Early Years
Early Years is home to the youngest members of our BBS community. The building houses the Nursery, Reception and Year 1 children in the heart of the Grunewald. Here the children have the ideal place to explore at first hand the world around them.
The building consists of two Year 1 classrooms, a Reception area and a Nursery area. Completely fenced and very spacious, the outdoor play area consists of a large sandpit, a roadway for bikes, tables and chairs, musical instruments, small wooden houses and lots of other play equipment suitable for 3-6 year olds. We have a morning break and a lunch break when the children can play outside. The staff also use the outdoors for educational activities. Each week the children in Reception and Nursery go out for a walk in the adjoining woods.
In the Reception and Year 1 classrooms there are interactive smart boards which the staff use to support the children in their lessons. All staff are well trained in the use of computers and are familiar with a wide range of software. The Numeracy scheme of work is based on “Abacus Evolve” which includes a strong element of interactive activities. Likewise, Literacy (including handwriting and spelling) and Topic lessons often contain an element of interactive activities.
The curriculum at Early Years is based on the National Curriculum for England and Wales.
The School Day at Early Years
Nursery
| Beginning of the day | 08.45 |
| Registration | 08.45 – 09.00 |
| Session 1 | 09.00 – 10.40 |
| Break | 10.40 – 11.00 (includes snack) |
| Session 2 | 11.00 – 11.50 |
| Lunch | 11.50 – 13.15 |
| Session 3 | 13.15 – 14.30 (includes break) |
| Session 4 | 14.30 – 15.00 |
| End of the day | 15.00 |
Reception
| Beginning of the day | 08.45 |
| Registration | 08.45 – 09.00 |
| Session 1 | 09.00 – 10.40 (includes snack) |
| Break | 10.40 – 11.00 |
| Session 2 | 11.00 – 11.55 |
| Lunch | 11.55 – 13.05 |
| Session 3 | 13.05 – 14.30 (includes break) |
| Session 4 | 14.30 – 15.00 |
| End of the day | 15.00 |
Year 1
| Beginning of the day | 08.45 (8.30 on Mon and Tues) |
| Registration | 08.45 (8.30) – 08.50 |
| Session 1 | 08.50 – 10.40 (includes snack) |
| Break | 10.40 – 11.00 |
| Session 2 | 11.00 – 12.00 |
| Lunch | 12.00 – 13.05 |
| Session 3 | 13.05 – 14.15 |
| Session 4 | 14.30 – 15.00 |
| End of the day | 15.00 |
Nursery and Reception
In the Nursery and Reception classes the curriculum guidance for the “Foundation Stage” is used and covers six areas of learning:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Communication, Language and Literacy
- Problem solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
- Knowledge and Understanding of the World
- Physical Development
- Creative Development
The six areas are incorporated into “Topics” for each of the half terms. The topics are:
Autumn 1 - Nursery Rhymes/Stories
Autumn 2 - Food/Festivals
Spring 1 - Dinosaurs
Spring 2 - Growing
Summer 1 - Space
Summer 2 - Water
In addition to the above, both Nursery and Reception receive specialist Music and PE lessons. In the Reception class the children have two German lessons (or EAL for those children who need to learn English).
Year 1
In Year 1 all lessons, with the exception of German, are taught in English and the children are encouraged to speak English throughout the school day.
The National Curriculum is divided into subject areas: Literacy, Numeracy, Topic (includes Science, History and Geography), Art, ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and PSHE (Personal, Social, Health Education), PE (Physical Education). These areas are taught using Topics which make thematic links between the subjects and ensure that all learning takes place in context.
The topics for Year 1 are:
Autumn 1 - Ourselves
Autumn 2 - Light and Dark
Spring 1- Sorting and Using Materials
Spring 2 - Pushes and Pulls/ Toys in the Past
Summer 1 - Growing Plants/The Seaside
Summer 2 - Local Area
In addition, the children have two music lessons each week, taught by a specialist music teacher. PE and swimming, for which we are fortunate to use the pool at the Olympic Stadium, are also taught by specialists and German lessons are taught twice a week by experienced German teachers. Where children need support in learning English there are EAL lessons twice a week.
The Year 1 children are taken to Primary School twice a week where they have their weekly ICT lesson in the computer room.
Throughout the year the children have a wide range of extracurricular activities. There are lunch time and after school clubs available to all except the Nursery children. These range from the ever popular Football Club to the Computer Club. The clubs are generally run by staff but parents are more than welcome to offer a club if they would like to share their enthusiasm for an activity with the children.
Each Wednesday morning parents are invited to join the staff and children for assembly in the Early Years hall. Here a member of staff reads a story, often with the assistance of some of the children. We sing songs and celebrate the birthdays of both staff and children. Each week a child is chosen to be “Star of the Week” and awarded a wrist band, which they can keep, and the “Star of the Week” cap which they can wear for the following week. When there is a special celebration such as Diwali or Hanukkah the children have the opportunity to hear the stories traditionally associated with a particular festival. In November we have an evening event to celebrate Laternenfest.
During the year each class or year group will take the children out of school for the day to visit a place of educational interest. In the Autumn Term the Year 1 children visit the Planetarium to complement their work on “Light and Dark”. In the summer the Nursery children often visit the farm to find out more about the animals they have been talking about in class.
The grand finale of the school year at Early Years is the Summer Production. This is a performance in which every child is able to participate. The songs are practised during the music lessons from around May. In the summer of 2010 the songs were written by the music teacher, with the help of the children. The performance takes place outside in the sunshine and is always a fantastic event with which to end the school year.
