Kingsacre Primary School

Intent

At Kingsacre foundation unit we provide a safe and stimulating environment using the principles of Hygge to inspire and challenge children. Hygge is a Danish word describibg a space that promotes emotional well-being, togetherness and friendship. A place children can feel comfortable to snuggle down with a book or explore with confidence. A place that allows a sense of security.

We aspire to our learning animals:

• The dolphin - diving into our learning and giving everything a go.
• The tortoise - showing resilience and keeping on trying.
• The cat - being curious and asking questions,
• The bee - learning together from and with each other.
• The owl - understanding the learning journey, reflecting back and looking forwards.
• The spider - making connections and links with our learning.
• The elephant - ensuring we not only know more but also remember more of what we have been taught.

We ensure children experience a curriculum that is inspiring, engaging, exciting and vocabulary rich. Through following their own interests and provocations with a balance between adult led activities and continuous provision at the heart of which is play.

We embed the characteristics of effective learning into everything we do ensuring that the children have opportunities to be explorative, active learners who are creative critical thinkers.

We work in partnership with parents/carers wherever possible , encouraging communication and keeping parents involved in their child’s learning through weekly newsletters.

Implementation

We recognise the importance of allowing children to follow their own interests and develop their natural curiosity. Provision within the classroom is continuously monitored and adapted based upon the needs and engagement levels of the children. Play is also extended and built upon using open ended questioning when apprppriate.

The children are taught a broad and engaging curriculum based around the seven areas of learning:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

We ensure that experiences provided within the Early Years includes visits and visitors into new topics which provide real life content for their learning, eg; visit by ambulance services.

Adult led activities develop specific skills ensuring that children meet the next steps in their learning. We also aim to make a good level of progress so that children are ready by the end of the Foundation stage for Year One.

We understand the importance of building strong relationships with parents/carers, and use a range of methods to increase parental involvement and to develop relationships with families.

When children start pre-school  (‘Climbers’) we hold a meeting to talk to parents, show them the setting, introduce the team and the child’s key worker and explain the curriculum  and answer any questions they may have. Prior to starting Reception ('Explorers') we hold a meeting for parents and children in the setting. A few weeks in the Autumn Term we hold a phonics meeting for parents explaining how we teach phonics, reading and writing and how they can help their child at home. We will also be holding a maths meeting for parents and a follow up phonics meeting in January. During the term parents are invited into the classroom to celebrate their child's learning - for example putting on a cream tea where the children have made the scones and serve the parents.

We use assessment to help children and areas that need improvement in a childs learning are quickly acted upon and plans are put into place to target the gaps and enable children to achieve by enabling the most suitable support.

Impact

To provide an accessible EYFS curriculum that is inspiring, exciting and engaging for all.

To provide an appropriate balance between play and adult led activities.

To collaborate with parents/carers and build strong and develop strong relationships so parents can play an active role in their child’s learning.

To use assessment to help children extend their thinking and embed their learning providing appropriate next steps.