Welcome to the EYFS
Welcome to the EYFS
Specialist Teaching in Nursery and Reception At DUCKS we are fortunate to have a number of specialist teachers for PE, Music and Modern Foreign Languages. The Infants’ School has a Learning Support Co-ordinator, providing specialised individual and small group lessons. This role also covers English as an Additional Language (EAL). In addition we have a part time specialist teacher who also works with individuals and groups, focusing on Literacy skills. Forest School Each child in DUCKS will visit our Forest School regularly where our fully trained practitioners nurture child led exploration and discovery. Forest School ethos further expands our aim to nurture a culture based on collaboration where children embrace challenges that lead to development of resilience and empathy, alongside a greater connection with nature. Forest school aims to promote the holistic development of all learners involved, encouraging independence, resilience, confidence and creativity in learning. The sessions aim to develop cognitive, social, emotional, physical, linguistic and spiritual aspects of learning and development. These can happen through small achievable tasks that can be scaffolded by the forest school leader allowing individuals to succeed and personalities, experiences, imaginations and creativity to flourish. Modern Foreign Language At DUCKS our aim is to create a good foundation of how to listen to and speak modern foreign languages and to teach the initial skills for language learning through French lessons. We aim to encourage children to approach learning new languages and explore different cultures with interest and enthusiasm. The emphasis is on the spoken word and activities include singing, games, role-play and stories. Music Children are encouraged to participate in various activities including singing, listening, composition and performance involving lots of hands- on experience with a range of percussion instruments. Reception children have the opportunity to take up individual piano and violin lessons during the day with one of our peripatetic music teachers. Details of how to take up these lessons will be explained at the Early Years Curriculum Evening. PE Indoor and outdoor space is used to enable children to explore their physical skills and aid assessment of their physical development and progress. Small group gymnastics go hand in hand with initial dance objectives, and the children explore travelling across the floor and along low level benches. This enables the children to transition on to larger apparatus as they learn to travel high, low, through, around, under and over. Outdoor disciplines introduce the children to developing the skills for catching or propelling an object using hands or when kicking with feet. Most importantly, children are encouraged to communicate positively with adults and each other and to foster the concept of team work, which is developed further in KS1.
Settling In We support parents/carers to help settle their children into school quickly and easily by giving consideration to any individual needs and circumstances. Some children settle very quickly, others may take a little longer and we are guided in our procedures entirely by the response of each individual child. Please feel free to talk to your child’s key person about how they are settling in. DUCKS staff will work in partnership with parents/carers to settle their child into the DUCKS environment by: • reassuring parents/carers whose children seem to be taking a long time settling into the Kindergarten or Early Years • discussing with parents/carers the benefit of shorter sessions for a longer period of time in addition to the settling in period, should their child be finding it difficult to settle • encouraging parents/carers, where appropriate, to separate themselves in a supportive manner, helping the child to start their day positively • respecting the circumstances of all families and reassuring them of their child’s progress towards settling in Home Visits Home visits are an extension of our well established key person system. The aim of the home visit is to establish this relationship with your child in a comfortable, secure environment. We offer home visits to all children joining DUCKS in the EYFS. We hope that by visiting you in your home and seeing you in familiar surroundings we will be able to build trust and confidence between you and DUCKS. We, as practitioners, will gain an insight into your child’s life and learn about the things that are important to them. When we visit, we will bring a booklet for your child and a camera, in the hope you are happy for us to take photographs. You should already have received an email about how to arrange a home visit from either the Kindergarten or the Infants’ School. Comforters We know that some children have comforters that are special to them and we welcome these in the Kindergarten. These transitional objects can help to support settling in and provide a great comfort for children when they are coming to DUCKS for the first time. They represent a little piece of home that they bring with them. Swimming During the Summer Term, Reception children begin weekly swimming lessons which take place in the pool at Dulwich College. There are always three swimming teachers in the pool alongside the children and the classroom teacher or teaching assistant are on the poolside.
42
41
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker