Early Years
In their reception year at Brookhurst Primary School your child will complete the final year of the Foundation Stage Curriculum.
At our school we aim to develop your child both academically and socially.
Children’s love of play and their individual interests will help them achieve and will stimulate their enthusiasm for learning.
Children learn through integrated activities in the following seven main areas:
- Personal, Social and Emotional development
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
These seven areas provide the basis for the National Curriculum subjects from Year 1.
At Brookhurst Primary we believe that our youngest children will learn most effectively within the context of a well-organised play environment where their interests are acknowledged and their needs supported by skilful adults who understand the complex relationships between learning and teaching.
Our Foundation environment is set up in such a way as to enable effective learning to take place in a variety of ways:
- Our children feel secure within their area which enables them to become confident learners
- Children are given time to explore ideas and interests in depth
- Children are able to initiate activities that promote learning and enable them to learn from one another
- Children learn through the opportunity of indoor and outdoor movement and the development of their senses
- We introduce creative and imaginative activities to stimulate and promote the development and use of language
- Our Foundation curriculum is delivered through 3 different strategically planned strands.
- Continuous provision – where the curriculum is accessed through a high quality indoor and outdoor learning environment
- Enhanced provision – where the curriculum is enriched through interactive displays, resource stimulus, visits and visitors
- Directed activities – where the curriculum is accessed through focussed discussion and group activities
The members of school staff in the foundation stage are all skilled in the selection of appropriate techniques to facilitate learning, during:
- Continuous provision – the adults will be engaged in playing alongside the children to observe and identify interest/learning, sensitive interaction and supportive intervention involving conversation, role-modelling, responding to and suggesting ideas, making links to previous experiences, wondering out loud, asking questions etc.
- Enhanced provision – this is a time for adults to introduce new ideas and resources, role model, set a clear framework for children to use and provide time for exploration
- Directed activities – during this time the adults will be leading the discussion, shaping the children’s ideas, listening and responding to the children, directly teaching new concepts, skills or knowledge
We hope that, by being engaged in these activities, our children’s learning will be developed and challenged and that the use of their imagination will be excited and strengthened. We hope that our children will really enjoy learning about different things in many different ways.
We look forward to welcoming you to our Foundation Unit so that you can see for yourself what the above looks like in reality and practice.