Our Kindergarten Class (Seahorses) welcomes children from the age of three into a bright and spacious environment filled with an array of indoor and outdoor equipment and toys to appeal to the imagination of all our little students.

Caspian Class share the area with the Kindergarten pupils and the high ratio of staff to pupils allows each pupil to develop at a rate at which they feel successful and challenged. As Miss Butcher, the Reception Teacher, gets to know each of the pupils and their interests, she is able to tailor their rate of learning to suit their educational and development level. This ensures that they find their learning experience both enjoyable and rewarding.

The ‘messy’ room provides imaginative youngsters with the opportunity to create paintings and collages, to experiment with different materials such as shaving foam and play dough and to enjoy the endless entertainment provided by immersing oneself to the shoulder in sand and water!

The large adjacent classroom is equipped with constructional toys, vehicles, roads and tracks of all sizes, a large ‘home corner’ and plenty of books to suit all interests. A broad range of mathematical, language and literacy games are on hand and our experienced Kindergarten Staff, led by Marie Ransome, use these to develop turn taking, language and many other skills in their little charges.

Double French doors lead out into the spacious, soft-surfaced, infant playground. Whenever weather permits, this area is used as an ‘outdoor classroom’ and is populated with a solid wooden train, a ‘sandpit ship’, ride on toys, a climbing frame, a play house and even an elephant!

The ‘quiet room’ is the third room shared by the Kindergarten and Caspian pupils, and it is in here that the slightly more formal learning takes place. Miss Butcher uses this area in which to work with small groups of pupils at the optimum academic level for their stage of development. Children enjoy reading with their teacher, discussing and working with sounds and numbers and listening to stories and songs.

Outline of Work Michaelmas Term 2009

Dear Parents,

The children in Caspian Class have made an excellent start to school and are beginning to become familiar with their new environment and routines. Over this half term we are going to think about ‘Autumn’ and ‘Houses and Homes’ which is a topic from the International Primary Curriculum (IPC).

During these first few weeks the children will learn a great deal about relationships and how to get along with lots of new people. They will be introduced to activities to develop new skills and have opportunities to play alone, alongside and with other children. They will begin to learn about paying attention, concentrating and listening to others.

Our Literacy work will involve us listening to sounds, making sounds and thinking about the sequence of sounds. We will read a variety of books, sing songs and rhymes. We will carryout shared writing together and the children will be encouraged to write to there ability. They will also be involved in activities that encourage the development of their fine motor skills.

The children will be encouraged to choose a book to bring home and share with you. When reading it would be helpful if you could model pointing to the words and if there are not many words on the page encourage your child to point. Talk about the story and the sequence of events. Highlight words that rhyme and try to think of some more. Can they spot any sounds or words they know? Most importantly make it a time that is enjoyable. To keep a record of what you read at home can you please fill in the yellow book in your child’s book bag.

In Numeracy the children will say and use number names in order, count reliably and recognise numbers. In practical activities and discussions they will begin to use the vocabulary involved in addition and subtraction. We will work on finding one more and one less than a number; and relate addition to combining two groups of objects. They will compare the length and height of objects and use the associated vocabulary; and talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns. Finally the children will use their developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve problems.

Topic work will involve the children finding out about different homes around the world and materials used to build houses. They will use a variety of media to make models and create pictures. We will go on a walk through the park to look for signs of Autumn.

The children will need to bring their P.E. kit on a Thursday. They will practise getting changed by themselves so please make sure all of their clothes have their name on.

When the children come into school they should:

• Put their coat and packed lunch, if they have one, on their peg.

• Come to the quiet area and find their name for self-registration.

• Put their snack in their drawer

• Put their water bottle into the box

• Change their book, then put their book bag into the box

When all of these jobs are complete the children can decide on an activity they would like to do independently in any room of the foundation stage. They may also be asked to do a specific activity.

If you have any information, objects or pictures that you feel would be useful for our topic, please send them in or speak to one of us in the Foundation Team about it.

Kind regards

Miss Pauline Butcher and The Foundation Stage Team