Welcome to EYFS at Brookfield

The first year of school is an exciting time for both parents and children! Starting school is a special milestone in the lives of families, and we feel privileged to share this experience with you. Together, we will support each other through the amazing adventure that lies ahead. 

In our Reception class, we work together to ensure that your child experiences a fun, stimulating, and active learning environment, helping them reach their full potential across all aspects of the curriculum. We recognise that every child is unique, and we cater to this by offering inclusive learning experiences. We are confident that your child will enjoy the new challenges and learning approaches as they begin their journey at Brookfield with our experienced EYFS team and school family.

Meet the Team

• Miss Hodgson: I have been privileged to work in Early Years as a Reception Teacher for the past nine years. This is my second year at Brookfield and I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of such a wonderful community of staff, children, and families. Early Years is my true passion, and I am excited to watch your child grow and flourish throughout the year. As a strong advocate for helping children reach their full potential, I strive to create a high-quality learning environment where teaching, planning, and provision come to life through rich experiences, imaginative role play, and sensory learning. Every teacher has the power to shape a child’s journey, and it brings me great joy to give your child the very best start in their education.

• Miss McElhome: I am proud to be in my ninth year at Brookfield and exceptionally happy to be part of the Early Years team. I first joined the school as a volunteer while studying for my degree and have been fortunate to become well established and a full-time HLTA through my hard work and passion for teaching. I am extremely lucky to teach in all classes across school, which I really enjoy as it gives me the chance to work all our wonderful children and their families. This gives me superb knowledge of the progression within the curriculum, which I can use to support the children's learning. I truly love my job and feel privileged to be part of such a supportive and caring school community. 

• Mrs Harrison: I am an experienced teaching assistant who has also worked hard to get my teaching qualification over the years that I have been working in a multitude of schools. I love fostering positive relationships with both children and their families, whilst bringing learning to life through exciting indoor and outdoor provisions. 

We are also very fortunate to have some wonderful students work with us in EYFS throughout the year. These students have come to our school with the purpose of also making a positive difference in the children's lives, whilst learning through College/University. Our students are very much valued as part of the EYFS team. 

Our Learning Approach

We believe that each child is an individual who learns continuously through positive relationships, a stimulating environment, and rich learning experiences. To support this, we offer a balance of child-initiated and adult-led activities, fostering curiosity and encouraging active learning. Our indoor and outdoor classrooms provide a range of practical experiences, and each day includes regular sessions in Phonics, Literacy, Mathematics, and Reading. Additional curriculum areas are scheduled throughout the week, which you can find on our class timetable. Our learning is linked to stories we read daily, with focused topics explored throughout the year.

Our School Ethos

At Brookfield, our ethos, vision, and values are at the core of everything we do. We live by our mission statement: "Many hearts make a school" and emphasise our protected characteristics. Our children will:

• Be happy and secure

• Be high achieving learners-making excellent progress in relation to prior attainment

• Be enthusiastic and highly motivated to learn

• Develop key skills

• Be good role models-demonstrate positive attitudes and behaviours characterised by high self-esteem, independence, resilience and responsibility

• Be respectful to other children and adults

• Be respectful of the school environment

• Become well-rounded citizens

Our Topics

We cover a variety of engaging topics throughout the year:

• Autumn 1: Snuggle up with a book (Our favourite stories, based on Julia Donaldson)
• Autumn 2: Walking in a winter wonderland (Winter)
• Spring 1: Let's go on a Road Trip! (Transport)
• Spring 2: Not all Heroes wear capes (People Who Help Us)
• Summer 1: Oh I do love to 'bee' beside the seaside (The Living World around us)
• Summer 2: And they lived Happily Ever After (Traditional Tales/Fairy-tales)

Supporting Your Child’s Learning

Your role in supporting your child to become an independent learner is invaluable. You can help by ensuring that your child can do the following things to prepare them for the beginning of their school journey with us:

• Dress and undress themselves
• Zip their coat up and down
• Hold a pencil using the tripod grip
• Handle tools like scissors with care
• Write some or all of their name
• Recognise their name
• Take care of their toileting needs
• Identify some colors, shapes, numbers, and letters, especially those in their name

At home, you can further support your child’s learning throughout the year by:

• Reading both fiction and non-fiction books with them, discussing the main story settings, events, illustrations, and characters- who, what, where, when, why, how?
• Recognising different shapes and numbers in your environment, e.g. door number, car plates, magazines, remote control
• Providing opportunities for counting objects and comparing quantities, e.g. baking, nature hunt, daily chores such as pairing socks, shopping trips
• Providing opportunities for letter recognition in your environment, e.g. street signs, car plates, shopping trips to supermarkets, newspapers
• Encouraging independent reading by sounding out and blending words
• Providing short mark making/writing opportunities, e.g. shopping lists, birthday cards, name tags for teddies

Parental Involvement and Support

Parents as partners is something we strive for. Communication is important to us and we value the relationship that we develop with parents throughout this vital year of the children's learning journey. By working together, your child will become the best version of themselves. We provide plenty of support for parents at Brookfield. Throughout the year, we offer a variety of Parent Workshops on topics such as writing, maths, and phonics. We also encourage parental involvement through class assemblies, book looks, visits, e.g. ERIC (Everybody Reads In Class), and school-wide events. You can find more information out about Parent Workshops including dates and times on the Parent Workshops page.

Gardeners and Seeds

We are proud of our school community and enjoy encouraging relationships flourish amongst our children. To help settle the EYFS children in, we have our 'Gardeners and Seeds' programme, where the Year 6 children are paired up with a Reception child each. This programme allows for plenty of support with the little ones. The programme occurs throughout the first full academic year. The Reception children and Year 6 children meet once a month to spend time together doing activities, as well as sitting with each other in assemblies once the younger children start to attend these after the Autumn term. 

PE at Brookfield

Our PE lesson is on a Tuesday. This session is run by PNE, who we are thrilled to have on board again this year! Please send your child dressed in their PE uniform every Tuesday, starting from Tuesday 2nd September, with their school PE hoody. All earrings must be removed or covered with plasters on a Tuesday, for the PE day. Please ensure that your child wears Velcro trainers as they cannot tie their own laces at this point. 

Uniform at Brookfield

School uniform is a significant part of life at school because it can play an important role in promoting a sense of pride, self-confidence, and a feeling of belonging within the student body. All these factors positively contribute to pupils' overall wellbeing. A polite reminder that children should be in regular uniform each day and PE uniform on their allocated PE Day(s).

School provide water bottles for all children, which are washed and refilled each day with fresh water. Please do not send a water bottle in for your child. A wide range of healthy snack is available each day, with fruit options and savoury (e.g. crumpets, toast, croissants) options available each day. This forms part of our 'snack time' which is supervised by an adult.

If you have any questions or concerns about school, please don't hesitate to speak to myself at the beginning or end of the day. Alternatively, you can make an appointment at the office to speak to myself at a mutually convenient time. Please be aware that we do not use ClassDojo for communication messages- this is used for daily communication from ourselves to families, e.g. day in the life, reminders, important information regarding school. 

We’re looking forward to a fantastic year with your child at Brookfield!