Welcome to Team Barn Owls

At the experience level, pupils should encounter learning in a range of contexts and be given opportunities to observe, explore and play.  This stage is about experiencing new concepts and ideas through play and exploration. It is about being creative and curious. It is about encouraging pupils to ask questions. We encourage pupils to take themselves on their own journeys of discovery. Role play, play-based learning and creative activities are the vehicles for learning. Learning is implicitly linked to the whole-school themes through careful selection of resources and experiences. We take every opportunity to support learning in real life situations through visits and visitors. Staff are enablers and facilitators of learning at this stage through questioning, and modelling awe and wonder at the world.

This is the foundation for empowering our pupils to take on the world.

In Barn Owls, this is centred around play-based learning; pupils learn through play and in small groups or 1:1 to focus on individual literacy and numeracy targets. Pupils take part in some whole class activities in order to begin to work as a group to prepare them for the next class. Pupils will learn to talk and through talk, with a key focus on learning to talk.

Autumn 1 - Community - Topic Theme 'All About Me'

This topic is about learning all about each other, our families, our communities and to build a sense of community within the class.  We will learn all about our local communities and people who help us in those communities.  We will learn about each other and why each of us is special.  There will be a focus around the creating a sense of belonging in our new class and how to make friends, sharing our hobbies and facts about ourselves with our friends.  We will have the opportunity to go out into the community and use different modes of transport for our visits.

The oracy focus is Inform and Explain. Pupils will learn about each other through talking about likes and dislikes, through ‘getting to know you’ activities and through visits.  They will use role play to take on different roles within the cinema.  They will consider how different people in the cinema talk and act, part of the Physical Strand. They will develop their presentational skills over the half-term, with progressively more demanding expectations (eg formality, tone, gestures), part of the Physical Strand. The topic will lead up to the Celebrate Activity – Movie Premiere! Pupils will collectively make a film telling the audience about themselves and their new class, considering the language they can use to inform their audience all about Barn Owls.