How we organise our day in Little Cypress
In Little Cypress, our aim is to nurture our children and ensure that they are happy, healthy, stimulated and encouraged to develop to the best of their ability. We know that children’s learning is not linear and that we are a continuation of everything that has gone on before – parents and carers being the children’s first and most enduring educators. Children are encouraged to access the outside area throughout the day, whatever the weather. As we say in the Early Years: “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing!”
Children can arrive from 7.30am if they are attending Breakfast Club, or 9.00am if they are not. The children will attend for the morning if they have allocated a morning Rainbow Class place, a Gold Class place or a full-time place. The children who attend mornings only will go home at 12.00 noon. Full-time children stay until 3.15pm. Children staying for After School Care can stay us with until 6.00pm.
A typical day in Little Cypress might look like this:
9.00am Children arrive and self-register (adults will also greet the children and take the register and check who is staying for lunch)
9.00-10.15am Free-flow access to the outside and children are free to explore the whole of Little Cypress. Adults will work with the children 1:1 for their keyworker time (reading and working on individual targets) and doing some focus tasks in small groups. These might include art activities, early writing, number and shape work, name writing, speech and language work, nurture groups, turn taking groups and so on. Adults will also work alongside the children to support their personal and social development, their language skills and to work on each child’s unique interests. This is known as ‘in the moment’ planning. We observe where the children are and how we can support them in developing their skills by careful modelling, scaffolding, nurturing and scaffolding.
10.15am Group Carpet Time – story reading, discussions, early phonics, singing, number rhymes and counting
10.30am Drinks and Snack (Water, milk and fruit for Gold and Silver Classes and water, milk and healthy snack selection for Rainbow Class)
10.45am ‘Free-flow’ learning opportunities – continuous provision inside and outside
11.25am Full time children go to lunch in the main school hall/outside learning for part-time morning children
11.50am Gold Class and Rainbow Class morning only children – Carpet Time
12.00 noon Morning children go home
12.15pm Outside play for all children
12.30pm Free-flow access to the outside and children are free to explore the whole of Little Cypress. Adults will work with the children 1:1 for their keyworker time (reading and working on individual targets) and doing some focus tasks in small groups. These might include art activities, early writing, number and shape work, name writing, speech and language work, nurture groups, turn taking groups and so on
12.30pm onwards – some of Rainbow children will have a nap. When the children have woken up, healthy afternoon snack time
1.30pm Group Carpet Time (Nursery) – story reading, discussions, sharing news, early phonics (Foundations for Phonics – Little Wandle), singing, number rhymes and counting
1.45pm Free-flow learning opportunities
3.05-3.15pm Home time for full-time children if not going to After School Care (doors open from 3.05pm for a staggered dismissal)
6.00pm After School Care closes
Our day is flexible and timings will change depending on learning opportunities that arise, the interests of the children, visits to our on-site Forest School or Adventure Playground and so on
How we organise our learning at Little Cypress
Children learning and developing to the best of the their potential is at the heart of everything we do in Little Cypress. We understand that children are individuals and come to us with their own interests, strengths and personalities. We aim to nurture all our children and ensure that the foundations of their educational journey are solid. We recognise that each child is unique and learns in a complex way and our experienced staff will observe each child closely and see the best way to take their learning forward.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage (‘EYFS’ – Nursery and Reception classes), practitioners follow the Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage, a document which sets the standard for learning, development and care for children from birth to five. There are seven Areas of Learning which are followed, all of which have equal weighting in terms of their importance. These are sub-divided in to different aspects (in brackets below):
The Prime Areas:
- Communication and Language Development (Listening, Attention & Understanding; Speaking)
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development (Self-regulation; Managing Self; Building Relationships)
- Physical Development (Gross Motor Skills; Fine Motor Skills)
Specific Areas:
- Literacy (Comprehension; Word Reading; Writing)
- Mathematics (Number; Numerical Patterns)
- Understanding the World (Past and Present; People, Culture & Communities; The Natural World)
- Expressive Arts and Design (Creating with Materials; Being Imaginative & Expressive)
Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) are an important element in the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (EYFS). A child’s individual learning characteristic will determine the way they respond to both the teaching and learning taking place in the environment. Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning identified by the EYFS are:
- Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;
- Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements; and
- Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
The focus of the CoEL is on how children learn rather than what they learn i.e. process over outcome. Underpinning the CoEL is the understanding that during their earliest years, children form attitudes about learning that will last a lifetime. Children who receive the right sort of support and encouragement during these years will be creative, and adventurous learners throughout their lives. Children who do not receive this sort of support and interaction may have a very different, and perhaps less positive, attitude about learning later on in life.
The staff in Little Cypress plan the learning carefully, ensuring that all the seven Areas of Learning are covered both inside and outside in terms of what opportunities are offered. Activities are altered or changed according to the interests of the children.
Children are able to work in small or large groups and will also have dedicated 1:1 time over the week with their named Keyworker. This Keyworker is the first port of call for parental queries regarding their child and we hope that a mutually beneficial relationship and dialogue will evolve between parents/carers, both in person and through the reading diaries, where individual targets will be set out for each child and changed or adapted within three weeks. These targets are fine tuned to cater to the interests of each child, so they each have some autonomy over their learning.
Foundations for Phonics
In Nursery, we use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme, which runs throughout the school. This is a highly structured and systematic way to teach children to read.
In Nursery, much of the foundations of phonics comes through teaching children to tune in to sounds in the environment, as well as focusing on Nursery Rhymes. Click here to learn more.
Why are Nursery Rhymes so important? Click here to find out more…
How we keep parents informed at Little Cypress
At Little Cypress we appreciate the vital role that parents/carers play in their child’s learning journey. As the first and most enduring educator, parents/carers know their child the best and as practitioners, we value your input in to each child’s learning and development.
We have daily conversations with parents/carers at drop-off and collection and most day-to-day feedback or any issues arising that day would be discussed in this informal manner. Each child has a reading diary which details the targets we are working on with each child and how they got on with their shared reading. Each child has a set reading day with their Keyworker and their diary will be updated weekly. We encourage an ongoing dialogue with parents/carers and love to hear how the children are getting on at home. The reading diary can also be used for parents/carers to ask teachers/teaching assistants questions, especially for those whose children attend Breakfast or After School Care and may not see the Little Cypress staff on a day to day basis. Any queries can also be sent via email to the school office or a telephone call.
Any first aid incidents would be conveyed to parents/carers via a ‘pink slip’ sent home, detailing the nature of the injury and any treatment given. A phone call would be made for any head injuries, facial injuries or anything deemed more serious than a graze or small cut.
There are Parent/Teacher Consultation Meetings each term, giving both parents/carers and teachers/managers an opportunity to discuss each child in more detail. Parents/Carers are also invited in to Little Cypress each term to look at their child’s work folders and talk to their child about their learning.
Weekly news items on the Pegasus Academy Trust website help to keep everyone updated as to the current themes and interests of that week and include photographs of children’s learning in action.
Parents/carers are invited to Little Cypress events during the year, including Christmas singing and our end of year Superhero Fashion Show.
How do children at Little Cypress interact with other children at the school
The children in Little Cypress have plenty of opportunities to interact with other children at the school. The Breakfast and After School Care includes children in Reception, so they get to mix with siblings and other children daily in these provisions.
Rainbows and Nursery children have their lunch in the main hall of the school and therefore get to see school staff and other year groups on a daily basis. The Little Cypress children use the school hall on occasion for physical activity. In the summer months, the children will often join our other year groups for outside play and will see and interact with children also playing outside.
The PTFA organise many events such as cake sales, Winter, Spring and Summer Fairs, book fairs and so on, to which all the children are invited.
Children from other classes will often ‘buddy’ up with the Little Cypress children and come and read with them. Year 6 children might come down to Little Cypress and read stories to the younger children, an experience they all seem to enjoy.
In the summer term, there are opportunities for the Gold and Silver Class children to visit their new reception classes and get a flavour for the main school.
