This early learning programme will enable a child to acquire knowledge of his or her own through hands-on experience in a safe nurturing environment filled with love and acceptance

At Raffles Starters, Foundation we continue with the frame work from our nurseries. Offering the Early Year Foundation Stage curriculum, guiding the children through the seven areas of the framework. We have adapted the Early Years curriculum to ensure a tangible, integrated and enriched learning experience for our children.Classrooms are fully prepared with the appropriate learning resources and material, which provides the children with the opportunity to explore and learn. The method is to develop the whole child, not only academically, but prepare them for the real world.

Our teaching is creative and forward-thinking; we are always seeking innovative ways to inspire our children with a lifelong love of learning. We believe that the way children are taught is as important as what they learn. Our approach is holistic, incorporating academic excellence and the attainment of skills as well as knowledge. We ensure a supportive environment focused on student happiness, health and well-being. We encourage our children to be active learners in every aspect of school life, inspiring independent, self-motivated and confident children. The results speak for themselves with students achieving outstanding progress and attainment in many areas of the curriculum

The environment well suited for outdoor leaning through play with four play areas, a cycle track and a garden for those who love to explore nature. The children also spend time in the Early Years Centre where they develop skills such as sharing, team building, communicating and problem solving.

In the early years, we believe it is important to involve the parents in the learning of their child. We encourage regular contact between parent and teacher. It is important to provide as much information to the parents about their child’s areas of development. To support this we offer two Parent/Teacher conferences per year and three reports.

Early Years Curriculum

Raffles Starters’ approach to education shares the same principles as those promoted in the EYFS framework – that every child is unique, that they learn through positive relationships, in enabling environments and in different ways and at different rates This creative approach, along with a focus on the important seven areas of learning for early years, combines to offer an integrated holistic learning programme, where independent learning, curiosity and enthusiasm are developed. Whilst home languages are valued, children are encouraged to develop good level of English during the Early Years Foundation Stage. It is important for families to use their home language for linguistic as well as cultural reasons. The following outlines the key concepts that the children will have the opportunity to learn in each area:

Personal, Social and Emotional Development
  • Develop care of self and the environment
  • Take turns, share and play appropriately
  • Build confidence and self-esteem
  • Understand right from wrong
  • Understand and value differences between people, cultures and religions
  • Develop independence
  • Adjust to change
  • Regulate their behaviour
  • Express feelings appropriately and consider the feelings of others
  • Show resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge
  • Manage their own needs
Communication & Language
  • Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language and readily turn it into play and use to communicate their needs with others
  • Extend their vocabulary and develop language skills
  • Listen to and join in with stories, poems and songs, one to one and also in small groups
  • Articulate their ideas and thoughts in well-formed sentences
  • Become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures
  • Understand how to listen carefully and why listening is important
  • Use talk to help work out problems and organize thinking
Physical Development
  • Explore a range of outdoor and indoor large play equipment in a range of ways such as climbing, jumping, balancing, crawling, sliding and rolling
  • Construct with large materials such as planks, blocks, cartons and lengths of fabric
  • Operate large and small equipment by means of pushing, pulling and turning
  • Engage in activities requiring hand-eye coordination such as puzzles, threading, posting, play dough, pouring, stacking and small world equipment
  • Explore the dress up clothes, hats, costumes, masks and develop independent dressing skills and observe self and others in mirrors
  • Show an awareness of space, themselves and others through movement to music, dance, actions to songs, outdoor games, water play and ride on equipment
  • Use a range of mark making tools both vertically (murals) and on flat surfaces of various levels (table top, floor, pavement, sand)
  • Explore sensory materials such as shaving foam, slime, sand, mud, rice, textured paper/fabric
  • Develop overall body strength and coordination
  • Develop fine motor skills to manipulate a range of tools safely and confidently
  • Have an understanding of factors that support their overall health and wellbeing
Literacy
  • Show interest in illustrations and print in books and in the environment
  • Learn how to handle books carefully and appropriately
  • Engage in activities requiring hand-eye coordination and use one-handed tools and equipmen
  • Use puppets and props to make up or retell stories
  • Listen to stories through the means of ICT and story tapes
  • Contribute photo, drawings, favourite pictures, and artefacts towards child’s own personal diary and encourage turning pages, looking and talking about books
  • Begin to use anticlockwise movement and trace vertical lines
  • Use a variety of crayons, pencils and thick chalk and learn to hold in correct pencil grip
  • Form lower case and later upper case letters correctly
  • Blend sounds into words to they can read short words
  • Read some letter groups that represent one sound (i.e. ch, sh, ee, ou)
  • Write short sentences using phonemic knowledge
  • Begin to spell words correctly
  • Read a few common exception words and phrases
Mathematical Development
  • Enjoy joining in with number rhymes and songs
  • Use numbers and mathematical concepts in play
  • Compare groups of objects and organise objects into groups or classification
  • Use shape in play and with puzzles, and be aware of shape in the environment
  • Observe and use positional language
  • Have the opportunity to construct large and small equipment
  • Have the opportunity to engage in sand and water play to measure and pour
  • Develop an awareness of time, order and sequencing of events
  • Count objects, actions and sounds
  • Subitise - the ability to instantaneously recognise the number of objects in a small group without the need to count them
  • Link the numeral with its cardinal number value
  • Compare numbers and number sets
  • Recall number bonds and be able to do simple addition
  • Investigate how shapes can be combined to make new shapes
Understanding the World (includes Science & Geography)
  • Show curiosity and observe and manipulate objects
  • Investigate construction materials and small world equipment
  • Use a range of objects and tools safely and appropriately
  • Observe changes in the environment, weather and living creatures
  • Have opportunity to be involved in long term growing projects i.e., seeds / plants / vegetables
  • Explore their environment and notice features in the place where they live and natural world
  • Recognise that some environments are different to the one in which they live
  • Gain an awareness of the cultures and beliefs of others
  • Understand the effect of changing seasons on the natural world around them
Expressive Art & Design
  • Explore colour, shape, pattern, form and space in 2 and 3 dimensions
  • Recognise how sounds can be changed; sing simple songs from memory and make sounds and with body rhythm and musical instruments
  • Listen to a range of music/rhythm/instruments
  • Make constructions, collages, paintings and drawings using a range of media and materials
  • Learn through all of their senses
  • Use imagination and ideas, and communicate some of those ideas to others
  • Use their bodies to explore texture and space
  • Work creatively on a large and small scale
  • Use a range of tools and materials with assistance
  • Explore and engage in music making and dance, performing solo or in groups
  • Develop storylines and rules in their pretend play