At Child’s Hill Primary School in the early years of children’s learning, all teaching and learning is led by your children.

The teacher’s spend considerable time observing your children to ensure that teaching and learning reflects the interests and needs of your children very carefully. From these observations, a range of very creative and exciting topics have evolved. We have enjoyed learning topics such as Superheroes, Transport, Space and Pirates. Within all of these topics that are taught, the children cover the key 7 areas of learning that follow the Early Years Curriculum. These are as follows:

1. Personal, Social and Emotional Development
2. Communication, Language and Literacy
3. Literacy
4. Physical Development
5. Maths
6. Understanding the World
7. Expressive, Arts and Design

Within these 7 areas, many different skills are taught and the children are expected to acquire these skills by the time they leave Reception. 

1. Personal, Social and Emotional

Making Relationships

Children will learn to develop positive and friendly relationships with other children and to be able to resolve conflicts that arise with other children independently. They will learn to talk to other children, sharing their own ideas but also learning to take into account the ideas of others around them. They will become secure with their learning so that they will be confident in explaining their own knowledge and understanding of different topics. 

Self Confidence and Self Awareness

 The children will become confident in their surrounding environment and will learn to select activities and resources by themselves whilst also learning how to ask for help when it is needed. They will gain a sense of responsibility through carrying out small tasks and learning to receive praise for this. Children will become confident and will have developed a good awareness of themselves to enable them to talk to their peers about themselves, their families and their community. 

Managing Feelings and Behaviour

In the Early Years, the children will learn to adopt a range of rules and routines and will develop a strong understanding of what is right and what is wrong. The children will learn to become aware of their own feelings, talking about these but also becoming aware of how their actions or words can impact on the feelings of others. They will learn to become considerate and kind individuals, being able to take turns and share by themselves. When conflicts arise, they will be equipped with the skills to be able to negotiate and solve problems in an appropriate manner.

2. Communication, Language and Literacy

Listening and Attention:

Children will learn to be able to listen to and engage in conversation in small groups. In the Early Years, children will develop a love for stories Children develop a love for stories and will learn to join in with key parts of stories and will be able to talk about the main parts of a story and different characters in the story. Teachers will also work hard with your children to build on and develop- your children’s attention and focusing skills.

Understanding:

Children will learn to understand basic language skills such as prepositions and will learn to respond to simple instructions. They will gain a good understanding of stories and will learn to follow stories even when pictures are not used for support. They will develop their understanding of questions and begin to learn how to answer these. They will also learn to be able to listen to their friends and to be able to respond to others in conversations and discussions. 

Speaking:

Children will learn to retell events that happen, speaking in full sentences.

3. Literacy

Reading:

Children from nursery level begin to develop their awareness of rhythm and rhyme. They will begin to look at books and learn how to handle these appropriately. Children will explore stories in depth, learning to listen to these, talk about these in detail and to recall these. Through this they will build on and develop their use of words and vocabulary. They will over time learn to understand that words carry meaning and that letters make sounds. They will learn to put these sounds together and be able to break them up and from this learn how to read words and in time sentences.

Writing:

Children will understand that marks carry meaning and will learn to give meaning to the marks that they make when they draw and paint. Over time, they will learn their letter sounds and letter names to enable them to break up and put their sounds together as they begin to learn their letter sounds they will begin to write these and begin to give meaning to these. Children will learn to write their names. They will learn to hear sounds in words and to be able to put these sounds together and be able to break them up. With these skills they will then learn to use their sounds to write words and in time simple sentences.

4. Physical Development

Moving and Handling:

Children will experiment with a range of different ways of moving such as running, jumping, rolling, crawling, skipping, sliding and hopping. They will learn to be able to move with awareness of what surrounds them. They will learn to travel around, under, over and through balancing and climbing equipment. They will learn to throw, catch and kick different objects. Children will begin to develop the muscles in their hands and fingers to develop their pencil grip and cutting skills. They will develop a preference for a particular hand, develop their control and begin to form recognisable letters, learning to form these correctly.

Health and Self Care:

Children will develop a good sense of self awareness and will develop their self help skills. They will be able to let adults know when they are hungry and tired and will be aware of their bodily changes. Children will be continent and will be able to use the toilet independently. They will be encouraged to and will learn to dress by themselves e.g. putting their coat on, putting an apron on and dressing themselves in dressing up clothes. They will gain an understanding of how to eat healthily and how to stay healthy. Children will develop an understanding of how to use tools and different equipment safely and will be encouraged to take different risks without adult support.

5. Mathematics

Numbers:

Children will become aware of numbers and numbers that exist in their surrounding environment. They will initially learn to count to 10 and will begin to use number names in their play. They will learn that numbers can be counted as actions and objects. Children will learn how to add objects together and how to take objects away in a practical way. They will be able to find one more and one less from any number up to 20. Children will also work on building up their use of mathematical language e.g. using words such as bigger, smaller, taller, shorter, first, second, third.

Shape, Space and Measure:

Children will be introduced to shapes and will learn to recognise these and also talk about the shapes of everyday objects. They will also begin to use language to describe different shapes. Children will learn about pattern and the about the differences and similarities between different patterns. They will learn to compare these and be able to talk about these. Children will learn to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money and will be able to compare these and solve problems with these.

6. Understanding the World

People and Communities:

Children will learn to talk about and share information about special times in their lives and the lives of their families. They will be able to share information about events that have happened both in the past and the present. Children will learn that we are all very different but also very special in many different ways. Children will learn to develop a respect for the differences between themselves and their friends.

The World:

Children will learn to talk about the differences and similarities between different places, different objects and different living things. Children will spend considerable time outdoors to develop their awareness of this. They will explore activities such as digging and going on nature walks and will learn to talk about animals and plants that they see in their surrounding environment. They will also learn to talk about changes e.g. changes with growth, changes in weather etc.

Technology:

Children will have the opportunity to learn and understand that technology is used everywhere in the world that surrounds us. They will understand that they can use different types of technology for different purposes. They will learn to use a range of technological equipment such as laptops, computers, whiteboards and CD players.

7. Expressive Arts and Design

Exploring and Using Media and Materials:

Children will learn to sing lots of different songs. They will learn to make music and will explore making lots of different sounds, learning how to change these. They will learn how to dance and match movements to music that they hear. In the Early Years they will be given the opportunity to explore a range of different tools, materials, techniques and they will have the opportunity to experiment with colour, design, texture, form and function.

Being Imaginative:

Children will begin to use their knowledge of media and materials to develop original and creative creations. They will use their creativity to develop their own ideas and thoughts through design technology, art, music, dance, imaginary play and storytelling. 

EYFS Phonics 

This term your child will be participating in daily phonics lessons. They will be learning the following over the next term.

Rainbow	Autumn Term
Phonics	The children will learn the following letter sounds: s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u, r, h, b, f/ff, l/ll, ss The children will learn to read simple words that are phonetically decodable:
	a an as                           at if  in is  it	of off on can dad had back and	get big him his not got up mum     put
	The children will also learn to read the tricky words:  the, to, I, no, go, into

EYFS Mathematics 

This term your child will be participating in daily numeracy lessons. They will be learning the following over the next term.

Rainbow	Autumn Term
Numeracy	Children will be learning to count to 20 Children will be learning to recognise common 2D shapes – circle, square, rectangle, triangle Children will be able to recognise their numbers to 10 confidently