Welcome to EYFS!

Here are some of our wonderful members of staff in EYFS:

Miss Hyslop - Caterpillars Class Teacher
Mrs Rayns and Miss Bayliss - Acorns Class Teacher

Teaching Assistants: Ms. Cox and Mrs Smith.

The EYFS is your child's first introduction to school and its fantastic world. At Belton Lane we have created a curriculum that is vibrant, fun and relevant to our children. Each half-term the children are introduced to a new topic through which they will discover and learn in all the areas from literacy and mathematics to expressive arts and the world. Our topics and activities flex to ensure we are able to engage every child in learning opportunities that interest them as a group and as an individual.

The curriculum is play based and the children have plenty opportunity to self-select activities in addition to discreet phonics and maths sessions, adult led activities and whole class learning, story and circle times. 

The classrooms are organised into areas of continuous provision including water, sand, role play, reading, writing, maths, small world, small and large construction, creative and malleable play. These areas of continuous provision are reflected in the outdoor environment which children have access to everyday - whatever the weather!

Assessment is carried out by teachers who carefully observe each child individually and in groups. These assessments inform the teachers planning and provide 'next steps' for every child's learning. Records our kept daily on our online Tapestry journal which every parent has access to and can upload and add to their child's learning journey.

In addition to all these exciting opportunities in school children are taken out of school on a regular basis on local trips. Places such as the park, the shops, Post Office, Belton House, churches and Sherwood Pines to name but a few!

The EYFS Curriculum 

Autumn Term 1 - A Story to Remember
During the children’s first term in their new exciting setting we will introduce the story ‘We’re Going On a Bear Hunt’. We will use learning opportunities to build relationships and settle them into their new school. The children will meet their new teachers and other members of staff in school during learning walks to familiarize them with the school environment. They will make their own class expectations to show how we learn together happily. We will use the term to form a concrete baseline of each individual child in order for us to monitor progress throughout the year. We will also explore the stories ’We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and ‘‘The Gruffalo’ and take them on their first school trip to Sherwood Pines and/or Belton House.  We will introduce Phase 2 phonics using Phonics Bug and other resources. We will hold parent sessions to introduce Tapestry, reading at home and Phase 2 phonics. Parents will also begin to be invited in once a week to join us for story time.

Autumn Term 2 - Once Upon a Time
Through the topic of Once Upon a Time the children will have opportunities to explore a variety of traditional tales and traditional nursery rhymes focusing on 'The Three Little Pigs’, ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’ and ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’. We will be finding out about different materials to make houses and bridges and what kind of homes other people around the world live in. We will be using the Beebots to programme different routes over bridges and to different houses. Before Christmas, we will all be taking part in the Christmas production; learning lines and songs to perform to the parents. The new topic vocabulary will enhance our speaking and understanding of the topics. We will be consolidating Phase 2 phonics by beginning to build simple words and captions around pictures.

Spring Term 1 - The Helpful Patrol
Through this topic of The Helpful Patrol, we will provide our children with opportunities to explore their own knowledge of the world in which they live by looking at the role some people who help us in our community play. On our first day into this topic we will all dress up as a person who help us, providing us with opportunities to talk and listen to others about the job we do in our community and how it helps others. We will then have an immersive experience of being helpers ourselves to Ryder and the Paw Patrol pups by completing a series of challenges that will give the children first-hand experiences of being a helpful person in role. We will also be visiting Imagination Town to give the children to opportunity to put their helpful role play skills in action!

Spring Term 2 - Spring has Sprung!
This term the children will be learning about the season of Spring, through real life experiences and visits. We will have real ‘Living Eggs’ in the classroom so that the children get a first-hand experience of the life cycle; furthering their scientific knowledge. We will explore prepositional language when learning ‘Rosie the Hen’ by Pat Hutchinson using Talk for Writing. The children will consolidate and celebrate their learning with a trip to a farm to live out their new found understandings. Through consolidating their Phase 3 knowledge the children will have opportunity to write purposefully in their classroom environment.

Summer Term 1 - Amazing Adventures
Through this topic of Amazing Adventures, we will take our children on a journey through space and the times the dinosaurs lived developing their scientific, historical and technological knowledge. Our children will have the opportunity to see rockets launching into space, use maths to plan, design and build their own rockets, experience and imagine living amongst dinosaurs and build sets on which to stage their retelling of a dinosaur. Our children will do all this using the new topic related vocabulary that they are exposed to from the outset and hear and develop their speaking and listening skills daily. Their rich learning experiences and exposure to a wide range of topic vocabulary will inspire and enhance their writing and purposeful writing opportunities will give our children reason to practice and consolidate the skills they learn during our high quality phonics lessons.

Summer Term 2 - Magnificent Minibeasts
Through this topic of Magnificent Mini Beasts, we will be developing children’s knowledge and understanding of the natural world and focus on the scientific skills of observations and questioning. We will be going outside with magnifying glasses in hand and looking closely at some of the smallest creatures on earth! We will be finding out about the habitats that different mini beasts prefer to live in and use the knowledge we have gained to design and build ‘bug hotels’ for different mini beasts.  The new topic vocabulary will enhance our speaking and writing and help us describe what we see when we write our mini beast fact files.