The Early Years Foundation Stage at Mawnan School is a place of learning, adventures and discovery. Our aim is to excite our children, making learning irresistible, full of curiosity and wonder, ensuring that they are equipped with the skills, ambition and self-regulation that they will need as they embark on their onward learning journey through the school and beyond.
Our learning follows the Statutory Early Years Foundation Stage which concludes at the end of the school year when the child turns five. For more information about how the learning is structured and assessed please look at…. link to other page
Our ethos and approach to learning
In Oppie Class we provide the children with as many first-hand experiences as possible. Our school grounds offer us a wide diversity of experiences, from growing vegetables in the school garden, climbing, digging and enhancing our gross motor skills in the adventure playground to having plenty of space to run and play and develop school-wide friendships on the playground and field.
Additionally, we make use of our amazing local environment by going on visits to local gardens, the beach, walks and regular trips to our school “forest school”, situated about 200m from the school and lovingly known as “The Reserve”. Here we explore, learn and play, watching and experiencing the changing seasons, listening to and watching the birds (if we’re lucky a squirrel or two), making dens, talking to our friends, creating artwork, exploring the wonderful mathematical opportunities found in nature and climbing a few trees!
At school the class outside provision is full of challenge and open-ended learning and can be freely accessed by the children when they are not in formal teaching or group sessions. This way the children are not only asking and answering their own self-initiated questions but are becoming sophisticated, resilient, independent, risk-taking problem solvers. Challenge is subtly offered by the supply of a range of authentic “real” materials which encourages open-ended play opportunities. For example, there is generally always a pile of logs, builders bricks, big heavy pallets, hazel branches, tyres and a tarpaulin on offer to name a few. With these things the children can endlessly combine materials, create narratives and collaboratively solve problems. One day we will have a technical bridge made out of branches that is strong enough to walk over, another a den for chatting and snacking, another a boat or racing car destined for great adventures.
Inside the classroom, the philosophy mirrors the outside learning; one of discovery and exploration, although generally on a smaller scale. Just like outside, the children will encounter managed risk and the creative area is a good example of this. All children have access to a cold melt glue gun so that sculptures stick and the frustrations born of waiting for glue to dry and reams of sellotape, sticking to everything in sight, are eliminated. Water play is cherished and challenges regularly given to the children such as “can you move water from one bucket to another without touching the buckets or pouring the water?” (early syphoning) or “can you catch a bubble on your hand without it popping” which gently encourages deeper thinking and questioning.
We have a small world area, a construction area with large and small apparatus with space to return to a precious building, a (sometimes) peaceful reading area, messy/ sensory play zone, a writing den and a role play area which generally changes to support the class learning. We are a communication friendly space and both children and adults use Makaton on a daily basis as part of our daily routines.
Children are generally taught three sessions a day. One of the daily sessions is mathematics, the second is literacy, including phonics, and the third will be topic or a skills-led activity. These sessions are as pacey as possible to harness the concentration of our learners and the rest of the time the children are, on the whole, following their own interests, interacting with their friends or creating something imaginative and unique - thus learning!
You can read more about our approach to phonics and early reading here: https://www.mawnanschool.com/web/phonics_and_early_reading_/541679
School is not only a place for academic learning and acquiring knowledge but also a place to learn how to be a good person, regulate emotions and behaviour and learn and develop the skills to be a good friend. Some of these skills take a great deal of time, support and practice to perfect and sometimes things don’t always go to plan. To help to teach and reinforce emotional and behavioural literacy and mental health we have several strategies. We use the Oppie Class Rainbow which reinforces and celebrates wanted behaviour and learning and is an effective system to manage unwanted behaviour. The vocabulary of rainbow behaviour then progresses with the children throughout the school in line with the school behaviour policy.
We support emotional literacy in a number of ways. Daily peer massage provides opportunity to self-regulate, calm down, recognise and practise appropriate touch. We engage in a wide range of stories about emotions, cultural diversity, disability and gender. These provide openings to create organic discussions to promote and support awareness, tolerance and empathy. Additionally, regular “R-time” paired sessions help reinforce sharing, turn-taking, speaking and listening and the qualities embedded in our school “Rainbow Rules”.
Finally, of course, we love stories. Stories frame our learning and are interwoven throughout our day. Our end of day story is one of our favourite times of peace, calm and sharing something special together before we say goodbye.