Early Years Foundation Stage 

(EYFS)

 

Welcome to Ash Tree Class!

 The class teacher is Miss Crane

with Mrs Looker supporting the children. 

 

Welcome to Fir Tree Class!

The class teacher is Miss Mitchell 

with Miss Allen supporting the children.

 

Mrs McDavitt, Mrs Lobascio and Mr Bush may be in class at different times throughout the week. 

 

Mrs Casey will teach Cookery.

 

 

Autumn 2025

We

 

We wish you all a very warm welcome to the school - and to Ash and Fir Tree Classes. We have been enjoying getting to know the children, who are settling with growing confidence, into their new learning environment. We have a fun and busy half term ahead of us, and we will send out an update each term. We are looking forward to all the exciting activities and adventures in store!

 

Our topic this half term is Our world is a rainbow. In EYFS, we have termly over-arching themes and follow the children’s interests to develop weekly focuses within these.

 

 

 

Reading and Phonics

We follow the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) phonics programme. This is a Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme, which is designed to teach children how to read through the act of decoding and blending. It comprises of daily phonics lessons to teach children the link between the sounds of our language (phonemes) and the written representation of these sounds (graphemes), or the spellings of the sounds contained within the English language.

 

 

 

Writing

·                     We will listen to a variety of fun and stimulating stories, take part in role- play and enjoy practical experiences to stimulate our creative ideas.

·                     We will be learning to form our letters and concentrate on holding our pencils correctly. 

·                     We will practise writing our names.

·                     We will write letters in a variety of mediums e.g., sand, chalk and water.

 

 

Maths

·                     We will count, subitise, match, sort and compare amounts.

·                     We will explore patterns and measuring.

·                     We will represent, compare and explore composition of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and beyond

·                     We will be explore 2D and 3D shapes

 

 

 

General Information

P.E 

 

P.E Days: Monday (Ash), Tuesday (Fir) and Wednesday (both)  

 

·         Please label clearly all P.E kits, uniform, shoes, coats, bags etc.

·         Please encourage your child to be independent in dressing themselves, so that changing for P.E is easier for them.

·         Children cannot do P.E. with earrings in, so please remove them on P.E. days – Local Authority policies do not allow us to remove children’s earrings.

·         Please ensure that your child brings in a bottle of water each day, not juice.

·         The school supplies a piece of fruit every day, but please feel free to provide a piece of fruit in a separate named container (not a lunchbox) for your child, if you wish. This will be eaten at morning break. Please ensure any snack or packed lunch is also nut-free, and grapes are cut in two lengthways. Please bear in mind we are a nut free school and have children in EYFS with severe nut allergies.

 

Reminders

·       Please label clearly all P.E kits, uniform, shoes, coats, bags etc.

·       Please encourage your child to be independent in dressing themselves, so that changing for P.E is easier for them.

·      Children cannot do P.E. with earrings in, so please remove them on P.E. days – Local Authority policies do not allow us to remove children’s earrings.

·      Please ensure that your child brings in a bottle of water each day, not juice.

·   The school supplies a piece of fruit every day, but please feel free to provide a piece of fruit in a separate named container (not a lunchbox) for your child, if you wish. This will be eaten at morning break. Please ensure any snack or packed lunch is also nut-free, and grapes are cut in two lengthways. Please bear in mind we are a nut free school and have children in EYFS with severe nut allergies.

·      Please apply sun cream to your child before school and provide a NAMED sun cream for them to reapply themselves later in the day, if needed.

·       Please provide a NAMED hat.

 

 

Support at home

 

 

Fine motor activities

Fine motor activities are really important to strengthen a child’s fine motor skills, which are vital for strong pencil grip and control.

• Manipulate play doh

• Use of scissors and tweezers

• Building using small/large bricks

• Threading/ Weaving activities

• Practise using a knife and fork

 

 

Reading activities

 

Daily reading is an important part of the children’s home learning; however, this does not have to mean sitting with your child whilst they read to you.  You could:

·              Play Eye Spy

·              Play ‘spot the word/letter’ in a favourite book or a newspaper

·              Use letter cards (or written on pieces of paper) to play snap, or pairs

·              Make up interesting stories with each other

·              Write a shopping list

·              Create silly sentences

·              Snuggle up to enjoy a good bedtime story together

 

Maths activities:

 

You can play simple maths games with your child to practise key skills e.g.

·                     Counting stairs as you climb them, fruit or physical activities

·                     Weighing and comparing weights whilst cooking

·                     Spotting shapes and numbers in the environment

·                     Playing bingo

·                     Playing snap/ card games

 

 

 

With thanks,

Miss Crane and Miss Mitchell