A typical day in Hedgehogs...

The children come in to school saying good bye to mums and dads at the door – we like the Hedgehogs to be as independent as they can. They hang their coats up, put their lunch box and book bags away ready for the day to start.

The Hedgehogs have a mixture of child initiated sessions (we call this Investigation and Discovery time) and teacher directed sessions.

Investigation and Discovery time: This is the time where the children lead their own learning. They are allowed to choose from indoor or outdoor activities. Through their choices, and their play, we are able to get to know the children. We see how they engage with their peers and how they apply their knowledge: from this we work out their next steps in learning.

In the first school term Investigation and Discovery is an important time to build positive relationships with the children and find out about their likes, dislikes etc. It also allows me to see how and where we need to move their learning on.

In the later terms Investigation and Discovery time is a valuable time in which we teach the children through their play, using their interests to help them progress in all areas of learning.

Teacher Directed time:

This is the time in which the Hedgehogs are asked to complete certain tasks, which over the week cover all areas of learning. For example they might play a number game.

Phonics is taught every day, we follow the Twinkl phonics scheme.

Themes and Topics...

In Hedgehogs topics, or themes, are developed from children’s interests. Through observing their play and interactions, we discover all sorts of different interests which we then use to plan activities. Therefore we may have a theme that lasts a day, a week, or a few weeks, depending on the children’s enthusiasm for it. We may also have lots of different themes going on at once!

Just a little about the Early Years Foundation stage framework in Hedgehogs...

At the end of their year in reception the Hedgehogs development will be assessed against the Early Learning Goals. It is these goals that we teach from throughout the reception year - they provide the seven areas of learning (Personal Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Communication and Language, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, Expressive Arts and Design).

“Children develop at their own rates, and in their own ways.”

(Development matters in the EYFS, 2012)This underpins the ethos in Hedgehogs. To meet the individual needs of the children coverage of the framework varies from term to term and week to week. The skills we plan to teach each term depend on the stages of the children and so are planned on a short term basis.

For example some children may be working on their numbers to 5, others to their numbers to 10. It might be that some children we will be working on calculations as they are confident with their numbers to 20. Therefore each term we cover many aspects of the framework and different children may work on different things according to their unique development.

If at any point you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. You can always catch me on the playground after school to arrange a convenient time.