Welcome to F2 This September

In Foundation Stage 2 at Brackenwood Infant School, we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. We plan for all 7 areas of learning using Development Matters and the children’s learning is based around one main context each half term. However, young children learn best when they are happy, engaged and feel safe and confident in their environment so we listen to our children and let their interests and questions lead the learning. We then plan exciting and challenging learning opportunities that enable our children to take their next steps in learning.

We take time to get to know the children in our care so that they are able to build positive relationships with all adults and the other children in our school. This helps children to feel able to meet challenges and take risks in their learning. We want children to become creative, inquisitive learners and to have a positive start on their journey through our school.

Phonics

We teach Phonics using The Sound Train programme. Before we start teaching Phase 2 of this programme, we spend time in September using an adapted version of the Sound Listening programme, a Speech and Language programme designed to help young children tune into the smallest speech sounds (phonemes) and to correctly pronounce them. Over recent years, we have found using this non-threatening method which focuses on the purest speech sounds and orally segmenting and blending before any letter shapes (graphemes) are taught, has had a hugely positive impact on children’s progress in reading and writing.

When the corresponding graphemes are introduced to match the phonemes in Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Letters and Sounds programme, children learn to recognise them more quickly and have greater confidence to begin reading words.

Maths

While still covering all aspects of the EYFS maths curriculum, at Brackenwood Infant School we are using a Maths Mastery approach in Foundation 2 with support from the Wirral and Cheshire Maths Hub.

We want children to gain a deep understanding of maths and this approach is about giving children secure and long term knowledge which will allow them to make continual progress as they move onto more complex topics

We want children to have the self-belief that they can do maths and so we are teaching by breaking down maths objectives into the smallest steps so that every pupil is secure in every new concept before moving on. It is about moving slowly to connect children’s natural knowledge with more formal “maths”.

Using the Maths Mastery approach has allowed us as practitioners to gain further insight into children’s understanding of maths and it is wonderful to see the children progress in their maths learning with such confidence and excitement.