Reception (Nightingale Class)
Welcome to Nightingale Class
Named after Florence Nightingale - British nurse, statistician, and social reformer who is best known as the founder of modern nursing
Class teacher: Miss Brooks & Mr McLeod
Learning Assistants: Mrs Bland and Mrs Lopez
This term, we are learning:
The areas of learning and development
In Longford Park’s Reception Class, children progress within a language rich environment. We provide this by using every available opportunity to use language, to interact, to take turns, to share and to talk so we can empower every child, without exception, to become a successful citizen of the world.
The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum comprises seven areas of learning and development. All areas of learning and development are important and are interconnected. We want our children to be engaged, motivated, creative and curious. This will enable them to become problem solvers, critical thinkers, risk takers and independent learners.
Throughout the year, we provide rich learning opportunities which promote challenge and enable children to become independent and resilient learners. Our versatile resources enable children to have ownership over their learning and we create environments where children can have fun and create purposeful learning opportunities. Adults are considerate and nurturing and sensitively support children’s play, language development and thinking processes through positive relationships. This includes skilled questioning which helps to extend children’s thinking and understanding without interfering with their original ideas and thoughts.
Through the combination of our staff’s deep knowledge of child development, our environment, the planned adult-directed activities and ongoing high-quality interactions, Longford Park’s EYFS creates happy, confident children.
Learning in Nightingale Class
In planning and guiding children’s learning experiences, staff in our Reception classes reflect on the different ways that children learn and cater for these in their daily practice.
Three characteristics of effective learning in the Early Years are:
- Playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
- Active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
- Creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things
Playing and exploring with the willingness ‘to have a go’, alongside being an active learner engaging in ‘hands on’ experiences, develops each child’s ability to make links, share views and express ideas in a safe and supportive learning environment.
Learning experiences for our Reception children are planned around the seven Prime and Specific Areas of Learning and experience. Early Learning Goals summarise the knowledge, skills and understanding that all young children should have gained by the end of the Reception year.
Early Years practice is developed in line with ‘best practice’ guidelines and supports the concept of continuous provision, free-flow, and a predominantly child-led learning environment both indoors and outdoors. At the heart of this is the development of communication and language skills through ShREC interactions and targeted Wellcomm interventions.
As outlined in the EYFS statutory framework, our schools teach the seven areas of learning and follow progression documents which clearly outline what 2-3 year olds, 3-4 year olds and 4-5 year olds should know and be able to do in each area.
The progression documents for each area of learning can be found on this page: /1108/our-early-years-foundation-stage-curriculum
Partnerships with Parents
We believe children learn best when we work in close partnership with our parents and the wider community. There will be many opportunities to actively participate in your child’s learning through our STEAM showcases and family learning events.
We also use ClassDojo to record and share children's learning and communicate these with parents in real-time. At Longford Park, we encourage parents to comment and share the learning that happens at home, via ClassDojo. If you are have any issue accessing ClassDojo, please contact your class teacher.
Talking with your child:
Research shows speaking, listening, and understanding are central to every aspect of our lives. A child’s later educational success stems from their ability to express their needs, learn how the world works and communicate with others. These websites show short simple videos, such as when to introduce new vocabulary or how to have engaging back and forth conversation with your child.
We are a Healthy Smiles accredited school 
We are dedicated to supporting our children to improve their oral health and we encourage families to start good oral health habits from the earliest age with children to prevent tooth decay. Sadly, it is still a serious problem among young children, with tooth extraction being one of the most common procedures for children under 6 in hospital. Please speak to any member of our EYFS team if you would like more information about how you can support positive oral health habits in your family.
Phonics and Early Reading
Reading is a vital life skill, children who have stories and rhymes read to them regularly, will have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds. More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent lifelong learners. We can achieve this together through the Read Write Inc program to help your child learn to read fluently.
Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily and by giving them access to a wide range of books at home, at school, local library and through online resources linked below. For more information about we develop a love of reading at Longford Park, please see: /956/longford-loves-reading-childrens-book-reviews
Remote Learning:
In the event that remote learning is required, our school is committed to providing a seamless learning experience for all students. Your class teacher will share the necessary documents, videos and links to websites such as Oak National Academy through ClassDojo, ensuring that students have access to high-quality resources and lessons.
To see what the children in Nightingale Class have been up to last week, and over the rest of the term so far, please see our weekly newsletters here: /91/newsletters
Useful parent links:
How to support reading at home (phonics)
