Welcome to Stoke Class

Welcome to our Foundation Unit, Stoke class. We accept children from the age of 3 years, right up until the end of the Foundation Stage (5 years old).  Our teacher is Mrs Mitchell and our Teaching Assistants are Meg Brassil and Charlotte Ellis.

The children work in a 'free flow' way between inside and outside. All resources are available for them to take off the shelves and use; they always seem to find interesting ways of using them! Each week there are a range of hands on, engaging activities set up for the children to do, the ideas change through the week as the children develop their ideas.  Alongside this, we have lots of large loose parts outside, like wooden planks, gutter pipes, tyres and logs. The children work together to create different structures. One day they could become a road, another a castle!

As well as our lovely classroom, we have the use of our own outdoor play area and mud kitchen, just for Foundation children, and we also access other areas of the school grounds.  In addition, we make good use of our beautiful local surroundings by visiting such places as the Community Orchard and Community Playing Fields. On Fridays, we walk to the woods to our Forest School area. In the Summer term we visit Mothecombe for Beach School.

We use the Cornerstones Curriculum to provide an exciting topic-based provision. We plan this carefully using Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to ensure that all children make good progress and leave ready to start Year One.  If you would like to know more about this, then you can find a parent-friendly version at: https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2015/03/4Children_ParentsGuide_2015_WEB.pdf We also follow the interests of the children and ensure that we are supporting them in the best possible way. 

This half-term, our topics are focused on 'Sunshine and sunflowers' and 'Shadows and reflections'. Please see the attached document below, a topic overview for each area of learning. 

Phonics – We teach daily phonics using the Read Write Inc programme. Children take home reading books that are carefully matched to their phonic ability and are regularly assessed to ensure progression is being made or to identify where more support could be needed.