Foundation Phase

The Four Purposes
The curriculum meets the mandatory elements of the curriculum for Wales as the four purposes are central to all learning in the school. Through each lesson, learners are made aware of the four purposes, through child-friendly characters which depict the four purposes. These were created by staff and pupils were engaged in developing the characters and being part of the process. The school curriculum is broad and balanced, ensuring that all learners have planned opportunities and assessment activities across all the Areas of Learning.

Philosophy

Ysgol Ty Coch's philosophy is that children will have the opportunity to learn through experiential, investigative and directed play activities. For our children, it is important to achieve a balance between self-exploration and teacher intervention, in order to appropriately challenge pupils, enabling them to reach their full potential. We believe that children are at the centre of our teaching, and that each child’s achievements should be celebrated.

All aspects of a child's development are important and should be interlinked and used to reflect the development of the whole child. The foundation phase reflects learning in the following seven areas taken from the Framework for Children's Learning for 3-7 year olds in Wales:

Personal and Social Development, Well-being and Cultural Diversity
Language, Literacy and Communication Skills
Mathematical Development
Welsh Language Development
Knowledge and understanding of the World
Physical Development
Creative Development

Aims

To promote the child’s early language and communication skills.
To promote the child’s emotional development.
To promote the child’s cultural development.
To promote the child’s intellectual development.
To promote the child’s social development.
To promote the child’s physical development.
To provide a stimulating environment which encourages children to explore and learn.

Our main objectives

To provide a broad and balanced curriculum, bespoke to the individual needs of our learners. This is delivered through the Foundation phase teaching and learning model via: continuous provision, enhanced provision and focused tasks.

To provide children with a secure, happy, caring environment, taking into account their specific needs.
To enable children to communicate effectively, using augmentative forms of communication as appropriate.
To work closely with other agencies in order to provide a multidisciplinary approach.
To develop children’s language and reasoning skills
To encourage learning through direct experience and problem-solving.
To provide opportunities for children to direct their own learning and make choices.
To develop children's understanding of symbolic representation, reading and writing.
To encourage children’s creativity and exploration.
To develop each individual child’s self-esteem, confidence and sense of achievement.
To provide opportunities to learn and experience aspects of the Welsh culture, and that of other cultures.
To enable children to cope with fears, anxieties and difficult experiences.
To develop good home/school links with parents and carers.

We have developed a four-year thematic rolling programme based on the recommendations following the review of the curriculum in October 2015.

Foundation Curriculum

Year	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Year 1	Helping Hands	Overground, Underground	I Spy With My Little Eye
Year 2	Moving Machines	Red Dragon	Beside The Seaside
Year 3	Reach For the Stars	Whizz Around Wales	Furry Friends
Year 4	All About Me	Dancing Daffodils	How Does Your Garden Grow?

Parent Involvement

Parent involvement and support is seen as a valuable contribution in order to ensure a consistent approach to pupil learning. This is achieved by regular meeting with parents, Individual Development Plans (IDP's)/ Annual Reviews, invites to special celebration assemblies, parent coffee mornings and other events throughout the year. A home/school book and school newsletter is produced in order to inform parents of past and future events and pupil achievements. A copy of each child’s updated IEP is shared with parents, and parental input is an essential element of the child’s development at school. Home/school tasks are encouraged to support children's learning.

Curriculum

The curriculum is differentiated to ensure access for all pupils. The school highlights the need to reflect the individual priority needs of the pupils as identified in their statement of Special Educational needs and Annual Review. Key experiences are planned through termly topics that provide a broad and balanced, exciting and relevant curriculum. Due to the nature of our children, a strong emphasis is placed upon language, communication and conceptual development delivered through play activities.

The curriculum is delivered through a structured framework which incorporates long, medium and short term planning, ensuring continuity and progression throughout the phase. A familiar daily routine and consistent approach to managing learning and behaviour is an integral part of the delivery of the curriculum in our school. The local environment and regular visits into the community are valued and integrated into the planning of each termly topic. Visitors from the community are regularly invited to the school.

Collective Worship Foundation and KS2

The values taken from SEAL strands are celebrated via classroom activities/assemblies and collective worship practices, on a three-year rolling programme of activities.