Starting school is an exciting time for parents and children as they begin their learning journey with us at Alice Smith. Our Early Years consists of our Pre-school and Reception classes gives your child an ideal start to their school education. In these classes your child will be able to settle into school, develop social skills while making new friends and be guided by our specialist teachers to become independent, confident and happy learners - important attributes for a successful future in school and beyond.
In our Early Years classes you will see children who are encouraged to use their imagination and are responsive to their friends and the adults who work with them. Rich and engaging discussion is evident, with ideas being formulated through skillful questioning, helping to develop children’s ideas, and language.
Across Early Years we have carefully crafted the curriculum and learning environment to ensure that students can:
- move between indoor and outdoor spaces more easily so they can engage in varied, exploratory and physical play
- explore language rich environments where children learn a love of books and reading
- engage in music and movement sessions weekly led by specialist facilitators from our Music, PE and Swim departments who are experts within this age phase
- work with adults who are aware of the developmental milestones of each student, can track progress carefully, can adapt the environment to meet each child’s needs and can skillfully interact with them during child-directed and adult-led learning
In addition, our classrooms constantly evolve, following the children’s interests. One week the classroom will be a pirate ship, another an airport and the next you’ll be invited into a doctor’s surgery for a full discussion on your medical history!
Parents are kept up to date with the types of activities and adventures that their child take part in within the classroom through conversations at the classroom door, parents’ evenings and the online learning journal Tapestry. Teachers share the progress that our youngest children make as they develop their learning in the curriculum: Communication and Language development, Physical development, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Mathematics, Literacy, Understanding of the world, Expressive arts and design. Parents with children in the Foundation Stage can contribute their observations at home and notify their teachers of the ‘WOW” moments that have taken place outside of school!
At the heart of what we do, is to share a love of learning where children are guided to be independent, confident, happy and successful learners for all of their time with us and beyond. This is something that has been part of The Alice Smith School for over 70 years and we aim to continue for many years to come.
