Welcome to Acorn Class:
‘mighty oaks from little acorns grow’
A Keelby Primary Academy we have created a foundation Stage Classroom that encourages the children to grow, develop and become passionate little learners. We have worked hard to develop an environment that encourages learning, whilst also making the children feel safe and comfortable to challenge themselves as they progress through the year. We use our school building blocks – Respect, Empowerment, Belief - to build resilient and motivated learners and closely follow the EYFS Statutory Framework to ensure children have the best start to their school journey.
A day in Acorn Class at Keelby:
Each morning we open the gates at 8:45 and the children will be greeted by Mrs Rushby or Mrs Blessington. We start the day by hanging up our coats and bookbags, before self registering, and starting our morning activity. Our learning begins at 9:00, so it is really important that children are in school by then. We have a morning filled with learning and play before going to lunch at 11:45-1:00. Our afternoon continues like our morning, with a mix of play, whole class inputs, group work and 1:1 activities.
We use ClassDojo to keep in constant communication with parents and carers. We will also put important learning updates on there, including what the children have been up to and any upcoming dates. We also reward the children with Dojo Points for positive behaviour and they can accumulate these points to ‘spend’ at the end of a term.
Our behaviour policy explains this more clearly:
https://keelby.lincs.sch.uk/important-information/policies
Reading and Phonics
We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme to ensure children develop their phonic skills in a coherent and systematic way. There is direct teaching of phonics using this programme from Foundation Stage upwards. We teach a daily phonics session and read with the children 3 times a week in our super exciting ‘Reading Squad’ sessions. Reading is an essential part of all children’s learning and by developing a love of reading at the earliest stage of a child’s school life, the benefits are incredible. By reading regularly, not only do the children develop their reading skills but also the communication and language. Reading at least 5 times a week together using a mixture of both their Collins Books and their Love of Reading books will support the children to develop a love of reading and the skills to support them throughout their time at school!
Maths
In Acorn Class we follow the NCETM mastering number scheme to teach all areas of number to the children. We then use the suggested guidance from White Rose Maths to ensure, shape space and measure are covered. The children are constantly applying their knowledge if numbers to real life problems, developing their automaticity with number and becoming more confident with manipulating number. You can help by counting everything and anything, how many steps are we going up? How many fish fingers on the plate? What will happen if we eat one of those fish fingers? Simple questions like these and using the numbers in a real-life context the children will only deepen their understanding of number.
Handwriting
As a school we have purchased a handwriting programme called Letter-Join. This has an online platform that children can access at home – the children have began to form letters however they can continue to practise the patterns to strengthen their fine motor skills also.
There are some words on there, however these are not for the children to access until after Easter as some of them contain sounds that have not yet been taught.
PE Days
Our PE afternoon will usually be Friday afternoon. Please ensure that children have a full PE kit in school all week, including for colder weather to allow for flexibility. Long hair should be tied back, and earrings removed as outlined in the school’s uniform policy on our website.
Useful Links:
Little Wandle Parent Information:
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Collins EBooks Login Page:
Class Dojo:
LetterJoin:
School Calendar:
https://keelby.lincs.sch.uk/calendar