Literacy And Numeracy In Reception

[Guest]

I am an NQT in 1 of 3 reception classrooms at present and we are currently in the process of 'revamping' our foundation stage practice due to a high staff turnover throughout the school - with a head and deputy who feel passionately about 'raising standards' especially in Literacy and Numeracy.

 

I was just wondering how people are structuring the sessions at present?

 

I am currently planning for 10 min carpet 20 2x focus groups (me and NN) and 'independent activities' (in my mind play!)

 

Our deputy however is quite keen for us to follow the planning of the rest of the school (that is the format) which implies a lot longer on the carpet (oral mental and main teaching) activities which are very structured and then a plenary.

[Susan]

You wont raise standards if you do it her way!

Short whole class teaching focus with literacy and numeracy activities integrated throughout the day are very appropriate with perhaps a morning and afternoon plenary.

There are some guidance leaflets available on the standards site which could be worth you downloading.

Good luck.

[Guest]

I completely agree with Susan. I know it is hard as an NQT but we need to fight our corners in Reception and clearly explain that 4 and 5 year old do not learn through lengthy inputs, and formal teaching i.e. literacy hour and Numeracy hour. What you are doing at present seems fine to me. In our class, we spend 10-15 mins max each day on whole class sessions, then two focus groups with myself and NN, the rest of the class work independently at child initaited activities.

 

I really feel strongly about expecting small children to concentrate for such long periods. They just can't cope with it all.

 

Sorry if i am having a moan, it is not at you, just wish people would realise the potential of learning through play, and the impact this has upon the child's progress.

 

Tiny

[Guest]

Found this and thought it was an interesting read......

http://readyweb.crc.uiuc.edu/library/1994/...sr/cur-ass.html

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for your support - I know that there is still a lot of 'justification' need for 'allowing' children to play. At present I am siting in front of my planning formats thinking - what on earth!

 

Last week I planned as has been suggested and it was my nursery nurse who pointed out that she thought that the children 'weren't ready' yet to sit down for such lengths of time - even in small group activities!

 

We will be visited by an Early Years Advisor soon (yippee!) I have met her before and she seems really clued up about what should be going on in the foundation stage! Lets just hope she can fight our battles with us!

[hali]

Totally agree Susan!!!!!!

[Guest Sycamore]

Unfortunatley it is the oldest battle in the book. The rest of the sschool don't really understand the FS and therefore think we should follow what the rest of the school does.

However they wouldn't have introduced the FS if this was the case. I think what you are doing seems fine. You are covering what the FS say to do. I cover some literacy and numeracy everyday with sounds games, or counting etc and always have a writing table, numbers jigsaws, shapes, pattern threading beads etc. Therefore we are covering everything but not in the 'hour' suggested when the NNS and NLS came in.

I hope you win the battle, good luck.

[catma]

The guidance is very open....

 

The FS curriculum guidance is "The core document" but practitioners should "refer" to the NLS when planning. All the NLS objectives can be covered throught he stepping stones/elg's anyway.

 

Practitioners can cover the elements of the NLS/NNS not as a sungle unit of time but across the day

 

Children should be introduced appropriately to the whole session by the end of reception.

 

Ask the advisor if there are any supporting documents produced by the LEA strategy team or Early Years team to help you!!

 

I do believe however that we need better dialogue in schools with the other keystages to end that "battle" and get rid of an us and them problem.

 

Contentious maybe............

 

[Guest]

Our LEA (Kent) seem to be advocating introduction of Lit Hour & Num Hour by the end of Year ONE!!! Gives a lot of freedom to reception teachers...

 

Dianne x

[Susan]

Shame your too far for a commute then, Dianne. At last someones seeing the light!

[Guest]

Funny you should say that as I trained at Canterbury Christ Church in Kent and trained to see the holistic nature in which children learn rather than 'thats you 10 minutes of this' and not think that children will be learning mathematically all the way through the day.