The Early Years Curriculum 

Please see our curriculum and information about how Early Years education is structured and developed in the EYFS page of the website. There are lots of key documents on there for you to have a look at our EYFS Curriculum

      DARWEN CLASS

                The town we call home                 

         Meet the Team 

Mrs Brandon - Reception/Year 1 Class Teacher / EYFS Lead

Miss Hayes – 1:1 support

Mrs Riley - 1:1 support

Miss Knowles - 1:1 support 

Mrs Townsend - 1:1 support (Wednesday - Friday)

Autumn 1

This half term our topic is Marvellous Me! We are starting our Reception journey by thinking all about ourselves and what makes each of us special. We will spend time settling into our new routines, making new friends and getting to know our teachers and classroom. The children will be encouraged to share their own experiences, talk about their families and homes, and begin to understand that we are all similar in some ways and different in others.

As part of our topic, we will also be learning about our school community and the important people who help us every day, such as teachers, doctors, firefighters and many more. We will explore the world around us by noticing the changes that autumn brings, looking carefully at the natural world and learning about how the seasons change.

We will also be celebrating special events together and talking about our own celebrations and belongings that are important to us. Through stories, songs, rhymes and creative activities, the children will have lots of opportunities to play, explore and express themselves as they begin their exciting learning adventure in Reception.

Reading 

The children are involved in a lot of different reading activities in school ranging from, the more formal Read, Write, Inc phonics sessions to the more informal story time sessions. They can enjoy books through continuous provision including the class reading corner, and guided reading session. Every child will bring home a school reading book which will be changed regularly. We won’t have set days for hearing specific children read so it is important that every child brings their reading book back to school each day please. Every time they get a new book, it is really important that they are given the opportunity to talk about the story as well as hear or try to read the text as they learn these skills. Please make a comment in their reading record book every time you hear them read (at least three times a week please).

Reading at School

During our topics we look at different books. These are the books we will be reading this half term.

Dogger by Shirley Hughes

Hugless Douglas by David Melling

One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

Ravi’s Roar Tom Percival

Rhincocorn Rules by Matt Carr

Stick Man by Julia Donaldson

Reading at Home

Top tips for reading with your child:

1. Play 'I Spy' games - Can you find words beginning with...?

                                     Can you point to the ...?                                    

                                     What colour is .... coat?                                     

                                     How many ..... can you see?

2. Make it fun - Enjoy reading together. 

                       - Put funny voices on for the characters to keep it engaging. 

3. Create - Use reading to inspire drawings and fantastic creations. 

4. Make space - Have a special time or a certain time that you read together. 

Physical Education

In Early Years the curriculum focuses on children's physical development, teaching and developing the fundamental skills of movement, balance, coordination, flexibility and agility.

P.E lessons are on Wednesday mornings. Please can the children come to school dressed in their P.E. kits on that day. We also ask that black trainers of pumps should be worn on this day. 

Forest School 

We are so lucky to have such extensive grounds at Holy Trinity and the children love their time at Forest School! Forest school is on a Tuesday afternoon, please can the children come to school dressed in clothes they don't mind getting muddy on Forest school days. We also ask that appropriate footwear should be worn on this day, wellies can come in a bag and be changed into on the day. 

At Holy Trinity School, we believe it is important that the learning objectives are taken into the children's play as much as possible, so that they are fully engaged in their learning.

Continuous provision themes are linked to current topics in both our indoor and outdoor classrooms. To ensure that we are providing high quality provision, we ensure that activities are linked with the guidance of Development Matters and reflect the statutory guidelines for EYFS.

They also very much reflect the interests of the children as we feel that this is the best way to keep the children engaged and enjoying the learning that is ongoing throughout each day.

The children will have weekly RE, PSHE, Music, Computing and PE lessons. Please see our curriculum section to explore this further.