Pre-Nursery

The Foundation Stage Curriculum Summary

What to Expect

The Early Years Foundation Stage was revised by the Department for Education in September 2016 and below highlight two areas of learning:

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

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

We will encourage your child to:

• Learn to share toys and equipment.
• Learn how to value and interact with others.
• Develop independence and confidence.
• Understand the difference between right and wrong.
• Be aware of their own needs/feelings and those of others.
• Learn about the Catholic faith.
• Develop respect for a range of cultures and beliefs.
• Form good relationships with adults and their peers.
• Work as part of a team.

This will be achieved through:

• Circle-time activities
• Games
• Stories
• School worship and celebration
• Religious education topics
• Group and independent work
• Free and structured play

Communication and Language

• We will encourage your child to:
• Interact with others.
• Use language in a variety of situations.
• Listen and respond to stories, poems.
• Use their imagination to role play.
• Speak clearly and with confidence in full sentences.

This will be achieved through:

• Free and structured play Imaginative role-play
• Listening activities
• Story time
• All scaffolded by ECAT (Every Child a Talker) practitioners

Physical Development

We will encourage your child to:

• Move with imagination and in safety
• Be controlled and co-ordinated in their movements
• Use a range of balancing and climbing equipment
• Be aware of space and of others
• Understand how to keep healthy
• Understand what happens to their bodies when they are active
• Handle tools, objects and materials safely

This will be achieved through:

• Mark making and talking about marks
• Activities to improve fine motor control
• Outdoor toys
• Construction toys
• Making models
• Using play-dough
• Games
• Practising basic skills in climbing, balancing, dance and games

Literacy

We will encourage your child to:

• Learn letters by sound and name
• Use phonic knowledge to enhance their reading and writing skills
• Learn to form letters correctly
• Choose books and handle them correctly
• Build up a sight vocabulary of words

This will be achieved through:

• Drawing and colouring
• Books. Games/jigsaws
• Phonics scheme activities
• Guided reading/writing
• Writing in a wide range of situation

Mathematics

We will encourage your child to:

• Use, recognise and write number names
• Count reliably
• Solve mathematical problems
• Develop their mathematical language and skills

This will be achieved through:

• Games/Puzzles
• Practical activities
• Whole class carpet sessions
• Number rhymes
• Describing and devising simple patterns
• Sorting and matching
• Using Mathematical language
• Sand and water play
• Small world/role-play
• Using 2D and 3D shapes
• Using the computer
• Counting, reading, writing and ordering numbers

Understanding the World

We will encourage your child to:

• Use their senses for variety of activities
• Find out about living things, objects and events
• Look at similarities, differences, patterns and change
• Ask questions about how things work
• Find out about technology
• Find out about past and present events
• Identify features in the natural world
• Discuss simple environmental issues
• Know about some features of other cultures

This will be achieved through:

• Investigating materials and objects
• Asking questions
• Gaining information from a range of sources
• Construction toys
• Class/group discussions and practical activities
• Choosing materials and toys
• Sand and water play
• Using computers, such as Beebots, the interactive table, technology in the home corner as well as around the school
• Growing/caring for plants/ Visits/visitors. Nature walks/activities outside

Expressive Arts and Design

We will encourage your child to:

• Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in 2D and 3D
• Sing simple songs from memory
• Recognise sounds and patterns in sounds
• Match movements in music
• Use their imagination in art, music, design, dance and role-play
• Respond, express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings in a variety of ways

This will be achieved through:

• Singing
• Experimenting and performing with instruments
• Imaginative role-play
• Drama
• Responding and listening to different types and styles of music
• Exploring materials e.g. paint, clay, chalk, pastels, pencils, collage and junk modelling
• Observing artists work
• Appreciating and evaluating their work and that of others
• Music and movement sessions
• Producing pictures, models etc. linked to topic work.

Ways to help at home

Routine

Try to establish a routine for school days;

• Wake your child in good time to have breakfast and wash and dress in peace.
• Make time after school to listen to them telling you about what they have been doing.
• Your child will be tired when he/she comes home from school. Please ensure that he/she goes to bed early. If he/she does not get enough sleep he/she will not learn efficiently.
• Speaking and Listening: always use speech as a model for your child’s language skills.

Reading

When parents share books with their children regularly reading becomes a more enjoyable experience and progress in learning to read is enhanced

• Share books as often as possible
• Talk about print you see at home or when you are out
• Let them see you enjoying reading
• Discuss stories, predicting what might happen next
• Share poems and rhymes with your child
• Talk about the cover and pictures in stories. Ask your child to tell their own story using the pictures
• Encourage your child to finish a sentence by pausing at a suitable place, e.g. Humpty Dumpty sat on a …….
• Playing I-spy, – use letter sounds rather than names

Writing/Mark making

Have fun with making marks and discussion about marks

• Chunky pencils/chalk etc. helps to develop motor control.
• Make play dough – develop arm strength
• Use chalk on pavements, outside walls, chalk can be removed by putting water over it.
• If your child is ready to write you could begin by helping them to trace shapes or letters to develop their pencil control. Try writing with a highlighter pen for your child to copy over.
• Encourage your child to hold their pencil correctly – it is better to learn slowly, using the correct technique. If your child alternates the pencil between hands don’t worry as dominance takes time to develop.
• Have lots of paper and writing implements readily available so that they can practise drawing and writing whenever they want to.
• If you choose to teach your child to write his/her name please use a capital for the first letter and lower case thereafter. Once children have formed the habit of writing in capital letters it is very hard to break.

Mathematics

Encourage your child to:

• Learn counting rhymes
• Weigh and mix ingredients for cooking
• Count in different situation e.g. stairs, buttons on coats, people at dinner table etc
• Identify shapes and colours inside and outside your home
• Describe and sort things into sets e.g. big/small, heavy/light, rough/smooth
• Recognise numbers up to 10, then 20
• Gardening (let them help you care for a small section of plants)