The Early Years Unit at Holy Family Catholic Primary School takes children from 2 years old. We offer a variety of sessions on a flexible basis, including accepting the 30 hours childcare codes. We do this as we aim to meet
the needs of families.
Once children join our Early Years Unit our primary aim is to get to know the children in our care. We do this through careful observations and high-quality interactions. We pride ourselves in knowing all of our children well. We tune into their interests and use these to inform our planning of our Early Years environment.
All of the children, regardless of age, have a play-based curriculum where they can follow their interests and explore both the indoor and outdoor classrooms. As time goes on, children are introduced to adult-led activities, which aim to teach age-related expectations based around our pre-determined end points for each Nursery in each half term. During their time in the 3-year-old nursery, children will be introduced to Read Write Inc by learning initial sounds with picture cards and Fred Talk Games. This will be done through fun, play-based activities led by an adult.
Children will always have the chance to consolidate their learning within the environment, as all aspects of our learning are embedded into our provision, both indoor and outdoor. When children reach Reception, they will continue with Read Write Inc, which continues throughout Reception and Key Stage one.
We continually observe and assess our children to ensure that the activities that we offer in our environment provide enough challenge and interest to our children. We make our observations in a variety of ways, including using the EvidenceMe app. Through observations, we will see the progress that children make and be able to intervene if we feel that a child may need support in a particular area. We have excellent links with the Early Years SEND Team and a range of other agencies that we can get support if needed.
We feed back to parents at regular intervals throughout the school year (Meet the Teacher, Parent Drop-in sessions, Parent Review Day, Early Years Open Week) and regularly ask parents to update us on things their children do at home through the Class Dojo app. We hope that this has given you a feel for the curriculum that we offer at Holy Family Catholic Academy. The best way to get a feel for what we do is to experience it for yourself, so please get in touch for a visit to see our environment in action.
