Our Vision

In the Early Years at Hugo Meynell, we believe in providing children with a safe and stimulating environment where they flourish. At Hugo Meynell Primary School, we are very lucky to be surrounded by beautiful grounds where our children are able to investigate, learn and thrive.  We pride ourselves on listening to children and those who care for them and using this information to personalise each child’s learning.  Learning should be fun and we strongly believe in first hand learning and valuing the importance of the environment to develop children’s thinking, language and problem solving skills.

We believe that every child is unique and should be treated so, allowing them the opportunity to develop and learn in a safe and nurturing environment where play and learning is combined.  We understand the importance of practical learning experiences and strive to equip children with a love of learning and a natural curiosity.

We are committed to giving our children the best possible start to their school life, teaching them skills which ensure their wellbeing now and success in the future.

Learning in our Foundation Stage

Our learning is based on the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, which is split into seven areas of learning: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Communication and Language, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding of the World and Expressive Arts and Design.  We use a range of cross-curricular continuous provision to ensure that the children have rich and rounded learning experiences, guided by the children’s interests and abilities.

The Characteristics of Effective Learning underpin everything we do, as they help develop the children’s skills as independent learners and enhance essential attributes for long term success such as perseverance, problem solving and critical thinking.  The Characteristics of Effective Learning are divided into three categories: ‘playing and learning’, ‘active learning’ and ‘creative and thinking critically’.

English - Reading & Writing

During English, children will explore a range of books and stories linked to our topics.  This will support children with their rapidly growing vocabulary and it will expose them to new and unfamiliar words and their meanings. Children will answer questions about texts and will discuss what they have read with an adult.  They will explore writing for different purposes including labels and captions, retelling stories, writing lists and simple instructions as well as creating short non-fiction pages.  Children will then develop the ability to compose, verbally recall and write their name, words, phrases and simple sentences that can be read by an adult.  In Reception, children will learn to use finger spaces, capital letters and full stops in their writing and also develop the ability to sound out new words for spelling.

Phonics

Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully. They are taught how to:

• recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes.

• identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make such as 'sh' or 'oo'; and

• blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word.

Children can then use this knowledge to 'de-code' new words that they hear or see. This is the first important step in learning to read.  Children receive daily phonics sessions in Early Years and KS1. Those children who require phonics in KS2 also receive Phonics interventions to support their reading.

At Hugo we have adopted a phonics scheme called The Teach Hub Letters and Sounds.  They have developed the scheme to match the National Curriculum expectations for both phonics and spelling.  

The scheme includes:

• Full overview mapping document of coverage from EYFS to end of Key Stage One that is progressive and sequential. 

• Phonics and Spelling teaching and desk charts for EYFS

• Weekly units of work for Phase 2 to Phase 5 that include a teaching overview, revision, oral blending, teaching objective, word examples, segmenting, blending, handwriting, reading and spelling practice, pseudoword practice, sound button practice, daily PowerPoint (or PDF) and task sheet. 

• High-frequency words listed within phases, linked to the Common Exception words from the National Curriculum. 

• Flashcards for each Phase including word examples. 

The scheme is splits learning into 6 Phonic Phases.

• Phase 1 develops children's ability to hear and distinguish sounds around them. It focuses on oral blending and segmenting and rhyming.

• Phase 2 introduces letter sounds for reading and writing with a set of letters being taught weekly. It begins to look at blending for reading and segmenting for writing. A selection of 'common exception words are taught during Phase 2.

• Phase 3 introduces the rest of the individual letter sounds and diagraphs. Children will continue blending and segmenting and further tricky words are taught. Children will also learn the letter names of the alphabet during this phase.

• Phase 4 helps build on the previous understanding of blending and segmenting and children gain experience of using words that have adjacent consonants such as trap, milk. No new sounds are taught.

Mathematics

Learning in mathematics in our EYFS is highly focused on developing understanding through the use of concrete objects. Pictorial and abstract concepts are taught and used to extend learning, always linked to manipulatives and practical experiences. Teachers have a strong understanding of how young children learn, enabling them to challenge appropriately, check understanding routinely and carefully plan children’s next steps. Children explore number and shape through real-world contexts indoors and outdoors, building critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In Reception, key skills include learning to count, recognising and ordering numbers to 20, and exploring different representations of number.

Introducing NCETM ‘Mastering Number’ in Reception

From this year, we will be rolling out the NCETM Mastering Number programme in Reception, a nationally recognised approach designed to secure strong early number foundations.

The programme aims to ensure that all children develop good number sense, including fluency and flexibility with number, subitising, understanding how numbers are composed and decomposed, comparing quantities, and recognising relationships between numbers. These skills create the firm foundations needed for later mathematical success. [ncetm.org.uk]

Reception teachers deliver four short, focused number sessions each week, supported by high‑quality NCETM planning materials. These lessons form the core of children’s number learning in Reception and are enriched through continuous provision and daily routines. Materials include lesson plans, teacher guidance, and practical ideas for embedding number-rich experiences across the classroom environment. [nfer.ac.uk]

The programme is part of the national Maths Hubs initiative and provides schools with access to high‑quality professional development, including training from NCETM specialists and participation in local Work Groups that support best practice in early mathematics