Welcome to the Foundation Stage 

We are delighted to welcome you to our Foundation Stage class and look forward to working with you and your child.

Foundation Stage staff
Mrs Harvey - Foundation Stage Teacher and EYFS lead (currently on maternity leave)

Miss Hey - Foundation Stage Teacher

Mrs. Sutherland - Foundation Stage Teacher

Miss Steel - Foundation Stage Teacher

Miss Boyce - Foundation Stage Practitioner  

Mr. Punio - Foundation Stage Practitioner

Miss Cella - Foundation Stage Practitioner

Miss Byles - Foundation Stage Practitioner

If you have any queries or concerns across the year please contact a member of the Foundation Stage team.

Miss Hey - ashleyh@spmillend.herts.sch.uk

Mrs Sutherland - hannahs@spmillend.herts.sch.uk

Miss Steel - carolines@spmillend.herts.sch.uk

Foundation Stage Vision

For children; pupils who are happy, enthused, curious, safe, have a love of learning. We cater for our diverse demographic by giving all children what they need including a range of experiences, books and vocabulary to develop the breadth and depth of their knowledge. We want our children to leave Early years as well-rounded individuals with an understanding of our school values, SMSC and British values as well as strong social skills and confident in their wellbeing.

For staff; we want our staff to be skilled and confident to carry out our vision through having a passion for Early Years and wanting the best for our pupils. We want our staff to feel confident to have some autonomy to try new ideas and get involved in decisions and planning around the children’s learning and interests. Staff should be knowledgeable about all areas of learning to enable them to push learning forwards ensuring all children make good or better progress. 

For environment; We want our environment to offer a wide range of resources to support the development of cultural capital, awe and wonder and learning opportunities. Our environment is enticing, reflects the various cultures within our community. We have a strong focus on communication so our environment is print rich, interactive, engaged, changes regularly to reflect the children needs and interests as well as promoting independence.       

For standards; We aim to offer the best standards possible in early reading and maths supporting all children to make good or better progress. We have designed our curriculum to ensure we are striving for the best for all children based on their start points through regularly challenging and scaffolding their learning to enable them to be ready for next stage in their education.

Foundation Stage Aims

• To provide an opportunity for children to reinforce skills, reflect and build upon their learning in the classroom.

• To further foster the partnership between home and school for the benefit of your child

• To involve parents (and other adults) in pupils’ work

• To encourage the development of independent study

• To encourage the development of pupils’ organisational skills, self-discipline and confidence

Our expectations

Please note: These expectations will be added and built on throughout the year as and when the children are ready for them. 

• Children are encouraged to find out information, bring in books or objects of interest or a similar related task pertaining to the focus topic being carried out.

• Library  – All the of the children in our Foundation Stage will be bringing home library books on a Friday to be returned the following week on a Wednesday

• F2 (4-5 year olds) - In Autumn 2 your child/children will be bringing a reading book to enjoy at home. 5 – 10 minutes daily practise. This will be sent out on a Friday and to be returned on a Wednesday.

• Tapestry – sharing with you what the children do at school as well as you sharing with us what you do at home together.

• Independence - encouraging the children to do things independently is really important as they move through the school. This includes getting dressed, cutting food, and putting coats and shoes on.

Foundation Stage Learning 

Week beginning - 28th April  

It was lovely to welcome the children back to school after the Easter holidays last week. Our new topic for this half term focuses on growing, seeds, plants and flowers. The children are enjoying our new role play area which is a garden centre full of plants, colourful flowers and gardening equipment. This week we will be learning about all the things that a seed needs to be able to grow into a plant and on Friday the children will be planting their own seeds. 

We are looking forward to seeing those of you we have not yet met with at Parents Evening on Wednesday. Your appointment times remain the same from the previously postponed consultations. If you are unsure of your time slot please login to the Arbor portal where you will be able to view your time. 

Literacy 

We will be exploring the book The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle in our Literacy lessons this week. This is the story of how a tiny seed travels from its parent plant and blows across seas, deserts and mountains, braving many hazards along the way, before finally finding a place to settle and grow into a beautiful flower so that the story can start again.  

Phonics 

F1 will continue working through the foundations for phonics which helps to develop children’s phonological and phonemic awareness through fun, engaging games and nursery rhymes. There are two aspects to Foundations for Phonics: Rhyme time and Tuning into sounds. Rhyme time explores rhyme to build up a bank of shared language, develop children’s understanding of the world and familiarity with the sounds in words. Tuning into sounds teaches phonological and phonemic awareness through games.

F2 - This week the children will be focusing on Phase 4 CVCC words with short vowels.

Please continue to practise phonics sounds and tricky words at home.

Continuous Provision 

Prime areas 

Roleplaying - A garden centre

Sand - Initial letter sound recognition   

Fine motor - Can you put the loom bands on the pinecones?

Gross Motor - Riding bikes, obstacle course, prams, water painting 

Library area - Books all about plants, flowers, growing and gardening

Sharing a story - Responding to and asking questions. Learning new vocabulary related to our core book.

Mark making - Making marks using chalk, rollers and large paintbrushes

Fine motor outdoors - Leaf hole punching  

Playdough - Can you use the resources to create a flower? 

Specific areas 

Writing area - Can you write a list of things you need when planting and growing?  

F1 Writing area - Using stencils to create pictures 

Creative - Learn how to draw a flower using the step by step guide

Painting area - Using different resources to paint a flower 

Water - Water problem solving

Topic table - Can you order the plant cycle from seed to plant? 

Phonics table F2 - Can you use the letters to form the words?

F1 Maths - Can you sequence the pictures? 

Have a lovely week!

The Foundation Stage Team