Trimley St Mary Primary School

Early Years Prospectus

Welcome to Trimley St Mary Primary School, we hope that your child enjoys their time in Early Years

Foundation, and has a rewarding and fun experience as they begin their first steps of their learning

journey through school. Parents and carers are a child’s first educators, our aim is to work together to

continue in partnership with your child.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Curriculum Information

From September 2008 the Government set specific standards for learning development and care for

children from birth to five. Here at Trimley St Mary our provision reflects this requirement and is

underpinned by EYFS themes and principles.

We believe that children are born ready, able and eager to learn. They actively reach out to interact

with other people, and the world around them.

The four themes of EYFS are explained below, and are a guide to both parents and teachers, who by

working together, can achieve these learning goals.

General Information

General information

The school day is from 8:55am to 12 noon, and from 1pm until 3:25pm. If you have chosen to take

part-time hours, the day is 8:55am until 12 noon.

Please bring your child to the Early Years garden at the beginning of the day. Children are brought in

and out by the Early Years staff, who ensure that each child is handed over to the appropriate adult at

the end of the day.

Please do not use the vehicular car park gate. The car park entrance is for staff only, and is not safe

for children. Parents are not permitted in the car park.

Parents are not encouraged to come into school with their child’s teacher at this stage, because of the

lack of space in the cloakrooms. There will be plenty of adults on hand to help children with

coats/shoes/boots etc.

Please ensure that your child is collected at the end of the day by a parent or other designated adult.

Near to the main office is the Parent Information Point signposting parents/carers to a variety of

support services in the area. Advice about any issues affecting children, either at home or school can

be found in this area alongside a computer designated for parents’ use.

Letters and communication home will be given to the children. Please check your child’s book bag daily.

On most days your child will bring home a reading book that he/she can share with you in the evening.

We expect our children to read or be read to a minimum of 5 times a week. Every time you read with

your child we ask you to make a note of it in your child’s Reading Diary.

Your child will also bring home a library book for you to enjoy either with a parent, grandparent, aunt,

uncle or older sibling—the list is endless! This is a fantastic time to enjoy a story, look at the pictures,

chat about what’s happening, what could happen etc, and helps with your child’s understanding of a story.

School Meals

Children may choose to have a hot meal at school, bring a packed lunch or go home for lunch. A school

meal currently costs £2.30 per day, £11.50 per week, however at the present time, the government

continues to fund universal free school meals for all children in EYFS and Key Stage 1 (year 1 and 2).

If your child has any particular food allergies or intolerances, please make sure we are aware of them.

As with all payments to school, ie. Trip/event contributions, payments are made through the Parentmail

system—details of which will be sent via an email link when your child starts school in September.

If you believe you may be entitled to free school meals, please ask at the main office for the

application forms, even though your child will receive infant free meals as a given. The school can apply

for additional funding to support families with other costs including uniform, trips and visits should you

qualify.

Attendance and Absence

If your child is unwell and absent from school, please ring the school in the morning before 9:30am on

each day of absence, and send a letter into the class teacher on the child’s return.

It is important to notify your child’s class teacher immediately if your child has headlice or worms.

The information will be handled discretely and used to inform other parents to check their children.

Unfortunately, headlice in particular can be difficult to manage if checks are not consistently made.

School Uniform

School uniform should be worn by all pupils.

Official school sweatshirts, cardigans and polo shirts are

available to order from our on-line stockist: Tesco.com - click on

clothing, then school uniform, and finally choose our school.

P.E. kits should be held in a small named bag that is brought into

school every Monday, and taken home for washing on a Friday as

we aim to have at least two P.E. sessions a week. The bag is kept

on your child’s peg ready for use. Plimsolls will not be required until after the Easter break, as P.E. is

held in the main hall until the summer term. Details of school uniform and P.E. kit requirements are

listed in the main school prospectus.

Parent’s Evening

We hold two parent’s evening sessions a year, one around the half term in autumn to see how your child

is settling into class, and a second one in the spring term to see how your child is progressing, and to

look through your their learning journey.

Details of the dates will be in school newsletters, along with information on how to book an

appointment.

EYFS curriculum

The Early Years Foundation Stage is the period from 0 to 60 months. In our setting we have two

reception classes. Children enter our school to continue their learning journey from a number of pre-

school and child care settings within the locality.

Our provision promotes active child-centred learning, sensory development and exploration from the

immediate environment and beyond. Planning ensures that children experience a broad and balanced

EYFS curriculum, through which they learn new skills, acquire new knowledge and demonstrate

understanding through the seven areas of learning:-

Communication and language development involves giving children opportunities to experience a

rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and

to speak and listen in a range of situations

Physical development involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and

interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must also be

helped to understand the importance of physical activity and to make healthy choices in relation

to food

Personal, social and emotional development involves helping children to develop a positive sense

of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to

develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour

in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities

Literacy development involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to

read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems,

and other written materials) to ignite their interest

Mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in

counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems;

and to describe shapes, spaces, and measure

Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their

community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places,

technology and the environment

Expressive arts and design involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of

media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their

thoughts, ideas and feelings.

Phonics

Children are assessed on their phonics knowledge during their initial weeks in school and this is reviewed

and revisited each term. We use a variety of activities and tasks to practise hearing and saying initial

sounds and then build onto segmenting and blending the sounds in words as well as writing the grapheme

(written letter) to represent each sound. A selection of appropriate Year 1 Common Exception Words

are taught within the letters and sounds lessons.

The Early Years classrooms and shared area, all display a ‘phonics’ wall where the different graphemes

(written letters) are displayed for reference during lessons. A tricky word wall (common exception

words) is also in each classroom and this is updated weekly as the children learn new words. Children

take a ‘Phonics’ pack home, which is updated weekly, with the sounds that have been taught, in their

group, and a handwriting activity in order to consolidate the learning. Phonics skills are embedded in

writing and reading tasks in English sessions.

At the beginning of the school year ‘Starting School’ packs are sent home to every child along with a

reading scheme for our school, which outlines the ways teachers will teach children to read.

During the first term Word Pouches are sent home, along with the ‘Tricky words’ or (common exception

words) which are red (non-decodable) and word box words (decodable). Word pouches are tested weekly

by an adult and contain a combination of red and green words of increasing difficulty.

Before the October half term, there is a ‘Stay and Play’ session for parents, with an emphasis

on reading; this information session is led by class teachers and tells parents about our reading scheme

and how they can help their child progress. After the half term a Stay and Play session is focused on

phonics and tricky words. Class teachers provide parents with information about

correct pronunciation of phonemes (letter sounds) and the approach used in school. Parents are then

given time to work through activities with their children.

In the spring term all the children are given an opportunity to take part with ‘Play Club.’ Children have

the opportunity to take a special bag home over a 7 week period, which contains a story and activities to

be shared with their adults and is aimed at supporting the use of phonics with parental involvement.

Extra-Curricular Opportunities

Children in the EYFS are welcome to attend a plethora of extra curricula opportunities offered after

school and at lunchtimes including:

Dance

Gymnastics

Multi-sports

Football

Recorder club

Choir

Craft club

Breakfast club

Library club

Story club

Gardening club

Special Educational Needs

Children with special educational needs will be supported as appropriate to enable them to access the

curriculum fully. This includes children that are more able and those with specific learning difficulties

and disabilities. Individual Education Plans (pupil passports) identify specific targets in relation to the

needs of individual children.

The school’s special educational needs coordinator is responsible for providing additional information

and advice to staff and parents and for arranging external intervention and support as necessary. In line

with the schools’ Equal Opportunities Policy, we will provide all children, regardless of ethnicity, culture,

religion, home language, family background, learning difficulties, disabilities, gender or ability with equal

access to all areas of learning and school life. This ensures that every child is valued as an individual.

Upon allocation of EYFS places, staff meet with preschool providers to discuss the needs of specific

children. Should it be necessary, a meeting with the SENDCo prior to the child starting school can be

arranged to further discuss the specific needs of the child and make necessary adaptations and

adjustments to facilitate a successful transition into school life.

How can you help your child to prepare for school?

Writing

The beginning of curiosity about written language is scribbling—provide paper, thick felt tip pens, and

wide paint brushes in the early stages, moving on to crayons, felt tips and pencils when the child is

ready.

value your child’s attempts at mark making and writing on their own.

Encourage your child to control a pencil.

A way of helping with co-ordination is to encourage help with cooking, making & rolling out

pastry/biscuit dough etc, finger painting, glueing, cutting, sewing and finger rhymes ie Tommy Thumb.

Awareness of letter sounds (phonics)

Read rhyming poetry and spot or predict the rhyming words.

Think up short words and find all the words that rhyme with it ie: Cat (hat, bat, sat).

Play I-Spy, sometimes using letter sounds, and other times letter names.

Help your child recognise his/her name when written down

Point out words that begin with the same letter as your child’s name.

How can you help? (cont.)

Speaking & Listening

Children love to listen and they love to talk. Listen and talk to each other when you are out and about,

shopping, on the way to school/trips/journeys.

talk about things that have happened in the family in the past, yesterday, last weekend, last

birthday/Christmas etc.

Encourage your child to speak to family and friends either face to face or on the telephone.

Help your child name familiar objects both at home and when you are out and about,

Numeracy

By practising numbers in a fun environment, children will quickly become familiar with them. To help with

this try:

Singing number songs, ie “1,2,3,4,5, once I caught a fish alive….”, “10 fat sausages sizzling in a pan” etc

Counting as you go up/down steps.

Counting the buttons on coats etc as you do up/undo.

Look at the shape of things, ie. biscuits and the tin itself, wheels on vehicles, cereal boxes etc

Personal and Social Development

Children who believe that they are loveable and capable will be happy children and will grow up into happy

successful adults.

Help your child to become confident by encouraging him/her to try new things.

Help your child to learn to behave in a way that is acceptable to others. When he/she is behaving well,

tell him/her often and be clear about what it is that you like ie. “I really like it when you put the toys

away, it helps me to keep the house tidy”

Try to give your child lots of opportunities to play with other children, gradually they will learn to play

together.

We look forward to welcoming you soon.

Trimley St Mary Primary School

High Road

Felixstowe

Suffolk

IP11 OTR

01394 284130

www.trimley.net

office@trimley.net

Head Teacher: Mrs C Ashford

Deputy Head Teacher: Mrs H Lloyd

SENDCo: Mrs Smith