Early Years
Our highly trained practitioners provide the curriculum which includes the environment, materials, activities and adults working alongside children to promote growth in their social, intellectual, physical and emotional development.
Children have first-hand experiences where they can explore, create and become more independent in doing things for themselves. The learning environment provides rich opportunities for developing communication skills, investigation and children’s creativity. We ensure that children are able to make choices and provide resources that enable them to initiate their own play and learning, with adults supporting them in following their ideas.
The Characteristics of Effective Learning
Across the areas of learning we place great emphasis on developing children’s independence and thinking skills. We also aim to help your child develop skills and attitudes to become a lifelong learner:
Children will learn through playing and exploring – showing curiosity, pretending, and being willing to “have a go”
They will develop active learning – being involved, concentrating, enjoying challenge and keeping on trying.
They will learn about creating and thinking critically – having their own ideas, making links in their thinking and planning ways to do things.
When your child moves to Reception the teacher will continue to plan to this curriculum. It sets out 7 areas of learning and development.
Links to Building Learning Power
Play and Exploration
Finding out and exploring - Curiosity – ask questions, use imagination, find other ways, see things that fit together
Playing with what they know - Thinking – think about what is known and how it will help them
Being willing to have a go - Don’t worry if you make a mistake
Learning – take turns, listen to each other, work well together, work well alone
Active Learning
Being involved and concentrating - Stickability – good concentration
Keep trying - Stickability – make mistakes; try, try, try again
Enjoy achieving what they set out to do
Learning – take turns, listen to each other, work well together, work well alone
Creating and Thinking Critically
Having their own ideas - Thinking – think about what to do and how to do it, think about what is being learnt, think about what is known and how it will help (application), look and listen carefully.
Making links - Curiosity – ask questions, use imagination, find other ways, see things that fit together
Choosing ways to do things - Thinking – think about what you know
Learning – take turns, listen to each other, work well together, work well alone
Principles into Practice
The curriculum and provision at Bluecoat C of E Primary School in the Early Years/Chapter One is based upon these 4 principles which we firmly believe in and therefore implement as we strive for the best possible practice. We continually review our practice, conduct research and explore the research of others to ensure our children have the best possible provision as they continue their learning journey. Holding firm to these 4 principles ensures that we have clear vision and guidance when considering new ideas and research, staying at the forefront of exceptional early years provision without becoming overloaded or losing sight of practice we know to be effective and essential for the well-rounded development and learning of the whole, unique child.
Seven Features of Effective Practice
These have been further broken down as follows for effective practice:
The best for every child
High-quality care
The curriculum - what we want children to learn
Pedagogy - helping children learn
Assessment - checking what children have learnt
Self-regulation and executive function
Partnership with parents
Prime Areas
Personal, Social & Emotional Development
| SELF-REGULATION | MANAGING SELF | BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS |
Having respect for other people
Forming positive relationships
Having confidence in your own abilities
Being an individual and belonging to a community
Becoming able to express and manage your feelings
Becoming independent and helping others
Having feelings of wonder and joy
Sharing and celebrating special times and events
Discovering more about self regulation
Physical Development
| GROSS MOTOR SKILLS | FINE MOTOR SKILLS |
Developing co-ordination, control and movement
Building stamina and strength
Learning to move in various ways
Manipulating tools and materials
Making healthy choices with food and exercise
Communication and Language
| LISTENING, ATTENTION & UNDERSTANDING | SPEAKING |
Developing confidence and skills in expressing yourself
Talking, listening, discussing and recalling
Play in a rich language environment to develop vocabulary
Talking With Your ChildrenSpecific Areas
Literacy
| COMPREHENSION | WORD READING | WRITING |
Enjoying stories – telling them and making them up
Comprehending and understanding stories - including language comprehension
Enjoying books
Enjoying and noticing patterns in rhymes, poems, songs and word play
Making marks which carry meaning, pre-writing shapes and letter shapes using the Bluecoat Script
Writing for different purposes
Decoding to read (segmenting and blending)
Segmenting to spell
Maths
| NUMBER | NUMERICAL PATTERNS |
Understanding and using numbers
Counting, sorting, matching, seeking patterns (including numerical patterns), recognising relationships
Noticing connections
Making simple calculations
Exploring and comparing shapes, quantities, weight etc
Finding ways to solve mathematical problems
Using maths language
Representing mathematical ideas in pictures and drawings as well as with symbols and numbers
Understanding the World
| PAST & PRESENT | PEOPLE CULTURE & COMMUNITIES | THE NATURAL WORLD |
Finding out about people, culture, communities, places, technology and the environment
Observing closely the surrounding world and processes
Finding out about the past and present
Exploring, experimenting and having ideas
Experiencing and changing materials
Finding out and experiencing the natural world
Expressive Arts and Design
| CREATING WITH MATERIALS | BEING IMAGINATIVE & EXPRESSIVE |
Representing and communicating your ideas through music, dance, art, role play, imagination, language
Having original ideas and thoughts
Imagining and creating
Planning, making and designing things
Being imaginative and expressive
Self Regulation
At Bluecoat we know the importance of self regulation. As a team of teachers and researchers, we have thought carefully about how to support children in managing these skills. This involves ‘in the moment’ teaching when situations arise and also specific skills teaching at other calmer times.
To support children, and to create a consistent approach, we have developed a number characters to use when talking to children about self regulation, calming and coping strategies.
Self regulation Parent Carer booklet.pdfTo find out more about the characters and ways in which you can support your children at home, please see the above file.
Useful Links
Talking With Your Children