Small Foundation Stage Class

[Guest]

Hello all !

Posting for the first time and thank god there are so many experienced people to call upon!!

Having taught F Stage for several years but always in either YR R or Nursery and in larger intakes, I now have small class of 8 Reception and 5 Nursery combined. I Only have one small classroom and was wondering - Am I supposed to be separating the children for lit and num focus ( The head says I should be making sure Yr R have lit and num focus each day) or intergrating them altogether ? Reception become part of mixed Yr R/1/2 class in the afternoon.

 

Hoping for some advice!

 

Thanks

 

Julie

[Guest]

Sorry unable to help, I am from a preschool.

What works for your class dynamics?

 

just wanted to welcome you, Macca, and hope your late night is because you are enjoying the forum and not because of your query keeping you awake

 

lots of advice will be on it's way tomorrow I'm sure.

 

Peggy

[AnonyMouse_79]

Hi Julie and welcome!

 

Not sure I can help really but if your head wants you to have a lit and numeracy focus every day then I guess that is what you must do, however depending on your nursery children it would not be impossible to do this together as the numbers are so small and differentiate accordingly. On the other hand, it could be equally appropriate to split the group and due to the time restraints I think that a mixture of the 2 is probably the way I would try but I think you need to be flexible and find the way that works best for you. I presume you have some support to help with this and I am sure that once you and the children get used to the routine, all will be well.

 

Someone working in a FSU may have better ideas.

 

Good luck.

[Guest]

Hi Julie, not sure if I can help but I'll try...I work in a FSU with main responsibility for the 30 Reception children. We're still doing initial baseline assessments and observations at the moment to help us with differentiating activities when we get going. Because we're still 'sussing out' exactly what the children can/can't do, we're having focussed play activities that link to the different areas of the Foundation Stage. We're not doing any 'formal' phonics/number until we've assessed where exactly the children are starting from..hoping to complete this next week.

Once we've done this we are lucky to have quite a big space so we have different areas of the room ( CLL, Mathematical, Creative,etc) and we show the children the areas and tell them what kinds of things they can do, we begin by using our Nursery Nurse to take small gps to 'play' in the area beforehand. We do a literacy and numeracy focus every day too but short number/phonic games/ big books to begin with and we build up gradually to the Literacy Hour/ Numeracy 45mins usually after Easter to prepare Reception for Year 1. We obviously have many more children than you but if nursery want to sit and join in, we let them and we involve them at their level. We find that sometimes the Reception children enjoy it when we let them choose a 'nursery friend' for activities or play and they act like excellent mentors for nursery children. If your classroom is very small, you may want to consider how you can use areas outside of the classroom, outdoors, hall,etc . Also having a number box or literacy box for children's free choice resources may help (?). If you have a nursery nurse maybe she could give Reception an input sometimes so that you can 'play' with the younger children and extend their vocabulary, etc Your setting and situation is very different to mine so I'm not sure if I've been of any help but just let me know if you would like any more info about how we work. Just a question... do any lower ability Year 1s get to work with you in the classroom to secure their knowledge? Sorry I've nattered so long!!!!

[AnonyMouse_1027]

hello and welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy it

[Guest]

Thank You to all who replied. My late night was because I couldn't stop reading the fascinating discussions!! Have tried to rearrange my small space today, using the 'porch' which has small carpeted space for a construction area to free up and try to define a 'carpet area' which we can use for focus inputs if required away from the younger children. Being able to access so many ideas and so much advice is great as its not always easy to get out to visit other settings.

 

Will keep you posted!!

 

Thanks again

 

Julie

[Guest]

Hi Julie-me again ! Just found there's lots of 'small school networks' around the country if you do a search on google-don't know if that will help