Welcome to AA Milne Class!
My name is Mr Collin, and we are the Honeypots side of AA Milne Class!
Our names are Mrs Simpson and Mrs Stevens, and we are the Tiggers side of AA Milne Class.
A.A Milne was an English author, most famously known for his books about the adventures of a loveable bear, Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends. Reception is the first step into a child’s education, where they themselves will go on adventures, form friendships and make exciting new discoveries every single day. We aim to create a colourful and inviting space, spreading across 2 indoor classrooms (named the Tiggers and the Honeypots) alongside a large outdoor classroom (named the 100 Acre Wood) to spark each child’s imagination and fuel their love of learning for many years to come.
“I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen.” A.A Milne
What is the Early Years Foundation Stage?
In EYFS, we strongly believe in the importance of practical, child-led learning, enabling children to investigate the world around them, ask questions and being there to help them to extend their skills, knowledge and understanding. We would like a child’s early experience of school to be that of joy, excitement and positive memories, the time that initiated a love of stories, early maths skills and pleasure of celebrating their individual achievements.
In September 2014 the Department for Education introduced a new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. This is statutory for all early years children and education providers. At our school the EYFS starts when your child enters Nursery and continues until the end of their time in Reception. The EYFS is a framework for child development from birth to the end of Reception Year of primary school. There are seven themes within the EYFS framework.
These seven themes are used to underpin the learning and development that your child will experience during their time in the EYFS. Children learn in many different ways: watching others, talking, asking questions, listening, exploring and investigating.
Play is the foundation of development and learning for young children and your child will continue to learn through play throughout the EYFS.
The EYFS recognises the importance of parents and carers working in partnership with the school to support their child’s learning. The most important way you can help your child is by talking, listening, playing and just having fun with them.
Every child, who attends one of our Vine schools, will receive a Vine Passport. This Vine Passport will
give every child the opportunity to challenge themselves, to broaden their horizons and to increase
their life experiences. There is a total of 40 challenges as you travel around your Vine Schools
Passport. There is no rush to complete it all at once; indulge yourself in the challenges and enjoy!
In the Vine Trust, we want to promote a love of reading in all of our pupils no matter what their age, gender or reading ability. Exposing children to a wide variety of good quality stories and texts helps to improve their vocabulary and comprehension skills whilst also introducing them to a whole host of experiences, both imaginary and real, that they might otherwise never experience.
At the Vine, we feel that parents and carers play a vital role in supporting pupils with their reading. Research into reading supports this belief and one finding in 2006 states that:
Parents and the home environment are essential to the early teaching of reading and fostering a love of reading; children are more likely to continue to be readers in homes where books and reading are valued (Clark and Rumbold, 2006).
We understand that it can be difficult to motivate children to read, especially now that technology is so appealing and accessible. It can also be challenging to get children to read different types of books. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Tom Gates, Harry Potter and books written by David Walliams are extremely popular and are great pieces of literature. However, it is important that children read a range of stories and books to support them in developing their own imagination and writing skills.
In light of this, we have produced a selection of lists to aid you at home in guiding and encouraging children to read a range of books. Each list contains good-quality, age relevant books that have stood the test of time and proven to be very popular with pupils that staff have taught over the years.
How to use the lists:
These lists are extensive but not exhaustive. There are so many wonderful options and choices for children to read today; we just need to make sure that we are encouraging them to do so.
Handwriting Lessons
Letter Formation Videos
