Somerhill Pre-School Curriculum Guide

Curriculum Guide 2020/21

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Somerhill Pre-School 2020 2021

CONTENTS 2. WELCOME 2. MEET THE TEAM 3. SETTLING IN, ROUTINES AND TIMETABLE 5. CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE LEARNING 6. EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE CURRICULUM 7. COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE 8. PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 9. PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 10. LITERACY - PHONICS, READING AND HANDWRITING 13. MATHEMATICS 15. UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD 17. EXPRESSIVE ART AND DESIGN 18. OUTDOOR LEARNING 20. REPORTING TO PARENTS 20. LEARNING SUPPORT 21. MEDICAL INFORMATION 22. FOOD 23. THE GOLDEN RULES 24. USEFUL LINKS AND CONTACTS

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

WELCOME Welcome to Somerhill Pre-School where the youngest children in the Somerhill family start their exciting adventures! The purpose of this guide is to give you some insight into the innovative education approach we use to support your child in their learning journey.

Please do not feel you have to read this all at once, however, it will help you understand the language we use when communicating to you about your child and the curriculum we follow.

We work in partnership with you to promote your child’s wellbeing and happiness and are always happy to share information and to hear from you. Happy children are naturally learning and developing through everything they engage in.

Please remember, that children develop at different rates and different times, we never compare children, as they are all unique and we consider their individual needs in our planning.

Between the team we have many years of experience and can usually address any problems or issues successfully in partnership with you. We look forward to working with you!

Amanda McKnight, Headteacher, SPP.

MEET THE TEAM

L-R: Miss Miles, Mrs Herbert, Miss Streeton(Room Leader) , Mrs Palmer (Room Leader) , Mrs Dawes, Mrs Leong, Mrs Cybula, Miss Smith (missing from photo)

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

There are currently two pre-school classes in Somerhill Prep-Prep. There is a Room Leader and a team of Early Year Practitioners in each class. In addition, specialist teachers support, P.E., Woodland and other activities such as Music and Art.

SETTLING IN, ROUTINES AND TIMETABLE The first couple of weeks are a “bedding in” time for the class as we react to the children’s needs and interests. Once the children are settled, we transition to our full timetable of activities. See below an example timetable.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

Children arrive from 8.00am and come straight into their classrooms to be settled by the Room Leaders and the Early Years Practitioners. There is a range of activities on offer for the morning. Children enjoy this early time to build relationships and develop their ability to make their own choices. The registration period is complete by 8.30am. At around 8.40am, we take part in a whole class carpet session where we introduce topics and concepts.

We encourage children to hang up their own coat and self-register by taking a name from above their coat peg and placing it on a picture on the door. Currently, we are washing hands every time we come into the classroom from another area.

During the morning, we engage in adult-led activities and participate in free-flow between the classroom and the outside play area. Sometimes we have PE, Music or Woodland sessions.

At around 10.00 am, we all have snack together and children are supported to make choices such as whether they would like to have water or milk to drink or apple or banana to eat. This is a social occasion and an opportunity for us all to chat.

The afternoon follows a similar format to the morning.

We also offer wrap around care if you need it and our After School Care service is available until 5.45pm Monday to Friday. This is staffed by Somerhill Pre-Prep staff who know the children and ensure that there are lots of activities for them to do.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE LEARNING

The Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) and the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning and development are all interconnected. The ways in which a child engages with other people and their environment, through the CoEL- playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically, underpin learning and development across all areas and support the child to remain an effective and motivated learner.

There are 3 areas of the CoEL 1. Playing and exploring – finding out about the world around them, being curious, using their senses, engaging in open ended activity 2. Playing with what they know – pretending objects are things from own experiences, taking on a role/acting out experiences with others 3. Being willing to have a go – initiating activities, seeking challenge, showing a ‘can do’ attitude, taking a risk, learning by trial and error

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

THE EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE CURRICULULM The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) focuses on active learning – motivation to seek and learn: •

Being involved and concentrating – maintaining focus, high levels of energy/fascination, attention to details

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Keeping trying – persisting when challenges occur, belief that more effort/different approach will pay off, bouncing back after difficulties

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Enjoying achieving what they set out to do – satisfaction with meeting own goals, being proud of HOW they accomplished something NOT just end result and meeting challenges for their own sake rather than external rewards/praise

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Children have their own ideas – finding ways to solve problems/new ways to do things Making links – predicting/testing ideas/developing ideas/cause andeffect Choosing ways to do things – planning how to reach a goal, checking how well the activity is going, changing the strategy if needed, reviewing how well the approach worked

In Pre-School we work with the children to help them develop a growth mindset, by nurturing a belief in themselves and an understanding that although they may not be able to achieve something straight away, their skills and abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. This helps create a love of learning and a resilience that is essential when meeting challenges.

Our approach sits well with CoEL – having a go, seeking challenge, persisting when difficulties occur, finding new ways to do things.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

Prime Areas • • •

Communication and Language Personal, Social and Emotional Development Physical Development

Specific Areas • • • •

Literacy Mathematics Understanding the World Expressive Arts and Design

Rising 3s focus mainly on the three prime areas but will cover the specific areas aswell.

Rising 4s cover all the areas. All age groups integrate the areas holistically through a creative curriculum; they are interlinked, and a lot of play and activities promote development in more than one area of learning.

COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE In the area of communication and language, children are developing listening and communication skills, understanding of spoken language and confidence in their speaking, either one to one, in a small group or in a larger group such as whole class carpet sessions.

They are encouraged to listen to others, taking turns in conversation, and to respect the views of others.

IMAGINARY GAMES

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT This area covers making relationships, both with peers and familiar adults and children’s ability and willingness to help others and take turns.

Self-confidence and self-awareness are promoted through developing children’s independence in the environment, expressing their own preferences and following their own interests.

Managing feelings and behaviour is a big area of development at this stage in a child’s life, they are developing an awareness of their own and others’ feelings and learning to take turns and share, adapting behaviour to different situations and changes in routine.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT We have many ways in which development in this area is encouraged.

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PE – developing gross physical skills by balancing, moving in different ways, becoming aware of our bodies and the effects of exercise

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Outdoor play area – travelling, balancing, sliding, climbing

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Sports morning in Trinity Term

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Health and self-care – talking about a healthy diet, encouraging independence in the toilet and dressing independently– coat, socks,shoes, waterproof trousers, wellies

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Fine motor skills - developing control when using tools and the skills needed for handwriting, cutting, threading, sewing etc. and using tools and implements such as tweezers to pick up small objects

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Mark making resources are always available – clipboards, drywipe boards, paper, pens, pencils, crayons and paints

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

LITERACY – Phonics, Reading and Handwriting We provision our environment both inside and outside to enable children to develop their independent reading and writing skills. Within the EYFS this is known as an Enabling Environment.

Phonics We follow the national Letters and Sounds programme.

Phase 1 – falls largely within the characteristics of effective learning area of learning particularly supporting linking sounds and letters in the order in which they occur in words and sounding letters of the alphabet. The sounds are taught in a discrete order to allow word building at the earliest opportunity. Activities are embedded in a language rich provision throughout.

The children are given opportunities to engage in general sound discrimination such as environmental and instrumental, oral blending and segmenting of words, alliteration and rhyming throughout their timewith us We introduce 2 letter sounds a week.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

Guided Reading and Reading Children have opportunities for looking at books independently, using books from the class book area which are always available for children to select from.

Quiet reading/story time after lunch and individual or shared reading is encouraged.

We read stories at other times during the day including last thing before home time in the afternoon.

Guided reading in small groups will be introduced from the summer term onwards.

Initially, we use books with only pictures and no words and encourage children to look at what is happening and respond to questions until they are ready to move to simple key word texts. This prepares children for when they are ready for books more complicated texts with pictures which they use as visual cues to help with the text.

Once children know enough letter sounds, we introduce sounding and blending of simple cvc (consonant – vowel – consonant) words.

They then move on to simple captions and matching them to the correct picture. Only when children are ready do they start on simple reading books. They are encouraged to track letters and words with finger.

Children develop at very different rates, some will be ready to start reading in Pre-School; however, many of them will not be ready for this until they start in Reception. We recognise that all children are unique and we celebrate their own individual talents, skills and personalities.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

Reading CVC words and captions

Individual Reading

Handwriting and Hemispheres Hemispheres is a programme for teaching handwriting.

The scheme uses farm animals – Harriet the cow, Georgia the Pig and Rupert the sheep to place the letter characters in their spaces on a page Pre-School start with the first 2 modules – developing physical skills for writing and learning the characters and spatial placement of the starting formation shapes Harriet, Georgia and Rupert.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

Once children have developed comfortable, confident grip, flow and pressure, they are ready to begin formation and participate in various activities to encourage correct formation of the starting shapes.

We undertake many fun pre-writing activities to develop the strength and co-ordination needed in the hands and wrists before children can begin to learn to form letters and numbers.

MATHEMATICS The Early Years Foundation Stage has two strands: • •

Numbers Shape, Space and Measure

The Numbers strand encourages children to use number names and language spontaneously in play, to show curiosity about numbers, interest in number problems and to realise that not only objects, but anything can be counted. It mainly focuses on having a broad understanding of, and ability to use, numbers to 10.

Mathematics is taught through practical experiences, learning through doing, gaining understanding and recognition of numbers and how we can use them.

Starting with counting, pointing to each item as we say a number, the last number we say is how many objects in the set.

We also introduce simple adding, taking away and sharing.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

Shape, Space and Measure introduces positional language, 2D and 3D shapes, using shapes appropriately for tasks and recognising them when seen in the environment.

Children are encouraged to order 2 or 3 items by length, height, weight or capacity Children engage in activities such as pouring and talking about full, half, full, empty etc.

Position, comparisons, patterns are developed in our language throughout many different activities, but we also teach specific concepts such as simple repeating patterns.

We work inside and outside e.g. comparing the lengths of sticks in the woods, distance walked, heavy logs, light leaves. Maths is embedded in everything we are doing as well as specific activities.

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Practical hands-on activities

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Counting at every opportunity e.g. snack time, lining up

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Number songs, rhymes and stories

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Planned sessions on mathematical concepts

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Inside and outside

Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD This area covers 3 aspects •

People and Communities

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The World

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Technology

People and communities. This includes talking about ourselves, our families, our wider communities such as church, temple, synagogue, football club, dance class. We share our personal experiences and learn about other cultures, faiths and ways of life, celebrating similarities and differences. We take part in festivals and celebrations including performing our own nativity play at Christmas

We often have visitors into school related to our creative curriculum topics, this may cover People and Communities, such as a visit from the fire brigade or The World with a visit from The Bug Man.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

The world. This covers observing and talking about features of our natural world, developing an understanding of growth, decay and changes over time, and talking about why things happen and how things work. We often take part in national STEM days.

Technology. Children learn that information can be retrieved from computers and they learn to interact with simple age-appropriate software, particularly through use of our Prowise interactive boards or programmable robots.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

EXPRESSIVE ART AND DESIGN This area of development is comprised of two strands • Exploring and using media and materials • Being Imaginative Exploring and using media and materials. This is all about how children explore colour, texture and music in many ways, including construction, collage, painting and joining in with singing and ring games. They begin to understand that they can use lines to enclose a space, and then begin to use these shapes to represent objects.

They build and construct and use tools with purpose.

Being Imaginative. Children develop preferences for forms of expression. They use movement to express their feelings and engage in imaginative role-play based on their experiences. They start to play cooperatively with other children.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

OUTDOOR LEARNING

Outdoor Learning covers all areas of the curriculum. Recently, concerns regarding children ‘losing touch’ with the natural world and preferring computer-based activities have been expressed; however, outdoor learning has been shown to have positive benefits for mental and emotional health which carry over into classroom learning.

We use all areas of our wonderful Somerhill grounds - bug hunting, looking for animal homes, signs of seasonal change, hunts, activities which may be based on a theme, maths, literacy and physical development.

We have a regular outdoor morning but explore the outdoors at other times as well – we are proactive, if the weather is good, we may go out at any time or to support some learning which has taken place etc.

Therefore we ask that waterproof trousers, welly boots and coats, gloves and hats are always in school – we never what the weather might throw at us!

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

REPORTING TO PARENTS

Informal •

Green Contact Book. Please feel free to use this at any time to alert us to any changes to your child's routine or to share information or news with us

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Drop off and pick up chats are unfortunately curtailed at the moment; however, we are always happy to chat via email at any time if you have any concerns or questions about your child's days or development.

Formal •

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Parents’ Consultation Evenings.

These are termly and we are currently using the wonders of the internet to facilitate them, rather than meeting in person.

Written reports in the Michaelmas and Trinity terms Ad-hoc telephone conversation. If you have a concern about your child's development, we can arrange to talk to you at a mutually convenient time Tapestry

Tapestry

This is an online learning journal. You can have more than one parent attached to each child but need separate e-mails to facilitate this. We add photographs and descriptions of various activities that your child has taken part in during the week.

At the end of the week, we send out a weekly resume of our activities and give you a brief insight into the following week’s programme. We would love you to add to your Tapestry journal to include events special to your child and family.

LEARNING SUPPORT Mrs Andi Palmer is our dedicated learning Support Teacher in SPP. Your class teacher is the first point of contact for any concerns. We work in together with you to address any needs that may be identified.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

Some types of interventions may be – Physical for either gross or fine motor skills, Social Stories for behavioural needs, Speech and Language support. Tracking documents are kept to share progress.

MEDICAL INFORMATION We have two school nurses who are on site between 8.30am and 4.30pm, Monday to Friday. If your child is recovering from an illness but is well enough to be in school, the nurses can administer a prescription medicine. You will be asked to complete a Medicines Administration Form.

Changes to Medical Status or Dietary Information.

When you registered your child at Somerhill, you were asked to complete medical and dietary information. Please do remember to share information with us if any existing condition changes or if your child is diagnosed with a new condition, dietary need or allergy by contacting the schoolnurse@somerhill.org and copying in the class teacher.

Calpol, Nurofen & antihistamines are kept at school if required.

If your child is unwell and you are not sure if he/she should be at school, please contact your GP in the first instance.

If your child becomes ill or injured during the day, your classteacher will seek support and advice from the nursing team who may email or telephone you if necessary.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

FOOD We have a varied morning and afternoon snack which may be fruit or a sandwich, scone, cracker etc. with milk or water.

We eat in the main dining hall and have a hot lunch followed by a pudding.

We encourage children to eat a healthy range of food and to use a knife and fork.

We reinforce good table manners and make mealtimes asocial occasion.

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

THE SOMERHILL PRE PREP GOLDEN RULES

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

USEFUL CONTACTS Main School Switchboard: 01732 352124 Absence Line: 01732 375953 or email reception@somerhill.org Accounts: 01732 375950 SPP Late Class: 01732 375954 SPP Head Teacher: Mrs Amanda McKnight amcknight@somerhill.org SPP Deputy Head Teacher and Safeguarding Lead: Mrs Carly Froggatt cfroggatt@somerhill.org USEFUL LINKS Somerhill Website Parent Section Uniform Information School Policies

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Somerhill Pre-School Parent Guide 2021-2022

01732 352 124 www.somerhill.org @SomerhillKent

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