Early Years at Newlands Primary School

‘The wider the range of possibilities we offer children, the more intense will be their motivations and the richer their experiences’.

Loris Malaquzzi

Intent and implementation

At Newlands Primary School we understand that children have a thirst for new experiences and we thrive to make these meaningful and engaging, ensuring that children learn more and remember more.  We believe that all children are individuals with their own strengths and interests and we value each and every learner.  Staff work collaboratively to create positive relationships, ensuring that all children feel safe, secure and happy and know that they belong.  We build upon children’s prior experiences and interests, deepening their learning and providing them with skills to support their learning and achieve their next steps.

I promise you everyday your child will learn something.

Some days they will bring it home in their hands.

Some days they will bring it home in their heads,

and some days they will bring it home in their hearts.

- Valeries Welk

During your child’s time in Year R they will be immersed in a well-planned and resourced curriculum offering them the opportunity to develop and consolidate both new and previously learned skills. Our curriculum is designed around topic with themes that run for a couple of weeks and sometimes a term. We plan opportunities for children to have experiences that they wouldn’t necessarily have had. Through our topics we build our reading, writing and number skills to deepen the children’s skills in these areas of learning. Children look like they are ‘just playing’ but by an adult being at hand to ask well thought through questions the children at Newlands are in fact being inquisitive and developing reasoning skills to go alongside the literacy and maths skills they are learning. Adults in the Year R setting are children’s ‘play partners’ their role is to be available to participate in self chosen activities and gently encourage children’s learning and understanding to be moved on.