Reception

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Early Years at Thursfield

Thursfield’s Curriculum for Champions is a concept-driven curriculum, where knowledge and skills are embedded and deepened through progressive and sequential teaching and learning, which is inspiring and engaging to empower all children for future success in Modern British Life.  Within our Early Years, we provide a solid foundation for the curriculum, allowing children to fill up their suitcase before beginning their Thursfield journey with their 'ticket to anywhere'.​

Using our school motto, 'We Care, We Share, We Dare to Dream', we ensure that each of the seven key features of effective practice are met within our Early Years.​

We Care​

We understand that starting school can be a big step for little people. We provide high quality care to ensure that children settle within their new environment. The prime areas of learning are central to our everyday teaching, ensuring that all children are ready to take their next steps towards learning. Our effective practioners provide the best for every child, ensuring that all children are given an equal chance to succeed, regardless of their starting point. We narrow the gap for our disadvantaged children through our high quality care and curriculum. ​

We Share​

We develop strong, respectful partnerships with parents through effective transition, regular communication and high engagement. We use Tapestry, an online journal, to allow both school and home to share and celebrate achievements and learning. We use assessment to understand what each child can do and how we can deepen or extend their learning. We share these successes with parents, governors, and the children.​

We Dare to Dream​

Our carefully planned, ambitious curriculum allows children to build on their knowledge and experiences over time. It is bursting with language, which is consistently modelled and new vocabulary is taught to encourage rich language development. Effective pedagogy is a mix of different approaches, from play to observation to guided learning. We carefully organise an enabling environment which provides a careful balance of high quality play experiences and effective guided learning. As the children progress through Early Years, the need for more guided learning increases which aids their transition to KS1. We promote the development of self-regulation and executive function, allowing regular opportunities for children to focus their thinking, persist and plan ahead.