I:lrussellfinalised teaching & learning policy 2017 1 Where We “Reach for the Stars” TEACHING & LEARNING POLICY Castle Bromwich Infant & Nursery School Green Lane Castle Bromwich Birmingham B36 0BX Tel: 0121-747-3369 Fax: 0121-749-2466 Email: [email protected]Date Reviewed: July 2017 Next Review Date: September 2018
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Where We “Reach for the Stars - Castle Bromwich and...Where We “Reach for the Stars ... Bromwich Infant & Nursery School Our Learning Environment & Organisation ... Throughout
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Teaching Assistants - are employed throughout the school and are highly skilled and valued members of our learning community. Teachers share all their planning with the Teaching Assistants, valuing their input. The teaching assistants work with all groups of pupils including SEND, disadvantaged pupils and more able pupils to support them socially and to extend their academic
learning.
The Teaching Assistants in our school have responsibility for the learning of the groups/individuals they teach ie. Interventions etc. Therefore TA’s resource the learning activities they are teaching, evaluate the pupil’s learning, adapt the lessons as needed and feedback to the teacher the next steps for those children’s learning.
KS1 TAs should meet with the Teacher on Monday morning during singing assembly to discuss plans for the week.
Time Management
Learning starts as soon as a child enters the school with a task on the whiteboard each day for the children to complete whilst the teachers/TA’s have interventions and individual reading sessions before the bell goes for the start of the day. Efficient planning and classroom organisation significantly reduces time-wasting activities. Children are expected to be on task and to learn (our pupils need to go home at the end of the day more tired than the adults because they have learned so much and enjoyed their learning).
Supply Teachers and cover
To ensure continuity, teachers leave written guidance in the class supply book
and pupil activities for all planned absences from the classroom. A list of
vulnerable children and those with additional needs should also be listed in
the book along with any special arrangements for collection at the end of the
day. In the event of an unplanned absence, teachers have their planning and
resources easily accessible on the work drive.
School Policies
School policies can be found on the website. It is the duty of staff to ensure
they are familiar with all school policies and to apply them diligently and
consistently throughout the school.
Volunteer Helpers
Voluntary helpers are a valuable resource and we welcome their involvement
in the classroom.
Volunteers meet with DHT for induction into school procedures.
Parents/carers - Our parents/carers are our partners in their children’s
learning. We make every effort to listen to their views and support them. We
share their children’s achievements with them and ask for their support when
we have concerns. We regularly share attainment with parents & carers and
give advice on how they can help their children learn at home. We expect our
At Castle Bromwich Infant & Nursery School we aim high and our motto is to:
“Reach for the Stars”
Approaches to Teaching
We are an educational institution and therefore we expect our pupils to consolidate learning and to learn new things everyday.
We use a balance of individual, group and whole-class teaching. Teachers
choose carefully the style of teaching which is the most effective for the
learning intention and the pupils.
• We begin each of our learning themes with an exciting and stimulating
starter.
• We have a knowledge harvest to find out what our pupils already know about a learning theme and what they would like to find out by the end of the topic.
• We finish our learning theme with a finale often inviting parents to
share what pupils have learned.
Throughout all our learning from FS1 – Y2 we emphasise basic skills of systematic phonics, writing/mark making, handwriting and letter formation, reading, calculation, reasoning, problem solving and fluency.
Teachers will always share learning intentions, success criteria and have mini-plenaries during sessions to address areas of mis-conception, share
expectations and deepen their understanding.
Children with EAL are monitored using the EAL Profile from the LA so they can, with extra support, access the curriculum. An EAL level is given for each child
and this is reported in the yearly census.
Children who have SEND or are showing signs of concern are reported to our school SENCO and carefully monitored – please refer to SEND policy for further information.
In line with the Revised EYFS there are seven areas of learning planned for each week.
1. Short Term Planning
Short term planning brings together planning for individual children based on
assessments of their development and learning with your medium-term plan.
We use a mixture of child-initiated and adult led learning.
2. Child-Initiated Play
Our definition of child initiated learning – we encourage our pupils to be both independent learners and to initiate their learning through play. We want our pupils to learn new skills and not to continuously repeat skills which they have already mastered. For a child-initiated or an adult led activity to be successful it needs to be worthwhile and progress learning. Child initiated does not simply mean self-chosen but it does mean following an interest to learn.
Child initiated learning requires professionals to teach skills and then leave those learning activities out for pupils to practice those skills, to add more resources to and for pupils to teach others these skills through their play together. It also requires interesting resources to be left for pupils to choose and for professionals to then help to facilitate learning by asking questions, prompting play and helping to extend the learning.
3. Adult-Guided / Focus Activities
Practitioners consider carefully how to ‘differentiate’ an adult-guided activity,
adapting resources, expectations and language in order to take into account
the varying ages and stages of development of children in a group.
• Planned learning intentions are broad and flexible in order that
practitioners can pick up on the child’s own learning agenda
• Planned activities provide children with lots of opportunities for
speaking and listening.
• Learning activities aim to be motivating, enjoyable and meaningful
and to promote a positive attitude to learn in each child.
4.Guided Activities for Two Year Olds
Two year olds enjoy being near their adult. In our All Stars setting we have
keyworkers who build relationships with their children and support their learning
through play partnering. The role of the play partner is to respond to the things
the children show an interest in and to find interesting next step adult guided
tasks that are relevant to the child’s development stage.
Adult guided activities are flexible as two year olds will often take the play in a
different direction to the one intended by the adult.
Adults use quality talk and interactions to develop children’s understanding and
grasp of spoken language.
Staff make careful assessments of children by observing them and looking for
their next steps of development, planning is then adapted to meet the children’s
needs.
5. Whole Class Sessions for Children Aged 3-5
Whole class sessions are short and interactive to stimulate learning.
There is no expectation that EYFS children attend assembly on a daily basis.
However at CBINS Reception children attend assembly once a week from
Spring Term.
We believe that children need extended periods of time to play and pursue
their interests. We also believe that children can concentrate for longer in
small group activities, where they are more involved. Therefore each day
our teachers plan for:
• short whole class teaching sessions
• continuous provision for independent learning
• adult led focused learning in small groups
• outdoor provision to extend the indoor learning focus
• adult play partners to extend learning through interactions and
questioning
Example of FS1 Daily organisation
Before sessions begin staff will risk assess and setup outside whilst other staff
will risk assess and set up inside.
Both areas will be set up with continuous provision and adult led focused
tasks.
In FS1 we focus on Prime Areas with shorter time provision on Specific Areas
8.30 am or 12.30pm When children arrive parents sign pupils in at the door and pupils hang-up their coats and play.
8.45am or 12.45pm After 10/15mins pupils register, have a short teaching session e.g. phonics. Learning theme, songs, and introduction to the learning on offer. Keyworker groups for this session
9 - 11am or 1 – 3pm Children play and adults go to their teaching tasks
9 – 11am or 1 – 3pm Adult led focus lasts 10/15mins so in the learning
activities, it will take several sessions to teach all
the children. Activities should be differentiated by
questioning and by using assessments to ensure
children’s learning is challenging.
11am or 3pm tidy-up time, story and getting ready for home in larger groups to enable one member of staff and volunteers to get ready for next session.
All classes will have access to outdoor area with an outdoor learning task and
child initiated (continuous provision) each day using a high visible jacket
checking in and out system. All staff are timetabled to teach outside during
the day.
English and Maths is taught discretely and through continuous provision
In FS2 we focus on Specific Areas of the EYFS curriculum and build on the Prime Areas covered in FS1
In FS2 as a general rule we aim for 50% teacher directed and 50% child initiated learning each day.
Teaching & learning throughout The Foundation Stage
Outside areas are extensions of the teaching environment and at least one
member of staff is outside facilitating learning.
Role play is modelled and taught so that pupils understand the roles they are
rehearsing when in the role play area. Once pupils feel confident in role then
role play should link to topic themes. Children help develop the roleplay areas
and they are taught to look after the learning environment.
Clear labelling is used to identify how many pupils can access given areas i.e.
4 pupils in the role play.
Self-snack – this is an opportunity for pupils to be independent and to help
themselves to fruit and a drink whenever they need it.
Self-registration in FS1 should take place in each of the key group areas to
avoid confusion and the main register is also taken in keyworker groups.
Learning areas are clear from clutter and areas kept for specific purposes
(children learn the rules of keeping paint/sand etc in the designated areas)
All pupils in FS to use Triangular pencils to encourage the correct pencil grip
are used in Foundation stage and for those children who still need help in KS1
There is a planning & moving on board in each FS classroom so that the children can contribute to the planning and staff can identify next steps for individual children. Staff use this information in any spare moments to help
pupils achieve these aims.
In All Stars (funded places) and Nursery the children attend for 15 hours per
week usually for either five mornings or five afternoons.
In Reception and Keystage 1 the children are taught for 22 hours and 30 minutes per week. These times exclude playtimes, assemblies and registration.
Children are admitted to nursery in the academic year that they are four years old and in reception in the academic year they are five. All admissions are dealt with by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. All Stars admissions are dealt with by school once parents have claimed their funding from the Family Information Service. All Stars, Nursery & Reception are called the Early Years Foundation Stage
(EYFS)
There are four guiding principles that shape EYFS practice:
• Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient,
capable, confident and self-assured;
• Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships;
• Children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their
experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership
between practitioners and parents and/or carers; and
• Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and we work in partnership with parents to cover the education and care of all children in our Early Years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.
The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (FS1 & FS2) focuses on 7
areas of development.
• Personal, Social and Emotional development (PSED)
• Communication & Language (CL)
• Physical development (PD)
• Literacy (L)
• Mathematics (M)
• Understanding the World (UW)
• Expressive Arts and Design (EAD)
Each learning theme in FS1 & FS2 starts with a “Big Question” to stimulate children’s thinking, a knowledge harvest to find out what children already know about the topic and what they would like to learn, an inspirational starter which could be a visitor or a visit to somewhere of interest and a finale where children can show their parents what they have learned.
We also believe that our children learn best through experiencing exciting,
imaginative play and therefore we ensure that the children can have equal
access to all areas of the EYFS curriculum.
The basic skills of Communication, Reading, Writing & Maths run through all
areas of the curriculum. e.g. measuring tapes, clip boards and pencils are part
of the construction area. Writing is always part of the role play etc.
Children are taught as part of the focused learning to access all areas of
the curriculum.
An example of this is: if a water play is set up outside the classroom the
children are taught the rules & responsibilities as part of the PSE curriculum.
Only _?_ number of children can play in the water, you must wear an apron,
you can help yourself to resources from here, you must tidy away when you
have finished, you must share etc.
Teaching assistants and teachers play with children when teaching i.e. if the
role play is set up as a vets, they must first learn what happens when you take
In KS1 we build on the independence our pupils have gained through our
early years provision.
Teaching is planned to meet the needs of children who may rapidly grasp a
particular concept but with scaffolding provided so that all children are given
the opportunity to meet Age Related Expectations.
We have a clear understanding of what skills, knowledge and understanding our pupils needs to gain and we plan for this in a fun and enjoyable approach to learning.
Our pupils are involved in planning their learning with knowledge harvest/
planning boards in each classroom.
We want our pupils to come into school each morning exciting and asking
“What are we going to learn today?”
We embed life ready employability skills within our curriculum.
Specific guidance on the teaching and learning of Reading, Writing and Maths can be found in the relevant subject policies. These are available and referred to by all staff and can be found on the school website.