills that help your child build natural number sense and a solid foundation of mathematical understanding.
Class 1 have been talking about babies and what they can and can't do as part of their topic Long Ago and they had a very special baby visitor come to class. They have also been thinking about what they can do that babies can't do.
Class 1 had a visit from the Air Ambulance who showed them how they could help people in an emergency.
Class 1 have been sequencing the life of the Queen from when she was a baby until now and looking at how she has changed over time.
Class 1 started their new topic and have been looking at the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. They painted their own beanstalk and have painted pictures of Jack.
Class 1 have been learning about the lifecycle of a chick and had a surprise visit from some chickens. They even laid some eggs.
As part of their topic Class 1 have been looking at the story of The Little Red Hen. They made some bread and had it for an afternoon snack.
Class 1 had a fantastic World Book Day they enjoyed the Fish Who Could Wish by Korkey Paul. They made our own fish and then used their phonics to write their own wish.
Class 1 had a visit from a fire person and we talked about how to stay safe in a car and in water. They found out what a fire person wears to a fire and pretended to get dressed up as a fire person. They looked at the fire lady’s helmet, her safety visor and sunshield. They went in an imaginary fire engine and put out a fire in their role play. They rescued a baby and some pets and found where the fire started. They rescued a dog from a tree.
They listened to a story about Grandad’s birthday and talked about only grown-ups using lighters and matches. They talked about it being safe and learnt a rhyme:
“Matches, lighters never touch. They can hurt you very much.”
They played the fire safety game. They talked about smoke alarms and what to do if there is a fire in our house.
“Get out. Stay out. Call 999 and ask for fire.”
Class 1 use lots of different mediums and methods to help with their reading and writing.
Class 1 are learning about dinosaurs and they have been able to look at a real fossilised dinosaur egg. The dinosaur egg is from a Hadrosaurus and was found in the Henan province of China. The dinosaur lived 74-78 million years ago and was 9 metres in length.
Class 1 had an amazing History Day. They learnt all about Guy Fawkes and why we celebrate 5th November. They dressed up as fireworks, made their own Guy by stuffing clothes with newspaper and made firework cakes. They also made firework pictures using two different methods, one using paint, glitter and cardboard tubes. The others were made by colouring paper with wax crayons, painting over the colouring and when the paint was dry scratching off some of the paint using coins to reveal the colours underneath.
Class 1 have been investigating pumpkins and making pumpkin cakes.
Class 1 had a visit from Officers Chris and Sam who came to tell them all about their police dogs. One was trained to find phones who did a brilliant job of finding Mrs Madeley's which was hidden in a tractor and she was rewarded with her tennis ball. Luna is at school just like them and is learning to be a police dog and Champ is a bigger dog who is very experienced police dog. Officer Chris showed them the jacket he wears when training the dogs and also showed them inside his van. He has lots of dog food and dog toys for training the dogs!
Class 1 have been going on a bear hunt and painting bears as part of our topic Let's Explore.
New Parent Evening 5th July
Documents from the the new parents evening:
Class 1 had a visit from Mr Packer who talked to them about bees and showed them some busy in their hive.
Class 1 have been talking about the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and as part of their celebrations they have painted pictures of the Queen and flag umbrellas. They also made pictures of themselves as Buckingham Palace Guards with Red Coats and black bearskin hats.
Class 1 have had a visit from some lambs. They were very fluffy.
Carrying on with The Little Red Hen Class 1 have been making windmills and painting the red hen.
For Red Nose Day Class 1 dressed up and decorated biscuits.
Class 1 had a great start to their new topic "Once upon a Time" . They came in dressed for a visit to traditional story land and acted out the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They helped to make porridge just like the Three Bears and ate it all up for their snack.
A child in Class 1 brought in some lanterns, decorations and pictures of Celebrations of Chinese New Year. They learnt that lanterns are hung at Chinese New Year as good luck charms and that red is a lucky colour which is why a lot of the lanterns are red. Children are often given money in lucky envelopes to encourage good financial luck in the coming year. They also found out abut the twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac and that they are mostly Roosters or Monkeys.
As part of their topic on dinosaurs Class 1 have made dinosaur worlds using shoeboxes, paint, tissue paper, pompoms, clay and sticks we collected from the garden. They have been talking about the past and present and things we would and wouldn't expect to see. For example we wouldn't expect to see trains or TVs when dinosaurs were alive and we wouldn't expect to see a dinosaur walking down the street today.
As part of Nativity learning Class 1 have been thinking about the Epiphany. The kings followed a special star to find the baby Jesus. They brought the special gifts of Gold (for a king), Frankincense (for a God) and Myrrh (a special oil).
Class 1 have been placing pennies on Pudsey for Children in Need.
Class 1 had a fabulous music lesson with Mrs Walton. They sang some songs, learnt how to make quiet, medium loud and loud sounds. They also played along to music with shakers and learnt the names of some instruments and the sounds they make.
They baked some lovely apple cakes with the eggs they bought at the village shop. Yummy!
Class 1 are learning about autumn. They have been looking at apples and pears and they made apple crumbles.
Class 1 have been enjoying the story Handa's Surprise. They have talked about where it is set (in Africa) and the animals that appear in the story. They talked about the fruit in the story and then had a lovely time looking at, smelling and tasting lots of African fruit.
Class 1 had an amazing trip to The Butts Farm with Class 2 as part of our topic about where our food comes from.
Class 1 have been planting some beans so we can see them grow.
Class 1 have made some chick pictures by using a potato to print the body, adding feathers for wings, a cardboard beak and then some googly eyes.
Class 1 have made flower pictures for their spring display.
Class 1 have been looking at the story of the Gingerbread Man as part of their topic "Once upon a Time". They have painted pictures of the Gingerbread Man characters for a display, iced gingerbread biscuits and investigated what happened to the gingerbread biscuits when they put them in water.
Class 1 made snail pictures in the based on the work of the artist Henri Matisse as part of their phonics work for "ai".
To launch our “Minety Enrichment Passport” Class 1 had a visit from a pilot and some air stewards. They travelled to lots of destinations on their plane.
Class 1 had a great Geography day. They explored the school looking for features of the school and spotted some seasonal changes including spring flowers growing. They painted the spring flowers they saw when they were exploring the school.
Class 1 have been making dinosaur cakes for their topic on dinosaurs.
Class have been learning about teeth , how we keep them clean and why we need to keep them clean.
Class 1 did a fantastic assembly all about their explorations, their bear hunt and autumn.
Class 1 have been exploring their local area as part of their topic let's explore. They visited the village shop for some eggs for their baking and found some of their houses on the way. They finished up with a quick visit to the play area at the local park.
Class 1 have been painting self portraits.
Class 1 had a visit from Wayne who told them all about the lifecycle of moths and brought some moths in to show them.
Class 1 have been learning about the lifecycle of the sunflower. They have planted seeds, painted sunflowers and drawn and labelled the parts of the sunflowers.
Class 1 have been planting some seeds to see what happens as they grow.
Class 1 have had fun making apple crumbles to cook and eat.
Class 1 had a wonderful time on their trip to Westonbirt Arboretum. They learnt about lifecycles and searched for leaves and seeds, turned themselves into a tree, made artwork from things they found around them and played a game where they pretended to be bees and butterflies collecting nectar.
Class 1 have been exploring water. Looking at how it flows and what things float and sink.
Class 1 have been learning about spring and combining it with our phonics to find out about animals we see in spring.
Class 1 have been learning about what happens to trees and animals in the autumn and painted trees in their autumn colours.
Class 1 had a lovely a time at the PTA Summer Fair. Thank you PTA.
Class 1 brought in flowers and have been painting them and identifying them.
Class 1 had a visit from some chicks and lambs.
Class 1 have been counting conkers and making them into necklaces.
Class 1 have been painting self portraits.
