Tehidy Class - Reception KS1
Welcome to Tehidy!
Our Class:
Tehidy class is made up of our youngest pupils (from Reception to Key Stage 1). We have a very dedicated staff team who work very closely with the school’s Specialist Intervention Team who complement our team of Physiotherapists, Dieticians, Occupational and Speech and Language Therapists to set both group and individual programmes as required.
We are proud of the relationships that we are able to forge with the youngest members of our school, and believe that the building of trusting and respectful relationships is at the heart of everything we do.
Our Curriculum:
Our teaching is approached through an Early Years model, suiting the needs and stages of development for our pupils. Our activities are stage and developmentally appropriate and individual targets set for each child are taken from the Early Years and Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning and the individual Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
The areas of the EYFS are outlined below.
PSED (Personal Social Emotional Development) - Our teaching enables the children to become as confident and independent a possible through activities and experiences that support their health and well-being. We support them to develop a positive sense of self and develop their curiosity to explore and learn through interest-led and play-based learning. We incorporate sensory communication activities, including Intensive Interaction and TAC PAC, to support the development of positive relationships.
C&L (Communication & Language) – Many of our themes are bases on stories, helping to develop a love of reading, delivered through sensory stories and Attention Autism sessions. These support the children to build engagement and develop their listening and attention skills. In Tehidy, we use various communication methods throughout all of our daily activities; continuous provision, learning sessions, snack and meal times and play times. Children are learning to communicate their needs, make choices, express themselves and develop their interests using a range of formalised communication methods and at a level that is appropriate to their developmental stage
PD (Physical Development) - We are lucky enough in school to have some great indoor and outdoor spaces, with equipment for our children to explore and enjoy through daily access. We have a movement room for individual or small group sessions; we have weekly PE sessions with lots of different equipment to support our gross motor skills and lots of outdoor space with different types of playground equipment, including a sand pit and large trampoline. PD is a large part of our day, we keep active and teachers set individual targets that can support physical development, ensuring all of the equipment is accessible and meets the needs of all of our children.
Within Tehidy, we pride ourselves on creating a positive environment and a happy and fun atmosphere, which promotes learning through exploration, curiosity and play.
Reading in Tehidy Class
In Tehidy class, reading is linked to every aspect of our learning. We promote the love of reading through stories and books; we use sensory stories, music, song and rhymes within our daily routine. We have a reading area that is accessible and available for the children to access at any time, ensuring we have key texts and books linked to our children’s interests. Taught sessions focus on children building attention to support their engagement and support their speaking and listening skills, the foundations for pre-reading skills.
We have daily phonics sessions that include letter of the day, focusing upon the names and letters of sounds, linked to an action.
We also focus on the aspects of phonics within phase 1. These include exploring environmental sounds, copying rhythmic patterns and experiencing a range of instruments. Additionally we use choice and story boards to interpret photos and link to symbols and signs. We make our sessions interactive to support our children understanding and enjoying the books and stories we share.
As a team, we encourage an interest in reading and sharing a range of stories. We use immersive story-telling activities, sensory stories, puppets, role-play, repetitive verse through cross-curricular learning; we make it fun and exciting and use many elements of the EYFS to nurture our love of stories.
Learning Environment:
We are very lucky here at Curnow to have a variety of learning environments that provide quality spaces for children to undertake learning activities. Our classroom is well resourced with engaging activities, which help us to develop the children’s independence and love of learning.
We have our own balcony, which is themed according to the needs of the class group. Our outside play areas include a sunken trampoline, a slide and other physical equipment. We use the outdoor learning areas as much as possible as we recognise the positive effects that being outside can have on the children’s wellbeing and engagement. We access the shared areas in smaller groups and 1-1 at various times to provide activities such as learning walks, sensory exploration and gardening. We have a sensory room, a movement room, a learning pod, a teaching kitchen, a library area and the school hall, all of which are easily accessible for every child within the class. Whenever possible we also enjoy spending time with our friends from Illogan School, sharing the Early Years playground and exploring the different resources and space.
We embrace the ethos of ‘Two schools, One community’.
