As you settle into the start of the school year, you have probably spent time reviewing your provision, thinking about the starting points of your children and how your provision will support the fundamental foundations of learning and the prime areas such as communication and language. Decisions you make about how you organise and arrange...
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Block Play Alongside Small World Resources
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How to Secure Curriculum Progression Right from the Start
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For many years schools have sought ways to create a more linked learning journey for their children as they move between different phases of education; reviewing transition processes, reflecting on what their children really need and adapting practice accordingly. However, with the key message from Ofsted that schools need to fully recognise that their curriculum...
...read moreNurturing Children’s Self-Confidence and Security in the EYFS
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Personal, Social and Emotional Development is, quite rightly, one of the prime areas of learning in the EYFS and, now more than ever, our practice should reflect this. With this in mind, there are a number of key principles that teachers and practitioners can use to create practice with the children’s emotional wellbeing at its...
...read moreThe Classroom Environment – Riot of colour vs Peace and Neutrality
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Just before you reach for yet another brightly coloured roll of paper or border to cover your classroom walls and display boards, stop. Let’s just pause and think for a minute. By beginning displays in this way, what is it that we are adding, what’s the purpose behind our choices? Somewhere along the line, we’ve...
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New to Teaching the EYFS?
Survival Guide Part 1: Getting to Know Everyone
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As an ECT, starting a new teaching job is exciting, and a chance to put into practice so many ideas that you have seen and heard about through training and teaching practices. As you step into your new classroom, your head will be buzzing with lots of plans and ideas and there will be all...
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New to Teaching the EYFS?
Survival Guide Part 2: Establishing Systems & Routines
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In part one of our ECT blog we outlined some of the fundamental relationships that need to be formed and nurtured when working in the EYFS environments. Now, let’s look beyond those relationships and begin to look at some of the other key things you’ll need to consider. As a new teacher, it can be...
...read moreUnlocking the Power and Potential of Block Play
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Visit any Early Years classroom or outdoor area and the resource you are guaranteed to find is blocks. In fact, whenever I’m asked what the first resource on my own wish list would be, it’s always blocks. Whether these be large, small or combined with small world resources to create an inspiring ‘story factory’, block...
...read moreMaximising Learning in The Water Area
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Exploring and experimenting with water is a key fascination of many children – and if you have it available continuously, you may even find that some children go back to it a lot! Should this be a worry? Well, not as much as you think. If you plan your water area well, you’ll ensure that...
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New to Teaching the EYFS?
Survival Guide Part 3: Making Time for Teaching
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In part three of our ECT series, we are going to focus on the role of the adult in the Early Years Foundation Stage. As part of this we will be exploring the balancing act that is teaching in the early years. From whole class teaching and small group work to facilitating and scaffolding a...
...read moreUnderstanding Ofsted Updates: Navigating Changes to the Inspection Process
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Ofsted has recently announced a series of reforms aimed at reducing pressures on teachers and school leaders during school inspections. According to Ofsted, these changes have been implemented in response to feedback from teachers and school leaders and are designed to maintain the rigor and accuracy of inspections while alleviating stress for those involved. As...
...read moreThe Classroom Environment – Setting Up Your New Classroom
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Whether you’re setting up your new classroom for the first time, or changing your existing layout, it is vitally important to get it right. The actions you take and the decisions that you make at this point in the year can have a massive impact for you and your children. Get it right and you’ll...
...read moreExploring Powerful Learning Through Domestic Role Play
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Young children have a natural interest in their own lives and their own circle of experience. They will often seek out opportunities to play imaginatively with familiar contexts, exploring the relationships between key people in their lives and the actions that surround them on a daily basis. This powerful drive to learn about their own...
...read moreTransition to Year 1 – Getting it Right from the Start
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Consider the children currently moving towards the end of their time in Reception. The chances are, you will have a group of children confident in their abilities and secure in their environment, who work with enthusiasm, confidence, and high levels of engagement as they independently select the resources they need, using them creatively and with...
...read moreRepetitive play: is it ok?
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Do you have children in your class who consistently repeat the same actions and behaviours; perhaps moving things from one place to another, putting things into bags or containers and moving them around, or perhaps they are even throwing things? They might well be engaging in schematic play....
...read moreEarly Mathematical Experiences: Playing Games Together
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In our last maths blog, we shared some practical ways to support children to really understand the principles of counting. Jo Berry, EYFS teacher at Thrussington Primary School in Leicestershire shared examples of ways to support one-to-one correspondence and cardinality of number. In this blog, we share some more practical examples from Thrussington Primary School...
...read moreEarly Mathematical Experiences: Getting stuck into counting
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Jo Berry, EYFS teacher at Thrussington Primary School in Leicestershire has explored a wealth of ways to engage young children in mathematics, and in particular, teaching children the principles of counting. In this blog, Jo shares some practical activities using concrete manipulatives that have worked effectively to engage her Reception class in developing those all-important...
...read moreMaximising Learning in Continuous Provision – Domestic Role Play in EYFS
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A Home Corner is the most familiar experience the children can have. It relates directly to their own lives and their interests and is something that all children have in common regardless of their cultural background or previous experience. Every child can recreate experiences they have at home and with careful planning and the support...
...read morePlay-Based Curriculum in KS1
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Do you offer a play-based curriculum in Key Stage 1? Discover an inspiring and informative series of blogs written by Joanna Redfern, Executive Headteacher of All Saints CE Infant and Pre-School and Selston CE Infant and Nursery School in Nottinghamshire. Jo describes how she and her team moved towards a child-centred, play-based curriculum in Key...
...read morePlan, Do, Review in KS1
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In this blog, Joanna Redfern, Executive Headteacher of All Saints CE Infant and Pre-School and Selston CE Infant and Nursery School in Nottinghamshire describes how an effective balance between child and adult led learning was established in KS1 and how adult support is key to the quality of learning when children work with continuous provision...
...read moreDeveloping an Enabling Environment in KS1
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In this blog, Joanna Redfern, Executive Headteacher of All Saints CE Infant and Pre-School and Selston CE Infant and Nursery School in Nottinghamshire writes about how she and her KS1 team defined and developed an enabling environment that built on the EYFS and reflected the demands of the KS1 curriculum. The first challenge was to...
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