WELCOME TO FS1
TRANSITION AND LEARNING TO
READ MEETING
Staff
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Trish Larkin
Frances Poppleton
Ann Billings
Angela Kelly
Andrea Lamb
EYFS Curriculum
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http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/03
/Development-Matters-FINAL-PRINT-AMENDED.pdf
EYFS 7 areas of learning
 Prime
areas:
 Personal
Social Emotional Development
 Communication and Language
 Physical Development
 Specific
areas:
 Literacy
 Maths
 Understanding
of the World
 Express Arts and Design
The Key Skills & Differentiated
Challenges
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Characteristics of Effective Learning
Playing & Exploring; Engagement
Active Learning; Motivation
Creating & Thinking Critically; Thinking
Differentiated Challenges
Incredible
Fantastic
Amazing
Growth Mindset
What is a growth mindset?
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Has your child ever said to you ‘There’s no point, I’ll never be able to do it’ or avoided doing
something because they’ve failed at it in the past?
Feelings like this can be related to what children believe about what makes them ‘good’ at
something – whether it’s school work, sport, or even their ability to manage their emotions and
behaviour.
Some children will tend to give up on challenging tasks easily, or avoid tasks they’ve failed at
before. They tend to believe that being ‘good’ at a particular activity is a fixed state, and is
something they can’t control. In psychology, this way of thinking is called a ‘fixed mindset’.
Others might bounce back quickly from failure and be more likely to explore how they can get
better at doing something. They tend to be children who believe that you can improve your
abilities by practising, or by finding a different way to achieve your goal. This way of thinking
is called a ‘growth mindset’, and developing it can help make children more resilient for life.
There are lots of small things you can do every day that can help your little one develop a
growth mindset.
How can the way I praise my child help develop
a Growth Mindset?
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It’s natural to want to praise children when they do something well, but we need to do this
carefully. Research suggests that the type of praise that we use can have a big impact. It's all a
matter of context in fact and even positive praise can encourage a fixed mindset.
Praising our children by saying things like “you’re a natural!” or “you seem to be able to turn
your hand to anything!” without clarity of the process by which they got to that point can lead
to the belief that being good at something is out of their control. In other words understanding
how they got there is the key.
This focus on being good at something might lead to children feeling happy in the short-term,
but confused when the reason they were praised is not evident. If children believe that they
succeeded in something simply because they are gifted, they can end up re-evaluating their
abilities if it doesn’t go as well next time.
Instead the grown-ups around the child can focus praise on the effort they’ve made to get to
that point of triumph, the strategy they used or the outcome itself, saying things like “you’ve
worked so hard on this, well done!” or “you get better every time because of all the practise
you’ve been doing” or “you have found a great way to do that, it worked out really well”.
This kind of feedback helps to develop children’s resilience to failure as it teaches them what to
do when they are challenged or fail – try again, try harder or try a different way, all things
that are within their own control.
This type of praise is sometimes called ‘process praise’ and Dweck’s research found that
children were more motivated when their parents used more of this kind of praise.
EYFS Curriculum Map
•We follow Development
Matters for the objectives to
assess that our children are
progressing as expected.
•However, we take their ideas
and interests to plan our
curriculum and topics.
•Currently we are looking at
our favourite things – a topic
in which children will learn
more about themselves and
others as they compare their
likes, dislikes and things they
have in common.
FS1 Timetable
Day
Events
Wednesday
Homework collected in to be marked and DoJos given
Thursday
Friday
Homework -library books and reading activity.
Dojo and diary goes home.
Learning to Read in FS1
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Learning to read is an amazing process that is so
natural – you probably won’t even remember
learning how to do it. “I just could!”
However . . . The reality of learning to read is very
different. Done successfully – we experience the
first bullet point.
The hard work has already started when you read
books with them when they were a baby.
dad
come
Sally
I ca
has the ball
ad play Sally
holds the ball
play ball vell
She says
Translation
Dad has the ball
and plays with Sally
Sally holds the ball
I can play ball well
she says
First things first!
Children learn :
 to enjoy books and so will want to read them
for themselves
 a lot of different stories
 a lot about the world they live in
 a wider vocabulary
 to enjoy talking about the pictures and get
to know that the writing tells a story.
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how to choose the book they want by looking
carefully at the front cover
where to start
how to turn the pages from front to back,
one at a time
that we read from left to right
that book language is different from the
way we talk.
At Home
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Talk about the every day things you do
What you see as you walk along
Share books
Sing songs and rhymes
Make up stories
Talk about a TV programme you have watched
Talk about places you have been
Plan shopping together
Sharing Books Together in School
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We encourage children to choose books to ‘read’
independently. Books are always available.
There are special times in the day when we share a book
with the class. It maybe fiction or non-fiction. They are
taught early reading skills at this time.
On Friday your child will bring home a book and toy to
share with you at home. They will also have a reading
journal for them to draw or mark make in make marks in.
Please feel free to comment in your child’s journal.
Please return the library pack when you have shared it a
few times so that another book can be chosen.
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Research shows that children who share and enjoy
books with their parents and carers are more
successful in learning to read.
Your child may want the same book again. This is a
sign they are beginning to develop a love of books. A
favourite book is often one they begin to read
independently.
Please try to share a book every night.
Please continue to read longer stories to your child
Please send your child’s book into school on
Wednesdays so it can be changed.
FS1 Reward System
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Pupils are rewarded for positive behaviour with ‘Class
Dojo’ points.
You can access a report from home to see how well your
child is doing in class.
In FS1 two children will take Dojos home for a visit.
Our aim is for all children to have this experience.
Home-school Communication
FS1 Housekeeping
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Snack fund - £5 for a ½ term
Birthdays- chocolate, no lollies please
Illness – please inform the office. You can also Dojo a
message to me.
Picking up from school – For safeguarding reasons we
must have the names and descriptions of who is
collecting your child. If possible please introduce them to
the staff.
Absences– Please inform the office.
Uniform
Uniform is not required in FS1, however feel free to purchase some or all of the
uniform for your nursery child.
Please send your child in comfortable play clothes so they can learn and
explore the whole provision and also become independent in their own
personal hygiene and manage their own clothes without worry or restraint.
Please provide your child with:
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Change of clothes, wipes in a bag.
Please ensure all clothing and bags are named. Please check these regularly as
they can wash out.
Outwood School Uniform –
 Black shoes or black trainers Velcro fastening
 Long hair to be tied up
 Jewellery – Only watch – no earrings
No nail varnish
No valuables
Lunchtimes
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School lunches are provided by SK Solutions
Lunch boxes are kept in the box in the Rainbow
room.
Please send a drink with your child’s packed lunch.
Please inform the office of any changes if you want
to change to or from packed lunches or school
dinners. Please give a weeks notice.
Queries & Problems
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If you have any queries or problems please
approach your child’s teacher in the first instance.
If you feel the need to discuss the matter further
with a different member of staff please make an
appointment with Mrs Larkin as leader of EYFS
If further advice is required, or if the matter is still
not sorted, appointments can then be made with
Mrs Messham our Deputy Head or Mrs Maude,
Outwood’s Headteacher.
Thank you
‘Where every child is recognised as being
unique’