Welcome to the EYFS
Welcome to the EYFS
Key Person The key person is one of the four commitments of positive relationships in the EYFS. The principle of this commitment is children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and a key person. The role of the key person is to establish a positve relationship with each of their key children. Our aim is for each child to feel special and individually cherished by someone in particular while they are away from home. A key person offers children comfort and reassurance when joining a new environment. Young children need to know that someone in particular keeps them in mind while they are away from their parents. When children know they have someone who gets to know them well and supports them in interacting with others, their confidence and well-being are supported. In the Kindergarten your child’s key person is your initial point of contact for sharing information about your child. Throughout their time in the Kindergarten, children will work closely with the adults in their room and through this develop their relationships beyond the one they have established with their key person. In Pre-Reception and Reception, the key person is the class teacher. All the adults contribute to observing the children and the class teacher is responsible for maintaining assessment records. Reading Reading is a daily occurrence and it takes many forms throughout the day and within the learning environment. Kindergarten Books, reading and the enjoyment of the written word is valued highly throughout the Kindergarten. Each of the rooms has specific book areas that are well stocked with age-appropriate books. Children will look at them on their own, in small groups with or without an adult and in larger groups for story time. The Kindergarten has a small Library in the entrance hall and all children are encouraged to borrow books. These are displayed on a book trolley and there are yellow Library bags for the children to use for the books they borrow.
Pre-Reception The children will choose a book from the classroom to bring home twice a week. Please take this opportunity to talk about their choice of book, the story, predict the ending, talk about characters and pick out familiar words or letters. Please note down in the Home-Link Book any comments that your child makes about the book. The children visit the Library once a week. Daily Phonic sessions focus on general sound discrimination, sound patterns, rhythm and rhyme, hearing sounds within words, re-enacting familiar stories and alliteration. This also develops children’s speaking, listening, understanding and comprehension skills. The class teacher may send home reading books (usually in the Summer Term) once they feel a child is ready for them. This will depend on the child’s phonic knowledge as well as their ability to hear sounds within words and be able to recognise some familiar words. Reception Children in Reception read to an adult in school twice a week and we will send home three reading books a week. Children also participate in shared reading, when the teacher works with the whole class or a group, sometimes using a ‘big book’, to teach strategies and skills needed for reading. Another reading activity is guided reading, when an adult works with a small group of children who all have copies of the same text that they read together. This consolidates a range of reading strategies and develops confidence. The children visit the Library once a week and choose a book to take home. Children are taught to hear and say the sounds (phonemes) that make up different words. They learn about the letters or groups of letters that represent these phonemes and are taught how to use these when reading and writing. Daily phonic sessions take place with the whole class or in half class groups to focus on hearing sounds within words, letter recognition and recall, blending of sounds to read words and segmenting sounds to be able to write words. Individual whiteboards are used during these sessions to aid letter formation and to write words and sentences, again in order to build confidence. Guidance for parents/carers on how to help their child with their reading is given at the front of the Home-Link Book. In addition hand-written notes from staff, describing how reading has progressed on a particular day, help to build a picture of your child’s reading development. Parents/ carers are encouraged to write comments about whether their child enjoyed the story, if they re-read a favourite part, how much of the book was read independently and any comments the child has made about the book. Please initial the comment box when you have read with your child.
The Duckling Room children visit the Infants’ School Library every week.
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