Teacher Information

The Reception staff at Ulverley are Mrs Kelly, Mrs Albanese, Mrs Maddison, Mrs Islam, Mrs Unlu and Mrs Holmes.

 

Early Years Foundation Stage

Welcome to Ulverley School. We are a community, multi-faith school and aim to provide a safe and happy environment to stimulate learning and confidence. Each child is valued as an individual and we endeavour to cater for the differing needs of each child. The Early Years Foundation Stage focuses on the needs and learning for children from birth until the end of Reception in primary school. It is delivered through planned play activities to help ensure all children have the opportunity to reach their full

potential and experience the best possible start to their education. The EYFS also provides the foundations for life long learning. 

 

Learning through Play

Purposeful play is an essential tool for learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Activities are based on a theme with a balance between adult directed activities and independent learning. These will encompass a balance between indoors and outdoors. In the Foundation Stage the curriculum is delivered across all rooms and the outdoor classroom. Therefore children are expected to free flow to all areas to ensure they access all areas of learning. In Nursery and Reception we organise the classrooms into zones.

 

EYFS Principles

A Unique Child: Every child is a unique child who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self assured.

Positive Relationships: Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

Enabling Environments: Children learn and develop well in enabling environments in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and carers.

Learning and Development: Children develop and learn in different ways. Practitioners teach children by ensuring challenging, playful opportunities across the prime and specific areas of learning and development.

 

Personal Social and Emotional Development

• Children play co-operatively, taking turns with others

• Children show sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings and form positive

• Relationships with adults and other children

• Children are confident to try new activities

• Children to be confident to speak in a familiar group

• Children are to understand behavior boundaries and the consequences if they make a wrong choice

•  Children can communicate about themselves and their family and friends

 

Communication and Language

• Children can listen attentively to stories, accurately anticipating key events and respond to what they hear with relevant comments, questions or actions

• They give their attention to what others say and respond appropriately, while engaged in another activity

• Children follow instructions involving several ideas or actions

• They answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about their experiences and in response to stories or events

• Children express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs

• They use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future

• They develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas or events

 

Physical Development

• Children show good control and co-ordination

• They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space.

• They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils and scissors

• Children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe

• They manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently

 

Literacy

• Children read and understand simple sentences They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately

• They also read some common irregular words

• They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read

• Children use their phonic knowledge to write

• Words in ways which match their spoken sounds

• They also write some irregular common words

• They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others

• Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible

 

Mathematics

• Children count reliably with numbers from one to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number

• Using quantities and objects, they add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer

• They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing

• Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems

• They recognise, create and describe patterns

• They explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them

 

Understanding the World

• Children talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members

• They know about  similarities and differences between  themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions

• Children recognise and use a range of technology is used in  places such as homes and schools

• Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things

• They talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another

• They make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes

 

Expressive Arts and Design

• Children sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them

• They safely use and explore a variety of materials tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function

• Children use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes

• They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music ,dance, role play and stories

 

Forest School

• To build self-esteem

• To work as a team

• To explore the seasons and environment around us

 

Assessment

• We collect evidence of the children's learning in the form of photos, observations and adult directed activities which feed into their individual learning journals

• All this information allows us to track progress and form the next steps for children’s learning

• This information will be shared at parents consultations in October and February but we operate an ‘open door’ policy so please feel free to chat about your child’s progress at the end of the day

• Parents/ Carers hold a vital role in assessment to gain a holistic approach to learning 

• Reception children are assessed through the age related bands plus the Early Learning Goals. This is a statutory requirement to be completed by the end of the Reception year.

 

Picking up

Please wait outside Nursery to collect your child. If you have been delayed, please phone the school to let us know. If you have arranged for someone different to the person who normally picks up your child, please let us know at the beginning of the session.

 

Lunchtime

Lunch time is from 11.45 until 1pm. The Foundation Stage staff will escort the children to the dining hall and support them getting their lunch. Once the children have finished eating, the lunchtime supervisors will help them to the infant playground for the remainder of the break. There are three options for lunch.

Packed Lunch- You can provide your own packed lunch for your child. Please ensure the container is clearly labeled. As encourage our children to be healthy eaters and as such we request that packed lunches do not include sweets or chocolate. A healthy lunchbox may include a sandwich, yoghurt, piece of fruit and a small savory snack. Water is readily available in the dining hall.

Hot Dinners- The children will have a main course (meat and vegetarian option available) with vegetables plus a pudding and a drink.

Sandwich Bar- Children can choose to have a wrap, cob or baguette then add salad to their lunch. They also receive a pudding and a drink.

Payment

Hot Dinners and Sandwich Bar cost £2.05 per day. We have recently moved to cashless payment at Ulverley and are now using an online system called Parent Pay. At a later date you will receive a password and username to log on and pay for all lunches online.

 

Healthy Snack

Each morning the children will receive a free piece of fruit. They should also bring a water flask with them to have a drink throughout the day (squash and flavoured waters are not permitted). We ask that children bring in their water bottles on Monday and take them home for washing every Friday. Please ensure the bottle is clearly labeled with your child’s name.

NB- There is a leaflet enclosed in this pack if you wish to purchase milk daily for your child.

 

Parents as Partners

• As a parent/ carer, we recognise that you are the children’s first teacher and really value working together to have a positive impact on your child’s learning and development

• We welcome volunteers to come and help us

• Additional opportunities to come in (workshops, reading, Nativity production)

• We send home a newsletter at the end of each week to inform you of the next week’s learning theme and activities. Any relevant information will also be placed on here.

• Please do not hesitate to speak to staff at the beginning or end of the day or make an appointment to discuss any queries in more detail

• Mrs Byrne (Ulverley’s Family Support Worker) offers confidential advice and support to families should any issues arise

• Also based at Ulverley is a Children’s Centre offering a multitude of services and facilities to families. Friends of Ulverley School are always keen to recruit new members and they play such a  vital role in supporting the school, raising money and organising events such as the Christmas Disco.

• Please see a member of staff if you have any further questions of queries about the above points.

 

What if your child has an accident?

We will endeavour to create a safe environment in the Foundation Stage. If there is an accident it will be dealt with appropriately. There is always a ‘First Aider’ available. Please encourage your child to tell us if they are ever hurt. We will inform you of any incidents, especially bumps on the head. It is vital that emergency phone numbers are correct in case we need to contact you. If your child has a toilet accident we will encourage them to clean themselves but will intervene where appropriate with parental permission. We recommend that your child has a spare change of clothes kept at school in case of accidents.

 

Key Workers

Each child is assigned to a Key Worker for the whole year. As the year progresses they will spend time with their key worker in small group activities.

 

Reception Routines

 

8.35 - Doors open for children to enter classrom with parent / carer

8.45 - Parents may leave their child from this point, teaching staff will be present in classrooms.

9am - Register, Date Board, Visual Timetable, Adult Introduction for the learning of the day

9.30 - Free Flow- children to choose independent activities inside and/ or outside plus there is an adult led activity which continues throughout the day

11am - Snack and Circle Time in family groups

11.15 - Phonics

11.45 - Lunch and Playtime

1pm - Adult led input

1.30 - Free flow Free Flow- children to choose independent activities inside and/ or outside plus there is an adult led activity which continues throughout the day

2.30 - Songs/ Story times

3.10 - End of school day- children to be picked up outside Reception classrooms

 

 

NB- Forest School, PE and Teamship Award assembly also take place throughout the week