Guest Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 We are a very small primary school - 85ish on roll and our Reception intake for September 2005 is 4 children!!! As funding will not allow us to employ a teacher for these children I have to include Reception with my mixed Year 1 and 2 class. Altogether there will only be 22 children (10 Y2, 8 Y1 4 R) with one full time teacher, a part time HLTA and a part time TA. How on earth do I manage this!!!! We are looking to create an Early Years Unit and I wondered if anyone had any experience of doing this. Any help regarding this will be greatly appreciated! Rileyh
AnonyMouse_1208 Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 Welcome to the Forum Rileyh. We have a FS Unit, but numbers are far greater than yours - up to 90 chn. at one time! I think it makes more sense to put Nursery and Reception together in a Unit (they are working on the same curriculum after all) than putting YR in with Y1 and Y2. I believe that there are 1 or 2 members in the same situation who may be able to give you some proper advice!!
AnonyMouse_64 Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 Hi Rileyh, Welcome to the forum. I'm afraid I don't have any experience of this but my daughter started school last year and is in a class of 18 children with 4 year groups together. This seems to work extremely well so it obviously can be done sucessfully!
Guest Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 Hi Rileyh, Welcome to the forum. I have a friend who has a mixed class and she says that good philosophy of the foundation stage has helped her yr1s too (role play area was turned into a 1930's house and was linked to the book Peepo - History really coming to life!) I'm sure that you'll get some great responses on here. All the best Ladybug
Guest Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 Hi everyone -my first post. I am an early years teacher and have just started a Foundation stage unit (last Sept) at a small school (38 ish on roll) I have 6 Year F2 and 8 younger children and with a T.A. work until 11.30. Funding for this is subsidised by our local L.E.A. The Year R are taught from 11.30 until lunch time by my highly competent T.A. and in the afternoon the children join the Key stage 1 class who at present have no T.A at all. On top of that the key stage 1 class is a job share. The difficulty here is the continuity between the classes. I have to ensure all C.L.L. and M.D focus activities are done in the morning as the F2 children have input for Q.C.A. schemes in the afternoon. The Foundation stage room is set up in learning areas which Key stage 1 use occasionally in the afternoons. This is excellent for the child initiated play that the F2 children need, but is a distraction to the older children following the Q.C.A schemes of work! The other afternoons they take a few play items through but its not the same. So this set up has its own problems to solve. As far as I can see you need to ask for some advice from your L.E.A What local provision for 3 and 4 year olds are there? Would you upset your community with your ideas. Its quite a sensitive issue! Have you suitable space? Proper toilet facilities? Outside area? Suitable play equipment for all 6 areas of learning? Do your L.E.A have any funding to offer? What about any liaison with play groups? Well that,s all I can offer for the moment but if you have any questions ask away. I,d also be interested to hear from anyone in a similar position to me as I feel pretty unique at the moment. My L.E.A. have not been actively supportive. Lynda
AnonyMouse_79 Posted March 20, 2005 Posted March 20, 2005 Welcome Rileyh and lynh. Its wonderful when new members make their first post!
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