The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
Reception Common Exception Words
Early Adopter (2020) Development Matters
Early Adopter (2020) Early Learning Goals
Interested in a place at Birchfield?
Your child and the Foundation Stage (All about FS)
Information for Parents: Reception baseline assessment (RBA)
What to expect in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) : A guide for parents
Information for Parents: Reception baseline assessment (RBA)
If your child is starting school this September (2021) they will be participating in the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) within the first 6 weeks of starting Reception. The purpose of the assessment is to provide the starting point for a new measure that will help parents understand how well schools support their pupils to progress between Reception and Year 6 / the end of Key Stage 2.
Please see the link on the left for further information.
Applying for a place at Birchfield
Parents can apply for primary school places between Monday 1st November 2021 and Saturday 15th January 2022. Information around applying for primary school places can be found on the school admissions webpage.
An open evening will be held in November. Please keep your eyes peeled for the date.
Information for Nursery and Reception
A child’s learning journey at Birchfield Primary School can start in the Early Years Foundation Stage. We pride ourselves in providing an excellent education in Nursery and Reception and we always like to welcome new children and families to our school.
Unfortunately, due to COVID, we are currently not showing any parents around our School. However, if you are considering putting your child’s name down for a place at Birchfield, please do give us a call – we will happily discuss any questions or queries over the phone. We like to share lots of information about our school to help you to decide whether Birchfield is the right place for you.
If you are offered a place, we ensure that our welcome process is thorough. Currently, we cannot visit families at home however we have been completing 'garden visits' and invited new starters to come to stay and play. This offers and opportunity to discuss any queries or concerns and so that the children can meet the team. We also add our children to Class Dojo and Tapestry prior to them starting in our unit so that the teachers can read stories/set challenges for the children so that they can make relationships and ease the transition into school.
We believe that if we work together then a child’s experience of starting school can be extremely positive and happy. We work hard to ensure that this good relationship extends all the way through school with our open door policy.
The Foundation Stage Unit
Within Birchfield Primary Foundation Unit, we promote a love of learning within a safe and happy school environment. Every child is unique and important to us. Within the framework of the Foundation Stage Curriculum, we provide a creative and challenging curriculum and environment which encourages the children in our care to grow their learning, confidence and self-esteem.
In our unit at Birchfield, you will see a variety of learning in the areas of provision that are both indoors and outdoors. During the school day there is a balance of child-led learning and adult-directed tasks which are carefully planned to practise a particular skill. The children’s progress is recorded and tracked using an online learning journal called Tapestry, which parents are encouraged to view and contribute to. These observations and next steps will then feed in to future activities to ensure the children’s learning is progressing.
Take a virtual tour of our Outdoor Area. Children have free flow access to this all year round and we love watching the seasons change in our big space.
If you would like some ideas and activities please visit:
https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/#3
Please see our Class Pages for our Remote Learning or click here:
New to Nursery or Reception? Click here for further information about transition and starting school:
The EYFS Co-ordinator is Mrs Threlfall who can be contacted by completing the form below.