Updates to the Early Years Home Learning Programme

Dear Parents,

You will be aware that last week I met with our Early Years Parent Focus Group to discuss and evaluate our current home learning programme. I would like to thank those parents who joined this discussion and for the valuable feedback and conversation that came out of our session together. It was clear from the discussion that our Early Years home learning programme is providing a constructive learning experience for our children whilst they are not able to be with us in school. 

I would like to share the positive aspects that were highlighted by our parents and which will continue to be offered:

  • The hard work and efforts of our teaching staff in facilitating the home learning programme. 
  • The teaching videos are extremely useful, appropriate in length and engaging for our children. They also provide flexibility for families in terms of when to complete learning throughout the day/week.
  • Small group sessions are really successful in ensuring the children are able to actively engage and focus. 
  • The learning packs are an instrumental part of the programme, ensuring live lessons can be more interactive and that children can sustain concentration on learning engagements away from the screen. 
  • The outdoor/experiential learning opportunities are much appreciated in taking the children’s learning outside and away from the screen. 
  • The consistent messages of it being ‘ok to make mistakes’ and that ‘mistakes are part of the learning process’ are supportive of the children and helpful for parents when supporting their children’s learning.
  • The mix of live and recorded sessions offers both structure and flexibility for our young learners.
  • The additional (optional) extra challenges have been much appreciated and help parents understand how to extend their children further. 

As part of the focus group, we also discussed aspects of the programme that can be challenging and suggested solutions. I am pleased to confirm we will be making the following adaptations from next week:

  • The current daily review will be replaced by a small group session, which your child can attend once a week with their teacher. This will be rebranded as ‘Chatterbox Club’ (Nursery and Reception) or ‘Curiosity Corner’ (EY1 and 2), when your child will have the opportunity to interact with a small group of children where the focus is on social interactions, communication and language. Class teachers will provide further information about the focus each week depending on the age and interests of your child. The daily review and story will continue to be offered on the days that your child does not have their small group, and these will be run either by the class EA or Mrs T, our Early Years Librarian. Once a week, the whole class will come together to celebrate and reflect on their learning. 
  • Whilst we cannot change the timetable, due to the need to stick to our original specialist timetable which covers both Early Years and Primary, we understand that the children seem to be more focused during the morning sessions. Wherever possible, timetables will be adapted to ensure more of the English and Maths ‘mountains’ (live teaching sessions) take place in the mornings, allowing for the creative and more active ‘mountains’ to take place in the afternoons. We are aware that some families would prefer a half-day timetable; however, we will maintain a full-day programme to reflect, in general, the hours the children would be in school. Please be guided by your individual circumstances in terms of how your child interacts with the programme and discuss any concerns with your child’s class teacher. 
  • The first morning session of Community Time will have a personal, social and emotional/wellbeing focus. The class padlet will be used to share the children’s ideas, learning and activities, and there will be more of a focus on getting ready for learning rather than having a specific academic focus. Please note, Community Time will continue in its current format for EY2. 
  • Extra challenges will be available for all children to engage with. For many of our children these are optional extras; however, for some children it will be an expectation that these are completed. We are aware that it can be difficult for parents to get their children to complete tasks that appear ‘optional’; therefore, videos will be sent to children who are expected to complete the additional challenges from their teachers and a Seesaw message sent to notify parents. 
  • Learning packs will be further enhanced to include more creative opportunities and art resources when necessary (particularly in EY1 and 2). The packs will include everything the children need up until the next collection point (Monday lunchtime). Should you require any additional resources, you are invited to contact your child’s class teacher individually so that additional items can be added to the pack if required.
  • The experiential learning opportunities will be further enhanced with a special message for your child from their Forest School characters (e.g. the minpins in Nursery and Reception). The message will include suggested outdoor opportunities that focus on your child’s holistic development. Children will be welcomed to upload pictures of them completing the challenges on the class padlet or Seesaw if they wish (these are entirely optional as we understand getting outside can be quite challenging for some of our families). 
  • Class teachers will be reintroducing some of their whole-class incentives such as the sparkly balls, with a positive reinforcement to work towards once complete, such as a class quiz or experience. We understand from the feedback that your children miss this aspect of their experience in school, so we will look to develop this in a format appropriate to the home learning programme. 

Once again, I would like to thank all our parents for your ongoing feedback whether that be through our class parent representatives, the focus groups or by contacting a member of the Early Years Leadership Team directly. As you know, we place great importance on the relationship between home and school, which is more important than ever when we find ourselves in challenging circumstances such as these. 

We want nothing more than for your children to be learning with us in school; however whilst that is not a possibility, we are dedicated to placing your child at the centre of all that we do and providing the best possible experiences so their learning can continue at home. Our teachers are continuing to see a great deal of progress from those children who are regularly and consistently engaged with the programme and hope that the developments outlined above will further enhance the children’s home learning experience. As always, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher, myself or a member of the Early Years Leadership Team should you wish to discuss any aspect of their learning or development. 

Best wishes,

Hannah Cole

Head of Early Years    

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