Making Their Marks - Children's Early Writing 

Some brilliant tips on encouraging and helping your child in their first steps with writing. 

Making their mark - children's early writing.pdf

Early Reading and Phonics In EYFS

Phonics begins in Nursery and is based upon the Development Matters curriculum, where we focus upon our listening skills. For early phonics teaching, the school follows the Read Write Inc. (RWI) phonic scheme which is adapted to ensure we are meeting the needs of our children and is effective in teaching children to be successful early readers. Home reading materials ensure that the children are given reading books that reflect their phonic knowledge. The children begin with picture books before moving on to simple phonic books and sound blending books. The school places an importance on the development of early comprehension skills; in line with the Revised Framework to ensure that children are able to comprehend what they read and listen to. This sits alongside the development of children’s speaking, listening and language skills which are crucial for developing children’s comprehension and vocabulary, with the specific focus on closing the vocabulary gap for children starting school with less experience of a language rich environment. Adults also strive to promote a love of reading through daily story time and carefully chosen books within the environment. Teachers closely monitor children’s progress in reading through regular phonic assessments and reading sessions in order that interventions are implemented to address gaps in learning promptly.

Launchpad for Literacy

In our Early Years setting, we use Launchpad for Literacy to sit alongside the Curriculum. This gives us specific and targeted approach to:

• identifying and closing skill gaps in children
• embedding speech and language interventions
• ensuring progression for all and clarifying 'Quality First Teaching'
• creating a firm, broad-base of skill readiness for all aspects of literacy, including Phonics

Launchpad for Literacy is all about children, the skills they have and the skills they need for all aspects of literacy. It is a systematic, skill-based approach, enabling us to:

• improve outcomes in the Early Years and beyond by creating firm foundations and a broad base of readiness, addressing whole school attainment issues from the ‘bottom-up.’
• identify and close specific skill gaps with individuals and vulnerable groups, assessing, tracking and quantifying the process of closing the gap.
• identify speech, language and other developmental needs as soon as possible and to embed specific skill-based intervention into practice and ‘Quality First Teaching.’
• have a greater level of diagnostic capability, establishing reasons and solutions to underpin informed interventions when literacy acquisition is problematic.

For more information, take a look at the website: https://www.launchpadforliteracy.co.uk/

Physical Literacy

Physical literacy as an individual’s ability to move with competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical activities in multiple environments that benefit the healthy development of the whole person. As physical development is a prime area of the Early Years Curriculum, children are assessed in this area and given interventional support where needed. We draw upon expertise from outside providers for this.

Speech Link

Speech Link is used in our setting to identify and support children with developmental speech sound difficulties. It helps us to decide who needs to be seen by a Speech and Language Therapist and helps support staff to work effectively with common speech sound errors.