Foundation Updates

Welcome to Foundation

We are excited to be working with your child as they begin their learning journey with us.  

At Courthill Infant School we deliver an exciting and enriching curriculum that inspires them to be lifelong learners.  Our aim is to ensure that your child gets the best out of these early stages in their school life. On this page you will find general information about Foundation but also ways you can help at home. At the bottom of the page you will find learning updates and topic webs explaining what your child will be doing every half term. 

We understand that you may have questions regarding your child’s learning.  If your question is not covered in the page below, please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher or email the office at office@courthill.coastalpartnership.co.uk.  

During their time in Foundation, every child will be given the opportunity to ‘Believe, Achieve and Shine’. 

P.E day (Tuesday or Wednesday) and Fun Fit Friday (Friday)  

On your child’s PE day they will need to come to school wearing their PE kit. Please see your P.E day below: 

Dragonflies and Ladybirds - Tuesday 

Bees and Butterflies - Wednesday 

Every Friday your child will come to school wearing their own sports clothes. Throughout the day there are increased opportunities for children to be active, both within and outside the classroom. As a result of our learning ethos, children go on to thrive emotionally, academically and socially.   

Typical Day in Foundation

Must Reads 

At Courthill, we have a selection of books named our ‘Must Reads’. These are books that have been carefully considered and chosen by teaching staff and they are the books that we ensure children are exposed to and enjoy during their time at Courthill. These high-quality texts have been selected to reflect the wonderfully diverse community we have at our school, as well as take the children on a varied reading journey.  

Our list of ‘Must Reads’ have been split into each year group to ensure a progressive reading curriculum. Below you will see the books selected for Foundation. By the end of Foundation, all of the children will have heard and enjoyed these books in class, but they may wish to add them to their own collection at home.  Re-reading and discussing favourite books is a highly valuable part of the reading experience and something that can also be enjoyed as a family.  Happy reading! 

How can I help my child at home?

Phonics

Maths

Number Formation 

Department for Education (Dfe) support for parents 

Spring 2 - Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots

The children have immersed themselves in our ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’ topic this half term. We began by learning about the different signs of spring and the children enjoyed going on a walk through the woodland area looking for signs of the new season. They commented on the differences between winter and spring within the environment, resulting in some brilliant independent writing about the different changes they saw.

 The children have also enjoyed reading the stories of ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’, ‘The Gigantic Turnip’, ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ and ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. They have engrossed themselves within each story learning about story settings, characters and questioning the similarities and differences to the world around them.

There was further excitement when the children gained five new ‘hairy’ members in their classes: caterpillars! We have enjoyed watching the life cycle of the caterpillars and they have all been very responsible looking after them.

Spring 1 - Once Upon a Time

Our ‘Once Upon a Time’ topic is unfortunately drawing to a close and what adventures we have had! Each week the children have arrived to a find a different fairy tale character visiting their classroom leaving clues linked to their story. This has helped capture the children’s imagination and support their learning. We have had the sounds of goats bleating, Chinese dragon dancing, wolves howling, scattered straw, escaping gingerbread men with CCTV evidence and most recently a missing chair and a very rude letter. These inspirations have resulted in fantastic role play and independent writing to go on display.

Autumn 2 - Let's Celebrate

This half term, Year Foundation children have been learning about different types of celebrations. We have found out how people celebrate birthdays, weddings, Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this topic and have been full of curiosity, showing great interest in the stories and customs. We also celebrated the end of our ‘Let’s Celebrate’ topic by inviting families back to school to search for hidden letters by torchlight. The children were delighted to find all the letters, collect their prize and eat an evening snack in the hall. Thank you very much to everyone who came – we were able to make over £150, which will be spent on new resources for the children.

This week has brought mischief and mayhem to the Foundation base, courtesy of the cheeky elves. They have been very mischievous by hiding in a Christmas tree and turning over all of our classroom chairs! We are also very proud of all our children for taking part in their first Christmas singing assembly. They performed beautifully and worked very hard to play their instruments in time with the music. Thank you everyone for attending and for joining us at our ‘Stay and Play’ – the children loved completing our Christmas themed activities (please see photos below). 

Autumn 1 - Magical Me

This half term, the children have been thinking about routines, friendship and understanding their emotions. They have enjoyed learning about ‘The Colour Monster’, coming up with brilliant ways to make others feel better if they are missing home.

We have loved talking about our family photos in class – even learning about families in Kenya linking to our story ‘Handa’s Surprise’. We talked about the food they liked and disliked and tasted the fruit from Handa’s basket (the mango was a particular favourite)!

The children have also been learning about pets and have loved meeting lots of new animals in class. We have been very lucky to learn about dogs, cats, lizards, guinea pigs and stick insects! The children were introduced to our very own class pets (cuddly toys) who will spend time in each child’s home – we cannot wait to find out what they get up to!                                                                           

Nursery Stay and Play

On Wednesday 11^th October 2023 the Key workers from our local nurseries were invited to a ‘stay and play’ session at Courthill. We feel the children have settled in to school life beautifully and we wanted to celebrate that with the people who they began their childcare journey with. The children were very excited to show their old Key Workers where they hang their coats, play with their toys and enjoyed talking them through their new daily routines. It was wonderful to see the children confidently giving tours of the Foundation base and showing a sense of pride of their surroundings.