Early Years
Nursery and Reception classes are referred to as the Foundation Stage of learning. This is an important stage, as it is during this time that attitudes to learning are formed and social skills developed which lay the foundations for future education
Nursery
We have a 26 place Nursery where children attend 2.5 days Monday to Wednesday:
- Monday: 9am -3.15pm
- Tuesday: 9am-3.15pm
- Wednesday: 9am-11.30am
Learning takes place through small group adult led sessions and through self-directed free choice activities. In Nursery we place a strong emphasis on the Prime Areas of learning.
At KHP we understand that before our children can be expected to pick up a pencil and engage in fine motor tasks, they must first become confident and proficient in whole body, gross motor movements; running, jumping, climbing, crawling - the fundamental movement skills. As children develop, we provide a range of fine motor activities to develop hand strength and pincer grip.
Throughout Nursery children learn through carefully planned play opportunities that foster purposeful and progressive social interaction and ultimately, language. At KHP we foster a language rich provision, recognising that immersing our children in language is a key step in allowing them to access all areas of the curriculum.
Reception
There are three reception classes, each with a teacher and a dedicated teaching assistant. There are 90 full time places available in the Reception Class.
Reception Timings: 8.50am-3.25pm
Learning takes place in whole class sessions, small group focussed sessions and through self-directed free choice activities.
Each morning we have a phonics session where children begin to learn how to form different letters and the sounds they make; this quickly moves onto reading and writing words and builds upon the pre-writing skills taught in Nursery.
We foster a love of reading and use stories as the basis for much of our teaching, we also have practice reading sessions three times each week where children are taught to decode and blend, use expression and develop comprehension.
We have a daily maths session which is followed by child- initiated learning opportunities and assessed through ongoing observations and learning conversations. Maths opportunities are practical, physical and hands on, in order to support children’s physical development; we take every opportunity for children to engage in their learning outdoors.
All other areas of the curriculum are delivered in the afternoon through our half termly topics more information can be found on this by viewing our curriculum newsletters