Archibald First School Having Fun, Achieving excellence
Welcome to our Early Years Foundation Stage
As we are unable to invite families into school as usual we have put together this virtual tour. We hope it gives a flavour of our school and answers some of the questions you may have.
Welcome message from Mrs Turner (Headteacher)
What is the Early Years Foundation Stage?
- It is the stage your child is in until they reach the end of their reception year
- Nursery and reception classes where learning will be active, exciting and accelerated
At Archibald First School we have an Early Years Unit where our Nursery and Reception children learn, grow, explore and play. At all times, six adults facilitate the teaching and learning within the Early Years Unit - three teachers and three Early Years practitioners.
Our Early Years Unit also has six zones; four indoor classrooms and two outdoor spaces. The seven areas of learning from the Early Years Curriculum feature in each of these which ensures the children have plenty of opportunities to experience these areas in their learning and play. To deliver the Early Years Curriculum, we plan activities around the children's interests as this helps to engage them in their learning.
At Archibald, we use a ‘plan, do and review’ approach for play. The children plan where they would like to play, do by playing and at the end of the session review by talking about what they have done. This approach gives the children ownership of their play and raises the profile of the opportunities available within the unit to others.
Communication is a vital element of early education. Not only does it allow learning, it supports the child to feel settled, empowers them to ask for help and enables them to share their understanding. Here at Archibald we use Makaton in our everyday teaching to support all children in their communication.
We use Tapestry as our online learning journey. As this can be accessed from home, it provides parents/carers an insight into their child's day and learning. Furthermore, it is an additional means of communication further building our home and school partnership.
Nursery
At Archibald First School we have a 52 place Nursery which is offered as 2 sessions of 15 hours.
Nursery 1: Monday and Tuesday 8.45am-3.15pm and Wednesday 8.45am-11.30am
Nursery 2: Wednesday 12.30pm – 3.15pm, Thursday and Friday 8.45am – 3.15pm
*Subject to availability, we do offer some 30 hour places.
Each Nursery class has one teacher and one Nursery Nurse with the children at all times.
Every morning, the Nursery children work as their Nursery class whilst during the afternoon sessions the Nursery and Reception children come together to learn through play as an Early Years Unit. The children have access to indoor and outdoor play all day.
With the two Nursery Nurses and a member of lunchtime staff, our Nursery children eat together in the dinner hall before returning to play outdoors in their own enclosed outdoor area.
Reception
At Archibald First School, we have places for 60 Reception children. The children are placed into two Reception classes with 30 children in each, a class teacher and an Early Years practitioner. The two classes plan, play, learn and work together.
Each morning, Reception concentrate on Phonics, Literacy and Mathematics. Teacher led input sessions are followed by continuous learning provision and play activities. In the afternoon Reception and Nursery come together and across the unit work on developing our understanding of the world and expressive arts and design activities.
As with the Nursery, Reception children have access to indoor and outdoor play all day.
Each week, the Reception classes take part in a music, Spanish and PE session. The Reception children also have access to extra-curricular activities such as YogaBugs, Little Rescuers or Multi-skills.
Outdoor Space
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Created by Gem Education © All imagery and content Archibald First School