Hello and welcome to Saplings Class!

Our class is made up of Nursery, Reception, Year One and Year Two children (EYFS and KS1 children).  Our children love to learn and explore in a range of adult-led and self chosen activities. 

The teacher in our class is called Mrs Whyte, and the teaching assistants that help us learn are called Mrs Austin, Mrs James, Mrs Reynolds and Mrs Locke.

Our environment and ethos is inspired by The Curiosity Approach and we are working to achieve our accreditation over the next 12 months.  We actively encourage the children to lead their own learning by activating their curiosity, awe and wonder through the environment we offer and the enhancements to the continuous provision.  The children have the chance to build on the adult led teaching elements to consolidate their understanding. 

Our classroom provision has moved away from plastic items so you will see real authentic materials and many different types of 'loose parts' in our setting which enable the children to explore beyond the adult led teaching moments throughout the day.

We enjoy learning in our outside environment every day particularly if it involves water exploration, the mud kitchen, sand and construction areas.  The opportunity to paint at various heights outside is proving popular too. We have a Forest School afternoon each fortnight in our very own eco garden on site, which we often use for science lessons through the week as well.  In addition our Nursery children will have the opportunity to have a weekly morning Forest School session from September. 

We actively encourage the children to develop independence in their 'thinking' and their 'doing' by offering them the opportunity of responsibility such as making their own toast on Toast Tuesday, such activities also build's their confidence and communication skills. 

In our class children are writers, mathematicians, scientists, explorers, designers, artists, musicians and more!  

We love working together and sharing our successes. 

Our literacy curriculum is inspired by the work of Greg Bottrill and his brilliant drawing club.  Drawing Club has enabled all age groups to access new books and vocabulary each week.  The children are actively encouraged to use their imagination.... to think beyond the story itself.  The Nursery children get to share their ideas, The Reception children are supported to develop their drawing and early writing skills.  Whilst KS1 children apply their phonics and grammar knowledge in their writing to expand their ideas. 

Our KS1 children have access to continuous provision in the same way that Nursery and Reception children do.  This provides the children with opportunities to consolidate and apply their learning through play.  Our expectations of the children continue to be high, but with small classes we are able to support the children to stretch and challenge themselves individually in their learning. 

Our parents share in our learning through the Tapestry Learning Journey, where our teachers share photos and notes about what we have been learning and experiencing through the week.  On Tuesday afternoons we give the children the opportunity to share photographs of their activities outside of school.  It's 'Show and Tell@ but on the big screen! Parents and Carers are welcome to upload pictures to Tapestry of weekend activities, swimming lesson achievements or their family pet - whatever the children would like to share with their class friends.  The 'Talking Spoon' makes and appearance and the children get to lead the discussion on their chosen subject. 

If you would like to know more or have a tour of our setting, please do get in touch via the school office.

To effectively teach our childen to read we use the validated phonics scheme Little Wandle. Below you will find some videos that will help you to support your child.

Please use the videos below to help you support your child's phonics.