Welcome to Early Years!
The BBC have a fantastic website called Tiny Happy People which provides information on how to help your child’s communication skills through simple interaction and play – click here to visit their website.
For more information on how to support your child with toilet training at home – click here
Please find below some key information for parents of children who are joining Early Years at Brentnall.
- The Early Years is all about your child learning through play. Therefore your child will spend most of their day in school accessing the continuous indoor and outdoor provision, following their own interests. The areas within the classroom will be set up by the adults with your child’s interests and next steps in mind. The children will then access these areas with support and guidance from the staff where necessary.
- During the school day your child will take part in small adult-led group activities, focused around Communication and Language, Phonics and Maths. Although adult-led, the activities will always be fun and engaging for the children, with their interests and needs in mind.
- Outdoor play is vital for children’s all round development and it is very important for us here at Brentnall that we give the children the opportunity to access this all year round. Therefore please make sure your child always has appropriate clothes for the weather, including wellies.
- Please make sure all the clothing, coats and where possible footwear is clearly labelled with your child’s name.
- We work with a cycle of observation, assessment and planning in mind. Therefore we will observe the children daily during their time in continuous provision in order to see where he/she is currently at in their learning. We will observe them in the form of taking photographs using a school ipod/ipad which are stored securely within that child’s individual online file. These photographs are then linked to statements from the framework we work from ‘Early Years Outcomes.’ This enables us to track your child’s development and provide them with engaging and enriching experiences, keeping in mind their next steps in learning. Please ask your child’s class teacher for a form to complete if you would like to sign up to Target Tracker and view your child’s observations at home.
- As well as recording observations on Target Tracker, each week there will be three focus children. We ask that parents email any photos of children’s recent activities at home during this week and these will be added to the child’s paper profile. During this week further observations will take place of the focus children in their play, which will be recorded onto their paper profile also. The early years email address is brentnall.earlyyears@salford.gov.uk.
- We actively promote children’s independence and self-help skills at school. We recognise that children are very capable, therefore work with parents to encourage and enhance these skills. We promote and support children when addressing their own personal hygiene needs, however we do understand accidents can happen so please make sure your child always has a spare set of clothes in school so we are able to change them if necessary. With this in mind, please complete a changing consent letter (available from your child’s class teacher).
- School uniform is: grey trousers/skirt, white polo shirt, burgundy jumper/cardigan (jumpers/cardigans with the school logo can be ordered through the school office) and black school shoes.
- Children are able to access the snack area throughout the day. The children are given free fruit and milk* daily, however we ask for a voluntary contribution of 50p per week towards providing children with alternative snacks such as cereal, breadsticks and crackers, as well as other expendable items.
*please note when your child is 5 years of age there may be a cost for milk. - Click here to view the parent’s guide to the EYFS. http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2015/09/4Children_ParentsGuide_Sept_2015v4WEB1.pdf This document directly links to the document used at school when observing and planning activities to support your child. The document is based around age bands. We would initially be working with age bands 22-36 months and 30-50 months in Nursery and 30-50 months and 40-60 months in Reception.