Welcome to the class page for Turtles!
This is where you can find out about what we have been learning, our daily routines and see what Turtles is all about.
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The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.
At St. Cedd’s, we use the EYFS 2021 statutory guidance to inform and support our planning (long, medium and short term) and to enhance our assessment procedures. The guidance sets out the early learning goals which the children should achieve by the time they reach the end of the reception year. There are three prime areas (communication and language; physical development; personal, social and emotional development) and four specific areas (literacy; mathematics; understanding the world; expressive arts and design) covered by the early learning goals.
Alongside this, we follow the KinderCorner curriculum which consists of 16 fortnightly themes introduce a wide range of engaging, exciting concepts (e.g. day and night are the result of the earth orbiting the sun). Themes build knowledge and vocabulary essential for successful comprehension in Key Stages 1 and 2.
The day is structured to ensure that children gain the many skills required to be ‘school ready’. They have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills through a range of structured and unstructured ‘Learning Labs’, enabling them to consolidate understanding of concepts and associated vocabulary. Adult-led focused activities and ‘planning in the moment’ are both used to maximise learning. Unstructured Learning Labs enable children to follow their interests.
Phonics
Children begin learning to read at the start of the Reception year with the teaching of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised promotes children’s engagement in learning through: teacher energy and enthusiasm, extensive interaction between teachers and children in lessons, generous praise and encouragement and building on and celebrating success.
Secure, systematic progression in phonics learning ensures children learn:
• all the phonemes of English words
• correct pronunciation of the phonemes
• all commonly occurring grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs)
• the correct formation of all graphemes
• blending for reading
• segmenting for writing
• the sequenced learning of appropriate tricky words.
The programme establishes a clear sequence that enables children to begin to read and write simple words, phrases and sentences as early as possible. Children need to learn to read as quickly as reasonably possible, so they can move from learning to read to reading to learn, giving them access to the treasure house of reading.
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised uses fully decodable reading books for children to practise and apply phonic knowledge. More importantly though, it gives children the vital opportunity to practise the phonic skills they are learning without the distraction of words they have not yet learned to decode.
To be effective, it is essential that decodable books:
• are exactly matched to the phonics progression of the programme
• present only words made up of GPCs learned to that point
• include tricky words only as they are introduced in the programme
• are used exclusively when children are practising reading and not mixed in with books that are not fully decodable at the child’s level.
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised includes application with decodable books as an essential stage of the teaching sequence. Collins Big Cat for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised have devised fully decodable books matched to the programme progression. Regular assessment helps identify those having difficulty very early on. These children are then provided with sufficient additional support to help them keep up.
