Early Years Practice and Provision
The education of even a very small child does not aim at preparing him for school but for life - Maria Montessori
Welcome to the Early Years Page. I am Miss Ash, the Assistant Head for Early Years at Riddlesden St Mary's. I am extremely passionate about Early Years education and ensuring children are given the opportunity to thrive.
We believe all children deserve the best start to their learning journey at Riddlesden St Mary's. Children start their journey in our 2 Year Old Provision, Tadpoles, before graduating into our Nursery class, Frogs, and finally entering Reception. We put play at the heart of our Early Years Curriculum and believe in giving children long, uninterrupted opportunities to explore and discover within our high quality learning environments.
Play is the highest form of research - Albert Einstein
Our Early Years Classes.
You can find out more about each of our classes by clicking on the buttons below.
Tadpoles - Our 2 Year Old Provision
Frogs - Our 3-4 Year Old Nursery
Curriculum
We pride ourselves in having a text rich curriculum which aims to foster a love of reading. Our learning for each half term is based around one or two high quality books.
We also offer a lot of enrichment opportunities, such as baking, inviting in visitors as well as taking advantage of the amazing grounds our school has to offer. Tadpoles, Frogs and Reception have regular opportunities to learn alongside Joel, our school garden and wildlife expert and Reception take part in forest adventure every week.
In Reception we also offer 'Learn to Bike' sessions where children learn to ride a balance bike before moving on to riding a pedal bike once they become a confident rider. This has been a huge hit with all pupils in Reception!
Parents as Partners
We believe parents play a vital role in their child's learning journey and aim to involve them in their child's learning throughout the Early Years phase. In Tadpoles and Frogs we hold regular stay and play sessions and in Reception we hold parent workshops which aim to support parents in how to help their child at home. We are also excited this year to be taking part in the '50 Things to do before you are 5: Parents as Partners Project'.
For a more detailed overview of our Early Years unit please read our EYFS Strategy: