“Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high-quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up”.
(Statutory Framework for EYFS, September 2021
We are so pleased to share with you that we have had our existing Early Years Quality Mark renewed in July 2021. A huge thank you to the children, staff and families for all your contributions to renew the basic skills in Early Years award.
Please see the letter below detailing the renewal.
Early Years Foundation Stage at Pleasant Street Primary School
In the Early Years at Pleasant Street Primary School our children are happy. They are excited and motivated to learn through rich and challenging learning experiences; opportunities to explore and take risks, and first-hand experiences.
The curriculum we provide is linked within the following four overriding principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Our early year’s education is based upon:
A Unique Child
At Pleasant Street Primary School we have high ambitions for all our children and recognise that children have different starting points to their learning. We plan according to children’s stage of development so all can thrive and develop. We recognise that children develop in individual ways, at varying rates. Children’s attitudes and dispositions to learning are influenced by feedback from others; we use praise and encouragement, as well as celebration and rewards, to encourage children to develop a positive attitude to learning. We aim for children to be well-rounded individuals who are resilient, responsible, reflective, resourceful and able to reason.
Positive Relationships
At Pleasant Street we recognise that children learn to be strong and independent from secure relationships. We aim to develop caring, respectful, professional relationships with the children and their families.
Enabling Environments
At Pleasant Street we recognise that the environment plays a key role in supporting and extending the children’s development. Through observation and interaction we continuously assess the children’s interests, stages of development and learning needs, and plan challenging, achievable activities and experiences to extend the children’s learning. In this way, assessment and planning forms a continuous cycle to promote children’s well-being, learning and development.
Learning and Development
All areas of Learning and Development are important and interconnected. These areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. The indoor and outdoor learning environments are organised to allow children to explore and learn securely and safely. There are areas where the children can be active, or be quiet and rest. Both Nursery and Reception are set up in learning areas, where children are able to find activities, equipment and resources independently. Provision in these areas includes familiar and continuously accessible activities and resources, as well as activities which are varied and enhanced to fit in with children’s current interests and learning needs. Each day is composed playing and learning through of a balance of teaching, adult-led activities and child-initiated time.
Early Learning Goals
The EYFS curriculum consists of 7 aspects of Educational Programmes, at Pleasant Street Primary School we provide our pupils with the opportunities the meet the Early Learning Goals in all of these aspects.
To find out more about the Early Years Statutory Framework click the link below.
Additional Non Statutory Information can be accessed on the link below.
What to expect in the Early Years Foundation Stage: a guide for parents can be accessed on the link below.
What to expect in the EYFS complete FINAL
Other Useful Documents
Reception have celebrated diversity day this term by reading the story “The same but different too”. Reception discussed with their partners what is the same but different about the characters on the front cover of the story, together we then read the story and discussed with our partners what is the same but different about us in class. Reception then drew and wrote sentences about what is the same about us and somebody else and what is different too.
As we are learning all about spring and the lifecycles of plants we visited Calderstones Park to explore. Reception enjoyed pointing out the different signs of spring such as the blossoms on the trees and the new green leaves. Reception also discussed the lifecycles of plants how they start as a seed and sprout into a seedling and then into an adult plant.
As we walked through the park we visited the pond and fed the ducks some lovely peas.
This week Reception has been celebrating Science week! Reception worked on lots of different activity challenges.
the activities include: exploring an experiment with milk and food colouring to see a reaction.
Reception then created boats to see if their boats float or sink on the water.
Reception were challenged to use anything other than their hands to get the dinosaur to float, so they used stones to get the dinosaur to float to the top.
Reception were asked to build a bridge out of pasta and playdoh to see if it was strong enough to hold the trains.
Reception were challenged to make a rainbow out of blocks and to draw the rainbow.
Reception celebrated world book day by reading the story Little Red Riding Hood this year, we had a fun day with lots of different activities such as role playing the story and sequencing the story in to order, we also made our own little red riding hoods.
Reception was invited to an outdoor learning session at Liverpool John Moores to participate in activities with students training to be teachers, Reception really enjoyed their time thank you LJMU for a fabulous learning session.
In RE Reception have been discussing special people in their lives outside of school, some of the children brought in pictures of people who are special to them, the children gave some lovely reasons to why some of the people were special to them such as ‘because they look after me’ ‘because they show me love’ ‘because they share their money with me’ ‘because they make me laugh’.
Thank you for sharing all your special people with us.
For diversity day this term Reception read the story ‘It’s okay to be different’ which had a positive messages of acceptance and promotes confidence for all. Reception then had a circle time where they all discussed that’s it’s okay to be themselves. Reception then drew and wrote a sentence as to why it’s okay to be something which was then shared in assembly.
Reception enjoyed their school trip to the museum this morning as we investigated the aquarium, we loved looking at all the different sea creatures. Our trip links to our Literacy story ‘The Storm Whale’ and our topic of under the sea that we have learnt about this term.
This week Reception are celebrating mental well-being of children in school, we have enjoyed a lovely assembly from Class 3 on the importance of mental well-being, we then discussed what makes us proud and we drew some pictures of what makes us proud to be in school, what makes us proud at home and what makes us proud to be apart of our family.
In Reception we were read a lovely story ‘Archie’s grand plan’ online by the author Ray Lowthian. Reception then drew a hat for Archie and pretended to be ants and anteaters. Thank you Ray for our lovely story.
In our PE lessons with Mr Lancaster this term Reception have been moving their bodies in different ways such as forward rolls and jumping side to side.
Recently Reception have been using the apparatus and benches to move their bodies and balance using their gross motor skills.
Reception can’t wait for our next PE lesson on Friday!
Before the half term Reception enjoyed exploring maps on the computer and guessing where we lived in the world, Reception then drew their houses on a map to show where they lived.
This term for Spring we explored again different places around the world using the computer, Reception let me know where they wanted to go on google earth and we discovered lots of different countries and places some children have been on holiday to and some places they have never been before. Reception also investigated some atlases.
This term in RE we are exploring special people, last week Reception discussed what is special about themselves through looking at a mirror and expressing why they are special.
This week in Reception we discussed who is special in our class and why they are special? We then created postcards to give to our special friends in class.
Our EYFS garden looked like a Winter Wonderland this morning so we couldn’t resist the opportunity to explore seasonal changes to our environment………… and to have some fun 😀 ❄️ ⛄️
For diversity day this term we have read a lovely story called ‘When sadness comes to call’, we discussed what makes us sad some times and that it’s okay to be sad and be accepting of it. The children drew pictures of what makes them sad.
Thank you to all of the parents who joined us for a Stay and Play session this week. It was great to see so many of you there and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
