What is your name?  Miss Hill.

What class do you teach? I teach Nursery, Reception and Year 1, the Happy Herdies class.

Tell us something about yourself that the children and parents don’t know? I won an international art competition to design a programme cover for an opera company. I also had my artwork featured in their gallery.

What is your favourite children’s book and why? The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright. I love the main character, Kevin, and doing the Australian accent when i read it!!

What is your favourite quote? What’s for you won’t go by you.

Welcome to the Happy Herdies! We are a mixed Year 1, Reception and Nursery class.

We aspire for our learners to be confident, independent and inquisitive. We believe the best way to achieve this for our learners in the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) and Key stage one curriculum is through an engaging and challenging environment where children are supported to learn through play. We understand the power of high-quality interactions in the development of outstanding teaching and learning. Children are given opportunities to develop their own ideas, thoughts and opinions through play indoors and out.

Our Principles

The EYFS applies to children from birth to the end of the Reception year based upon four principles:

  • A Unique Child
  • Positive Relationships
  • Enabling Environments
  • Learning and Development

Characteristics of Effective Learning

The Characteristics of Effective Learning support these four principles and are a key part of our Early Years Curriculum. These are grouped into three categories:

  • Playing and Learning
  • Active Learning
  • Creating and Thinking Critically

The Seven Areas of Learning

There are seven areas of learning in the EYFS.

All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected.

There are three prime areas which are crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning and for helping their capacity to learn:

  • Communication and Language
  • Physical Development
  • Personal, Social and Emotional Development

There are then four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied:

  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Understanding the World
  • Expressive Arts and Design

Tapestry Online Learning Journal
Assessment in the EYFS is carried out through informal observations of the children participating in a range of activities and is recorded through Tapestry – an online learning journal.

Reception Baseline Assessment
Upon entry to Reception, we undertake the Reception Baseline Assessment. The RBA is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s literacy, communication and language and mathematics skills using familiar resources. The assessments are carried out with familiar adults in their everyday environment.

Early Years Foundation Profile
At the end of the Reception year, staff complete the EYFS Profile assessment for each child. The EYFS profile is a statutory assessment of children’s development at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage and is made up of an assessment of the child’s outcomes in relation to the 17 early learning goals (ELGs). It is intended to provide a reliable, valid, and accurate assessment of each child’s development at the end of the EYFS.

Our teachers:
The Happy Herdies are taught by Miss Hill and supported by Miss Fisher our HLTA.

Environment:
We are a free flow setting. Meaning children have the choice to move indoors and outdoors freely, and can be outside in all weathers. Children should come to school with a weather appropriate coat. In summer they can bring sun hats and sun cream. In winter children should have a jumper and warm coat.

Messy Play:
There is a lot of explorative play both inside and outside the classroom. This can lead to uniforms getting dirty and wet. Messy play lends itself to gross and fine motor skill development, and there is no better way of learning about the world around us than by touching it, inhabiting it and shaping it. When outdoors we provide wellies and full waterproof suits for children to wear. A named change of clothes is necessary for your children to remain comfortable whilst at school.

Independence:

We continue to promote independence throughout the school year. In order to support this at home your child should be able to: ask to go to the toilet, begin to or be able to dress and undress themselves, put on and zip up their coat on their own. Ideally children in nursery should be using the potty or toilet trained.

PE:
Our PE days are Monday and Tuesday. Please bring a named PE at the start of each half term.

Guided Practice:

Guided Practice reading sessions will begin week 4 of Reception. Children will read with an adult in school three times a week and focus on the following: decoding (sounding out), prosody (expression) and comprehension (understanding what they’re reading). This book will then go home with children in order to develop their fluency, accuracy and confidence with reading. Celebrate their success and talk about the book together. You can find out more about how to support your child to learn to read at www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk

Water bottles:

Children should bring a bottle with their name on in to school everyday. This should be filled with water.

Snack:

We promote healthy eating at all times at school and provide fresh fruit and milk in the morning.

Show and Tell:

Show and Tell is every Friday afternoon. This is a fantastic opportunity for those that are presenting to develop their: confidence and oracy skills. It supports those children that are in the audience to develop their listening and questioning skills. Anything can be brought in for Show and Tell for example, it may be a special rock found on a walk or a flower grown in the garden.

Communication:

Messages can be sent directly to our class Dojo page. Alternatively we are available to speak to at the end of the day. If you wish to have a meeting to discuss something more in depth please make an appointment at the school office.