The Kindergarten Year

Intro to Kindergarten

Kindergarten provides children with a fantastic start to their formal education. Carefully balancing teacher led and child led activities to promote learning with independence and creativity. A ‘whole child' approach ensures children are educated with care and respect. The curriculum is delivered in the six areas of learning;

Knowledge and Understanding (K&U)

Communication, Language and Literacy (CLL)

Mathematical Development (MD)

Physical Development (PD)

Creative Development (CD)

Physical, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)

Many of the activities completed are cross curricular.

For further information, the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum is available to view on the internet or a member of our Foundation Stage Team will be more than happy to give your more information.

Children follow a progressive phonics program to help with reading and spelling. They all have the opportunity to read each day and will take home reading books each evening, those who are learning to read will use alternative resources. Pupils are encouraged to use their phonic knowledge to write in purposeful situations, such as lists for shopping. Children are encouraged to work to and beyond the early learning goals, in all six areas of learning.

Each child is respected as an individual and their needs are differentiated for, this is ascertained by regular observations and informal assessments.

Each term we have a different broad topic, initially starting with British Wildlife. This allows the children to bring a wide range of prior knowledge to their learning, and this is celebrated.

There are many exciting school activities for the children to participate in, such as, Kg Nativity, School Concert, Sport's Day and Carol Singing.

There is a parent's evening at the end of the first term and written reports each term. Informal meetings are available all year round. Kindergarten is a busy class, providing a super environment to facilitate children's learning.

This Term

 May I wish everyone a Happy New Year. This term our topic. is Africa. The children will be encouraged to access their prior knowledge and to consider further areas for learning. We will be accessing all areas of the Foundation Curriculum through this and other means. A constant aim is making the children feel very secure at school and learning how to work cooperatively and collaboratively. The children will begin working through a phonics program as soon as they start and this will be taught in sessions after morning and afternoon registration. This is based on both the Letters and Sounds program as well as Jolly Phonics. The children will be encountering many practical mathematical and language situations. The children will be encouraged to convey meaning through text, both pictorial and written. The children will be encouraged to use their phonic knowledge to help make their own attempt at spelling words. As well as academic focus the children will have lots of time for investigation (developing Knowledge and Understanding), I.T, P.E and park activities.  I am sure this will be a very happy and positive term.

Whilst your child is in Kindergarten they will complete most of their learning with a topic based focus, each topic will last one term.

You may or may not be aware that the Foundation Stage is taught in areas of learning rather than subjects, with knowledge and understanding embedded throughout. The children will be taught and access information in two ways:

Teacher led focused activities

e.g phonics, reading, guided writing, maths

Carefully planned child led activities

e.g through role-play (providing rich opportunities for child led writing and number work, e.g restaurants, shops), oral presentations, research, play

The children will also have the opportunity to have music and IT lessons with specialist teachers, Mrs Barber and Mrs Collins, supported by myself.

The children will have P.E and park activities weekly, and the opportunity of access to large play equipment in the middle playground. The children will be required to have a white P.E kit in school and this should be clearly named.

The children will be heard to read each day and, for children who are not reading books  yet, sound work will be given. May I ask you to sign the reading diary each night and feel free to place any comments.

We have several reading schemes in use within the school, the children are likely to engage with most of these to provide breadth to their learning. At this age reading should be fun and exciting, as much as I will extend the children's learning as they require, may I emphasise not to get over focused on reading levels, particularly in comparison to other children in their class. Every child is individual and will progress well at their own pace. Too much focus on levels can have a detrimental effect on the child's learning. I would suggest that if the children want to read more at home, that the children borrow books from the library or use alternatives to buying scheme books for use at home. A rich text environment is a great catalyst for children's reading enjoyment and development.

The children will undertake a phonics program that is auditory, visual and kinaesthetic, allowing all children to access it at their level. Phonics will be covered daily and continue throughout the pre prep school.

I am placing a strong emphasis on children's emergent writing. This will be supported by the use of phonics, modelling of guided writing, focused handwriting practice, use of labels and word walls and the encouragement of writing for a purpose and not for writing's sake. This strongly encourages children's creativity, enjoyment and interest in writing, (please see handouts for a notion of progression and what to expect to see). You will notice that the emphasis at this stage is about using phonic knowledge to make great attempts at spelling words, this provides the children with confidence in themselves as writers and puts an emphasis on the improvement of meaning , not the continuous correction of errors.

The children have their lunch in the main hall, however they go 15 minutes earlier with pre-school, allowing them time to settle down and start to eat before the rest of the school enters. The children who have come from our pre-school are already used to this routine.

The children will require a snack/piece of tuck each day to eat at playtime. There is a healthy eating ethos promoted in the school, therefore crisps and chocolate are not permitted. The children have a fifteen minute break and therefore may I advise keeping the proportions of tuck relative to the amount of time they have to eat and play.

The children will attend main school assemblies, house assembly and a pre prep school assembly throughout the week.

The children will have the opportunity to enjoy an out of school visit once each term.

There are additional clubs on offer to the children, please take enquiries to the office.

A few important things!

Please name everything clearly, preferably with name labels, rather than pen.

Please remember to have rain macs in the children's bag.

Sunhats to be named and at school.

Tuck/lunch boxes to be named.

All absences to be reported to the office by 9am.

Medicines to be named and taken to the office.

Check the website regularly for information and photos of the children at school (password needed).

Any comments/issues/questions you may have are welcomed, do come and speak to me.

There will be reports each term and an open evening in the autumn term, however I am available for informal chats about the children's work throughout the year (sometimes we may need to arrange a time).

I am sure this is not exhaustive however I hope I have given you some idea and feel for the environment your children will be in. My priority is their happiness and encouraging their confidence within the main school environment, whilst promoting great independence and encouraging a positive learning environment.

Kind regards

Hannah Petersen.