The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. It involves providing opportunities to speak and listen in a range of situations and develop their confidence and skill in expressing themselves.
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Children’s personal, social and emotional development is crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives. It involves helping the children to develop a positive sense of themselves and others and to have confidence in their own abilities. The children are encouraged to play cooperatively, learning how to share and take turns. It would be hoped that during this year they form good relationships with other children and adults.
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Physical activity is vital in children’s all-round development, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives. This involves providing opportunities for the children to be active and interactive and to develop their coordination, control and movement. In Foundation 1 we help the children to understand the importance of physical activity and to make healthy choices in relation to food.
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Comprehension and word reading – The children regularly listen to and join in with stories and rhymes. They are encouraged to look at books independently and to describe the main story settings, events and principal characters. In this year it would be expected that most children would learn to recognise their name and be aware of letters in signs and labels etc.
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Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. By the end of the year, many children will be able to recognise and write numbers to 10. They will be able to subitize to 5, count reliably up to 10, find the total number of objects and begin to have an awareness of numbers in everyday life. The children will be able to name some shapes and use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position and length.

This involves guiding the children to make sense of their physical world and their community. Throughout their time in our Foundation Stage the children are encouraged to show interest in the world around them, to talk about the things they observe and show care and concern for living things and the environment. The children are encouraged to talk about the things that make us unique and be aware of some of the similarities and differences in relation to other children and family members.

The development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. This involves supporting children to explore and play with a range of media and materials – art, music, movement, dance and role play. Over the year the children will learn simple songs and can explore and learn how to make and change sounds using a variety of musical instruments.
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The real focus is developing the children ́s speech, vocabulary and understanding in English. They need to understand the importance of listening, be able to ask questions and give their ideas. There is a huge emphasis on stories – listening to, discussing, answering questions and using new vocabulary.

We teach the children Phonics through Read Write Inc which is continued into our Primary Department.
This helps children to read and spell simple words phonetically.

We use the White Rose Maths scheme as our basic scheme. The children will be involved in counting to 10, then 20, and by the Summer term we look at numbers to 100. By the end of the year the children should be able to read, write, order and use numbers to 20. There is a strong emphasis on practical maths so not necessarily any paperwork to show!
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We want our children to be independent little learners. They should be able to select and use resources and activities independently and carry out many activities away from the teachers ́ help. We need to learn how to concentrate on our given  ́jobs ́ and to persevere even when things are difficult!
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We cover a range of topics throughout the year. These enable children to learn a little of the world around them, to ask questions and find out how things work, find out about the past and present and chat about what they know and have learned. However, we also take on board the children ́s interests so many more areas may be covered!
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The children are involved in a Christmas show, but we try to do extra little performances throughout the year. They will learn a large number of songs! In their weekly music lessons they are also shown how to use percussion instruments and explore pitch (high and low), rhythm and dynamics (loud and quiet).
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Fine motor skills are developed through drawing, cutting and small construction activities. Large scale movements are developed through:

• Dance – listening to instructions and music and responding accordingly
• Gymnastics – travelling in different ways showing an awareness of space and safety
• Outside PE – either using bats, balls and developing throwing and catching skills or
  participating in team games

The children have two lessons per week, grouped according to their ability/understanding of Spanish. We feel it is important for the children to be able to communicate with others, however simply. These lessons will help the children become familiar with the Spanish language at an early age.

Reading – If your child has a little packet of words / pictures/ activities please try to go through them every night – only for 5 or 10 minutes to help your child remember the new vocabulary. Reading books should also be shared at least twice a week to help fluency and understanding.
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