St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary School

ST THOMAS OF CANTERBURY CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL

Headteacher: Mrs Michelle Keating BEd (Hons) Assistant Head: Mr Andrew Booth BSc (Hons)

High Street Tel: 01920 821450 Puckeridge Ware E-Mail: [email protected] Herts SG11 1RZ Website: www.stcanterbury.herts.sch.uk

16th April 2013

EYFS Summer Curriculum Letter

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back! We hope you all had a happy and restful Easter.

EYFS Practitioners Miss Mills EYFS Class teacher Mrs Gore Nursery Nurse Mrs Sweet Teaching Assistant (Every morning and Wednesday all day) Mrs Coles Teaching Assistant / Nursery Nurse (Monday and Friday mornings) Mrs Russell Teaching Assistant (Wednesday afternoons)

Mrs Vaughan-Shaw Volunteer (Thursday mornings) to cook with the children

Early Years Foundation Curriculum Our aim is to make your child’s learning experience exciting and enjoyable through delivering a creative and stimulating curriculum which is based on the skills highlighted in the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. Wherever possible all learning will be linked to a common theme chosen with the children.

This term’s theme is ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ and next half term’s is ‘Growing’. We intend to launch our theme with a bear hunt, when the children will have the opportunity to decorate grizzly bear masks to wear as we pretend to search high and low for a bear! We will also spend some time looking at journeys and emergency vehicles and the children will learn about road safety. The theme will evolve over the half term to reflect the interests of the children.

Area of Nursery (30-50 months) Reception (40-60+ months) Learning Personal, Social  To develop self-confidence and self-esteem. and Emotional  To express needs and feelings in appropriate ways Development  To make relationships.  To work as part of a group or class, taking turns and sharing fairly.  To have an awareness of the boundaries set, and of behavioural expectations in the class.  To develop independence and self-care skills.  To make connections between different parts of their life experience.  Understand that they can expect others to treat their needs, views, cultures and beliefs with respect.  To develop awareness of water safety (swimming) and road safety. Communication  Develop speaking, listening  Develop speaking, listening & attention and Language & attention skills. skills.  Begin to listen to stories with  Learn to follow a story without pictures or increasing attention and props. recall.  Learn to use past, present and future  Learn to distinguish between forms accurately when talking. different sounds in the environment, rhymes, songs and experimenting with instruments and music. Continue to develop fine motor skills through using a range of one handed tools and equipment and manipulate objects with increasing control. Literacy  To enjoy reading and begin  Develop ability to hear rhyme and continue to understand how stories a rhyming string. are structured and to be  To revise all letter sounds/phonics learnt aware of basic story this academic year (the children’s language e.g. story, page, sounds book can be used to reinforce word. this at home).  Ascribe meaning to marks as  Develop ability and understanding of they draw and paint. blending to read and segmenting to spell  Sometimes give meanings to three and four letter words with the sounds marks as they draw and learnt. paint.  Develop the ability to name letters of the  Show an awareness of alphabet. rhyme and alliteration, voice  To enjoy reading, to use story language sounds and oral blending and retell narratives in the correct and segmenting sequence.  To use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and some common irregular words.  To use their phonic knowledge to write sentences and to attempt writing for different purposes e.g. lists, labels, captions Mathematics  Count, order, match and  Count reliably and order numbers from 1 recognise numbers to initially to 20. 10 (and further for children  Be more familiar with numbers to 100. who are ready).  Develop the ability to say which number is  Begin to represent numbers one more or one less than a given number using fingers or marks. to 20 (and further for children who are  Compare two groups of ready). objects, saying when they  Solving practical problems, including have the same number. doubling, halving and sharing.  Solving practical problems.  Addition and subtraction with numbers to  Addition and subtraction with 20 (and further for children who are ready) initially up to 5 objects. by counting on or back to find the answer.  Investigating 2d and 3d  Investigating 2d and 3d shapes and shapes. patterns.  Comparing different  Learn basic vocabulary linked to money lengths/weights. and time.  Develop our understanding of positional language. Understanding the  Begin to understand that because Jesus rose from the dead we experience World (R.E.) Easter joy.  Know the story of Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene when he rose from the dead.  Begin to understand the special gift of joy and peace that Jesus gave to the disciples and can give to us.  Know the story of Jesus going back to his Father in heaven.  Know that we call the Church the family of God and that we can all belong to this family.  Know that a Church building is a holy place where we can all pray and are welcome.  Know that Jesus is present in a special way in the tabernacle and we can visit him.  Know and be thankful that lots of people help to look after the Church for us.  Know why Sunday is a special day for us. Understanding the  To use investigative and explorative skills to solve problems. World  To show an awareness of change, growth and decay.  Talk about things they have observed and ask appropriate questions of others.  Look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change.  Show an interest in the world in which they live, notice differences between features of the local environment.  To develop ICT skills through using a range of ICT equipment including iPads.  Express feelings about a events and talk about why we respond to experiences in different ways..  Strengthen children’s knowledge and understanding of own culture and those of others in the community.  Find out about different occupations and ways of life. Physical  Show an understanding of the need for safety when tackling new challenges Development (swimming).  Handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with increasing control.  Develop an understanding that good practices with regards to eating, exercise, sleeping and hygiene can contribute to good health.  Observe the effects of activity on their bodies.

Physical Develop fine motor skills by holding a Develop fine motor control by using and Development pencil near point between first two holding a pencil effectively to form (Fine Motor fingers and thumb and use it with good letters which are mostly correctly Control) control. formed.

Expressive Arts  Represent own ideas or feelings through design and technology, art, music, and Design dance, role play and stories.  Create constructions, collages, painting and drawings.  To create music and dance.

Class Notices and Reminders

Class Act of Worship  Our Class Act of Worship will be on Friday 3rd May at 9.15 a.m. All family and friends are welcome.

Important Dates  Reception swimming lessons start on Wednesday 17th April.  Nursery will attend one ‘Fun Swim’ session on Wednesday 5th June. Nursery pupils will need to be collected at 12.15pm on this day.

Show and Tell  Every Friday the children will have the opportunity to share some news or bring to school 1 object (to be able to fit in their book bag) to show. It is helpful if your child’s object or news is noted in the home/school diary, particularly nursery.

Magic Moments  We have attached 2 Magic Moments to this letter for you to use if you wish to note down any ‘magic moments’ that happen with your child at home that you would like to share e.g. special occasions – holidays, visits, surprises, birthdays, celebrating achievements in learning – reading, spellings etc. If you need any more Magic Moments please help yourselves to them from our ‘We are proud of…’ display board. Your child’s magic moments will be added to their Learning Journeys.

Homework Nursery Reception  Nursery will have a library book to  Reception will have a library book to share take home to share each week. at home each week. Please comment on your child’s  Reception will continue to have their reading at home in the Sounds Book to reinforce the phonics home/school diary. covered over the academic year.  Nursery will have a story sack,  Reception will have an individual reading nursery rhyme or wordless reading book (usually changed once a week). book every week with pictures to Please comment on your child’s reading at discuss at home. Pupils will have home in the home/school diary. the opportunity to share these in  Reception will continue to have words to class every Monday. learn to spell each week which will be checked every Wednesday and then new words given.  Finally Reception will be given a short, fun Numeracy activity every Friday to reinforce the children’s learning each week. Please can Numeracy homework folders be returned by each Thursday, thank you.

Snack Time  All children in our class are given fresh fruit or vegetables for a healthy snack everyday. This initiative is funded by the government until the end of key stage one.

Water Bottles  The children may bring a fresh water bottle to school everyday, filled with water only, which they can use throughout the day. Water bottles can be purchased from the school office.

Worries or concerns  You are always welcome in the classroom. Please feel free to make an appointment to see us, or if it’s just a brief word then just pop in before or after school.

Miss Mills, Mrs Gore

‘We learn, love, respect and accept our responsibilities through our faith in Jesus Christ’

Archdiocese of Westminster Hertfordshire County Council