Welcome to Acorns!

Acorns marks the start of KS1 for your child.  However, we believe that the transition to a different curriculum shouldn’t mean a different style of teaching.  Children learn best through play.  Enjoyable, explorative experiences are essential to best answer the ‘Big questions’ we channel our learning through.

 We are lucky to be able to access outside space directly from our classroom which backs onto a beautiful orchard.   Young children need to move and use their hands and bodies to learn, and we always undertake practical activities to explore our learning. Stories, books and drama are essential to enrich children’s language and imagination.

 Acorns class also provides a transition between the EYFS and KS2, we support children to become increasingly independent in their recording on paper, both in English and in Maths -but at the right pace for each child.  (We prepare our children to do their very best in the Year 1 phonic check and KS1 SATS.)

Phonics in Acorns

In Acorn class we follow Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised for our phonics lessons. To support this, we have Little Wandle resources on display and available to support children with their learning. Alongside this we use Little Wandle reading books to run our Reading Practice sessions. These run three days a week and cover the skills needed to develop as a reader, as recommended by Little Wandle. Each day a different skill is covered. Day one is Decoding, Day two is Prosody and Day three is Comprehension. These books are then sent home to practice. Once we have finished phonics, we move onto Guided Reading and spelling rules. We also use Accelerated Reader when it is appropriate for each child. Every child also brings home a reading for pleasure book which can be changed as often as they like. This is a book that they may not be able to read independently but nurtures their love of reading and continues to develop their exposure to different genres and language. Any children who need extra support with their phonics attend daily catch up sessions.

We ensure phonics is taught using pure sounds only.  These links will show videos of children modelling pure sounds.

Phase 2 phonemes Autumn 1

Phase 2 phonemes Autumn 2

Phase 3 phonemes

Acorn Class Teacher:  Mrs Yates

Acorn Class TA: Mrs Friday

Acorn Specific support: Mrs Emery (part-time) and Miss Wallwork (part-time)

ACORN CLASS GALLERIES 2020 2021 GALLERY