Prime Areas
Personal, Social and Emotional Development involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities.
Communication and Language Development involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations.
Physical Development involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.
For more information on The Early Years Framework go to EYFS Statutory Framework and Developmental Matters.
Nursery Curriculum Overview
Reception Curriculum Overview
Reading
At St Edward’s Academy we place high importance on reading and having the support from home makes your child’s learning journey even more significant. Please encourage children to read as often as possible at home using the online Boom Reader app.
Phonics
Our classes follow the Systematic Synthetic Phonic scheme ‘Essential Letters and Sounds’ (ELS) from September 2022. We had been previously following ‘Letters and Sounds’, and after research, ELS allowed for the most natural transition when adopting a new phonics scheme.
The teaching of Phase 2,3,4 and most of 5 are taught in Reception and Phase 5 and ‘beyond’ are taught in Year 1.
This scheme teaches four new sounds a week and has a fifth day dedicated to revisit and review, and applying reading skills by reading decodable books in class.
There is a big focus on: say the word, stretch the word, segment the word, blend the word, count the sounds in the word and say the whole word.
We are confident that this new scheme will build all the necessary skills for reading and writing that the children will need.
ELS Parent Presentation
ELS Information for Parents
For resources and games to support phonics , have a look at
Phase 2 and 3 flashcards
Phase 5 flashcards
YouTube clip of pronunciation of pure sounds
phonicsplay.co.uk
Specific Areas
Literacy Development (Reading and Writing) involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest.
Mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures.
Understanding the World involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.
Expressive Arts and Design involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology.
Handwriting
In school the style of handwriting is first taught through our phonics scheme Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) by following the rhymes to help with the letter formation. Print is then continued in Year 1, ensuring that all letters are formed correctly. In Year 2, the children start to learn their joins. The aim is for most of the children to be writing in a fully cursive style as they enter Year 3.
For resources to help with handwriting go to teachhandwriting.co.uk
High frequency Spelling Words
Religious Education
Information on our Religious Education Curriculum
Supporting learning at home
Early years apps to support learning at home
