| Teacher | Teaching Assistants |
| Helen Steele | Natalie Williams |
| Emma Latus | |
| Carenza Semmens-Waite | |
| Claire Vickery (on maternity leave) | |
|
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The unit is staffed by specially trained Foundation Stage teacher and support staff and we are very lucky to have two, well-resourced classrooms (Green Room and Blue Room) as well as a covered outside area that can be accessed in all weathers. We have a large garden that is available to the children throughout the day and offers opportunities for nature investigations, sand, digging, water play, building, imaginative play and more!
We are a happy team who love to engage the children in investigating, exploring and developing learning both inside the classroom and out. We believe that it is important that our youngest children are encouraged to learn in an environment that enables them to make choices and to assume responsibility for their learning by following their interests and enthusiasms. The reception age children and nursery children work closely together, supporting each others learning adventures.
The Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework is used to support an integrated approach to the learning, development and care of the children. In FSU the three prime areas of learning are:
We place great emphasis on these three areas as it is important that we ignite our children’s curiosity, encourage their enthusiasms and build their capacity to learn, to form relationships and to thrive.
These three prime areas are strengthened and applied through the four specific areas of:
The children in FSU follow a daily routine which allows adults to plan learning opportunities that best meet the needs of the children and that focus on the basic skills of reading, writing and number work.
Phonics - the teaching of letter sounds to read and to write - is taught daily. Children are explicitly taught the skills of blending (putting the letter sounds together to read words) and of segmenting (separating letter sounds to spell). A short adult led session is taught daily using Read Write Inc resources.
We value parents as partners and emphasise the importance of home and school working together. As well as occasional topic linked home/school projects we would like you to spend 5 - 10mins sharing a book with your child every day.
Summer Term 22
As we move through spring and into summer, we will continue to observe the seasonal changes in the garden and will be spending as much time outdoors as we can! We are looking forward to watching the sunflowers that we planted before Easter, grow and bloom - the new green shoots have already started to appear. We will be planting more flowers, and maybe some vegetables, as the weather gets warmer.
This term we will be exploring Animal and their Habitats - finding out all about the animals that live in the rainforest and the savanna regions of Africa and beyond!
The classrooms will be transformed into different habitats - the green,lush rainforest and the dry,dusty savanna plains! The children will have opportunities to be David Attenborough or Steve Backshall and go on safari or explore the rainforest. They will be learning about conservation and finding out what they can do to help preserve these animal habitats.
We will be using several fiction and non-fiction texts to can gather information and answers to our questions about the animals and plants that live in these habitats.