Welcome to EYFS - Donaldson Class

Hi everyone and welcome to the website page for Donaldson Class!

We have 3 keyworker groups in class.

The Smartest Giants in Town - FS2 have Mrs Coy

The Superworms - FS1 have Mrs Smith

The Tiddlers  - Early Starters have Miss Wootton 

Mornings 

When we arrive in school we move our picture on the self register, then access busy boxes - working on our fine motor and social skills from the moment we enter. 

We come together for the register, morning prayer, to sing the half termly RE based song and to recite Poetry Basket together before we head off into keyworker groups and provision learning. We come together for snacks, Wake and shake, PE, RE and various learning inputs. Morning only children go home before lunchtime.

Afternoons

The Smartest Giants access the main playground after lunch. Superworms, including afternoon only children, have a listening and attention focus after lunch, in a smaller group and quieter environment. Afternoons include a daily worship for most children. Afternoon sessions include Read Write inc for The Smartest Giants as well as learning similar to the morning sessions, before our super 6 stories, which foster a love of reading, before home time. 

Here is our vision and intent 

We follow a 2 year cycle on the Long Term plan 

Weekly Knowledge organisers, go into more depth than the half term knowledge organiser and are used to promote language and vocabulary use and are a hook for weekly challenge learning alongside skills and curriculum coverage. 

Welly Wednesday is a highlight of the week and is a planned session to support the coverage of Understanding the World and to encourage a love of nature and the world around us.

We follow Read Write inc from summer for the Superworms and all year for The Smartest Giants in Town. These are daily sessions, in small groups, grouped by ability, following 6 weekly assessments and ongoing teacher assessment. Focussing on phonics speed sounds, phonetic decoding to read words, moving into books and reading. Reading books are sent home and are to be read 3 times a week minimum with parent comments recorded. Library books are chosen by all children, to enjoy at home and encourage a range of texts, excitement over the choosing of the book and to promote reading together at home.

White Rose Maths supports the maths teaching alongside daily counting sessions. Our bespoke order of teaching the nursery units, means children access these maths sessions from their first days in school as a Tiddler.

Children complete 10% of their learning time completing RE learning and activities, enjoy Rotherham Utd sessions focussing on physical development, follow the Ten Ten programme for RHE learning and as a Superworm enjoy Squiggle whilst you wiggle and Dough Disco following training from Shonette Bason Wood. 

RWI phonics

RRead Write Inc. Phonics is a highly successful English programme. Our aim is for all children to become confident and enthusiastic readers. The Read Write Inc. Phonics programme is carefully matched to the curriculum, giving every child at St. Mary's Catholic Primary the best chance of success. 

Please see the table below for expected progress term-by-term for Read Write Inc. Phonics in FS2.

Your child is taught phonics every day in a small group by an adult in school - not always their keyworker. Children are grouped according to the sounds that they know and are assessed as a minimum every half term. It is crucial that your child practises their sounds, oral blending and reading as many times as possible each day. We use 'pinny time' throughout the child as a way of your child revising and rehearsing the sounds they are learning. 'Speed minutes' are used daily to revise all of the sounds the children know so that they are confident and speedy at reading them.

When ready, your child will bring home either a Sound blending book (Lilac) or RWI coloured book that they have been learning to read in their sessions. Please support your child by listening to them read every day, a minimum of 3 times a week, and make a comment about how they have got on in their reading record please.

How to support your child at home with learning to read