Welcome to Belamy Class!

Belamy class is home to our Reception children who are aged 4-5 years. Our class teacher is Mrs Sibley who is ably assisted by TAs Mrs Faulkner (Mon-Thurs) and Mrs Shearer (Fridays).

Our mission within the Early Years Foundation Stage is to be a caring unit that enables children to succeed as unique individuals and celebrate their achievements. We strive for a place where the children are inspired and develop interests in learning for life, within a happy, creative and secure environment. Foundation Stage is the start of the children’s school life and we create strong foundations for the children which embed good attitudes for learning. These foundations are the building blocks to support children on their journey through a happy and successful life in education.

As a whole staff team, we aim to:

• Create a stimulating learning environment which ensures each child achieves their full potential
• Ensure that every child receives a broad and balanced education of the highest standard, and are helped to discover their individual strengths
• Maintain a safe, caring, happy community where every child matters and each child feels safe, nurtured, loved and supported
• Encourage respect for each other and for the environment
• Create self-motivated, self-disciplined, confident, independent thinkers
• Nurture the spiritual, moral, social, emotional and physical wellbeing of each individual for life
• Build strong partnerships with families to create an open and welcoming school
• Develop and promote lively and inquisitive minds with the desire and skill to explore new ideas
• Foster a sense of awe and wonder and develop natural curiosity, so children enjoy learning in and out of school
• Encourage our children to believe in themselves, whist equipping them with the fundamental skills to enjoy and achieve in life
• Interact with all the children to develop language acquisition and oracy.

In Belamy, our intention is to develop an ethos in which all will thrive. Diversity and differences will be valued, respected and celebrated by all, and these aspects will contribute to the richness of our school life and learning.

All children in the Foundation Stage are taught in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.

In Belamy we teach the children to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. They learn to form each letter, spell correctly, and compose their ideas step-by-step, using Read Write Inc.

We follow White Rose Maths, a maths mastery programme which builds a culture of deep understanding, confidence and competence in maths – a culture that produces strong, secure learning and real progress.

Our Learning Environment

We are incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful environment at Aston. We have large garden which is landscaped and includes climbing apparatus', a stage and music making features, a very popular Mud Kitchen, a large sand pit, water play and many toys to enhance their learning.

We have the benefit of having very close links with the main school and use the field, running track, reading shed and Monkey Mayhem climbing apparatus.

Get into Nature- Forest School

Once a week, we dress up in our wet weather clothing and visit our very own on-site Forest school. We explore, become curious and take care of our nature. Activities have included: bug hunts, making animal habitats, building nests, creating art with nature, exploring mark marking with charcoal and water. We also have physical challenges including an obstacle course, den building, swinging on the swing, climbing trees and its is all finished with a hot chocolate and storytime!

Year 6 Buddies

Our Reception children are partnered up with a Buddy. Buddies send home a letter to the children before they even start, to introduce themselves. Year 6 take huge pride in this role and form beautiful, caring relationships. They will meet every week and take part in activities such as: share a book, welly walks and play games.

Extras

We like to give our children something a  little extra!! We have memorable activities that our linked to days in our week. The children get very excited for these days and it helps with our structure and routines.

Messy Mondays

We like to start our week by having some sensory messy fun. This is where children can get hands on and explore different mixtures and textures. Aprons are needed!

Toasty Tuesday

Who doesn't like a piece of toast and butter? This is offered at snack time on a Tuesday. Children will spread their own butter and cut their toast safely.

Feast Fridays and Show and Tell 

Each Friday children will participate in creating a feast for our afternoon treat. We have made cakes, banana bread, soup, fruit salad and biscuits.

Show and tell is an opportunity to speak in front of an audience. This is a chance where can talk or show the talents that they have been growing. 

Our Learning Journey

This term's topic is To Infinity and beyond.

We will start our galactical journey by identifying where Earth sits in the solar system, then exploring the other planets, looking at star constellations, shapes of the moon and why they form, layers of the atmosphere and gravity. We will do this by sharing books, a wow! stargazing event and exploration within our continuous provision. 

In maths, we will be exploring shapes and their properties, developing our subitising skills and using tens frames and Numicon to partition numbers.

Our focused artist this term is Kandinsky. Kandisnsky uses shapes, line and colour to form interesting art works. As artists, We will begin to use a sketchbook that we will make.

Of course, Christmas is not the same without a nativity play. This is a chance to perform and have fun in front of an audience. We are very excited to perform for you!

Spring Term 4

This term's topic is 6 weeks of growing. Our focused text is Jack and the Beanstalk. The Giant sets the children a challenge to grow a beanstalk up to his castle! We will start the growing process and look at how that is successful. We will also look at lifecycles of frogs, chicks etc. This will also set our curiosity alight when we have some chirping, cheeping visitors!! To enhance our learning, we will take a trip Hook farm where we will hope to experience the lambing season.

Our focussed artist will be Eric Carle , as we explore pointillism in the very well known story The Hungry Caterpillar. 

As we approach Easter, Belamy will learn the importance of the Easter story in RE and will begin ask questions about Christianity.