Foundation Stage

Welcome to the Foundation Stage at Orchard View!

Our Foundation Stage at Orchard View provides a warm, welcoming, and stimulating environment where children begin their exciting journey of learning and development.

At the heart of everything we do is our academy motto:

“Together we learn, together we succeed.”

We believe that by working in partnership with families and supporting each child as an individual, we can lay the foundations for a lifelong love of learning.

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework, which supports children's development across seven key areas of learning. These are split into three prime areas and four specific areas.

The prime areas are crucial for children's early development and underpin everything we do:

• Communication and Language – developing speaking, listening, and understanding skills.
• Physical Development – improving coordination, movement, and promoting health and self-care.
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development – helping children build positive relationships, gain confidence, and understand their emotions.

As children grow and progress, the focus extends to four specific areas of learning:

• Literacy – encouraging a love of stories, reading, and early writing through engaging phonics (we use the Essential Letters and Sounds programme) and language-rich experiences.
• Mathematics – exploring numbers, patterns, shapes, and problem-solving through hands-on activities.
• Understanding the World – learning about the world around them, including people, communities, nature, and technology.
• Expressive Arts and Design – developing creativity through music, dance, role-play, art, and imaginative expression.

Our Foundation Stage curriculum is carefully balanced with both child-initiated play and adult-led learning opportunities. Children are encouraged to explore, ask questions and take ownership of their learning in a safe and supportive environment. Outdoor learning, creative exploration and real-life experiences are all integral to our approach.

We believe that by fostering curiosity, independence and a sense of belonging our pupils will develop the skills and confidence they need to thrive as learners.

At Orchard View, “Together we learn, together we succeed” is not just a motto-it’s the foundation of our early years provision and a guiding principle that supports every child to reach their full potential.

Meet our Foundation Stage Team!

Reading and Phonics in Foundation Stage

Reading is a key focus in Foundation Stage, as it lays the building blocks for children’s future learning across the curriculum. From the beginning of the year, children take part in daily, structured phonics lessons using our chosen phonics scheme, Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS). These are 20-30 minute lessons where a new letter sound is taught and new sounds sent home to practise at the end of each week.

Please visit our 'Phonics and Spellings' curriculum page for more information and further resources to support you at home.

Alongside phonics, we teach a love of reading through shared story time, high-quality texts and access to a reading area that encourages children to explore books independently.

To support reading beyond the classroom, children are sent home with reading books each week, carefully matched to their phonics ability. These books provide the opportunity for children to practise and apply their skills at home. Each child also has a reading record, which parents and carers are encouraged to use to share comments and celebrate reading achievements. We value this strong partnership with families and know that regular reading at home—alongside school—has a powerful impact on a child’s confidence, fluency and enjoyment of reading.

Reading List- Foundation Stage

Maths in Foundation Stage

In our Foundation Stage class, maths is taught through practical, hands-on activities to help children develop a deep understanding of number, number patterns, and shape, space and measure. A key focus is on subitising- the ability to instantly recognise small quantities without counting. This helps children build strong number sense and lays the foundations for future mathematical thinking. Through games, songs, stories and exploration, children learn to compare amounts, spot patterns and solve problems in meaningful, real-life contexts. Our aim is to make maths engaging, accessible and enjoyable for every child.

The children have 3-4 structured Maths inputs a week and then further opportunity to embed what they have learnt through practical activities inside and outside the classroom on a daily basis.

Topic Toolkits

Topic Toolkits are designed to help you to support your child's learning at home and to keep you up-to-date with learning themes and the topics taught across the year. 

We send this home at the start of each half-term.

Autumn 1

Autumn 1- Starting School and my Feelings