The Acorn
The Acorn
The Acorn
The Acorn
The Acorn

Believe

Achieve

Succeed

The Acorn

The Acorn is a provision for children in reception and Year 1 with an EHCP for complex needs. The placements are determined by the local authority in collaboration with school through panel decisions as part of the EHCP process. Each child starts with a meeting and programme of visits that supports their transition into school and we like to work closely with parents and former settings to ensure a smooth start into school. 

The curriculum for the Acorn pupils focuses on the 4 areas of SEND:

·         Cognition and Learning

·         Communication and Interaction

·         Social, Emotional and Mental Health

·         Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties

In addition, the curriculum is designed to address children’s EHCP outcomes alongside the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum which is about developing key learning skills such as listening, speaking, concentration, persistence and co-operation. The children are provided with a curriculum that enables them to develop a broad range of knowledge in an environment that allows children to play, explore and practise new ideas and skills.

The Acorn class works as a separate area to the mainstream Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) unit but the school’s EYFS curriculum is used and adapted to meet the needs of the Acorn children. This ensures appropriate coverage whilst balancing children’s SEND needs and requirements.

During your child’s time in the Acorn it is important that parents and staff work collaboratively to ensure the best outcomes for your child. Here you will find information about your child’s learning experience and important information that you will need to know for your child’s time in the Acorn Provision.

Pathways

Learning pathways look different for each of our children as they are bespoke to meet their individual needs. Some children follow a more curriculum-based approach to learning, with discrete lessons in, for example, English, Maths and Science; these are personalised to support each child’s ability and learning style. Children are supported by an adult but have the opportunity and encouragement to develop their independence. For other children in The Orchard and The Acorn, learning is play-based with many opportunities to explore through sensory experiences either in our classroom, outside in our playground area or in our multi-sensory room. They follow an engagement model for their learning. In the Acorn we use an adapted version of our nursery and reception curriculums.

Meet the team
Name Role
Mrs Lewis Acorn Class Teacher, Assistant Head Teacher and Provision Lead 
Mrs Loubou Higher Level Learning Support Assistant (HLTA)
Miss Woolley Learning Support Assistant
The Acorn The Acorn

Reading At Home

One of the greatest gifts we can give our children is our time; time spent together reading and sharing a good book. We encourage and support parents to read with their children on a daily basis, recognising that parents play an incredibly important role in your child’s reading development.

Your child will be given a book to take home. Reading books will be collected every week and a new reading book will be given. 

The children will initially choose a book from our story collection at school, moving towards choosing a book from our reading scheme as well as a book of their choice once they are developmentally ready for this.

We may send wordless books home with the children. A wordless book is a book that tells a story purely through the illustrations. Wordless picture books are valuable tools for literacy development as they engage children, regardless of reading level, in prediction, critical thinking, meaning making and storytelling. Guiding your child’s interaction with a wordless book can also develop a richer vocabulary and greater understanding of story structure.

How to Read a Wordless Picture Book With Your Child

At first it might feel a little strange to sit down to "read" a wordless book with your child but we encourage you to tap into your inner child to give it a go. 

Here are some tips to get you started:

  1. Begin by looking at the cover. What can you see? What clues to the story does the cover illustration show?
  2. Read the title. Does the title give you any ideas for what the story might be about? Make predictions about the story based on the cover and title.
  3. Take a picture walk. Look through the pages of the book with the sole purpose of enjoying the pictures. Talk about anything that captures your attention.
  4. "Read" the story. You might go first, inviting your child to add to your story as they see fit. Don’t be afraid to tell your story with dramatic flair. Add sound effects and interesting voices that suit the characters of your tale.
  5. Encourage your child to take a turn telling their own version of the story.

Phonics

At Moss Valley we recognise that whilst phonics is not the only route to reading and writing, it is without doubt a highly effective and systematic approach, that supports and challenges children of all backgrounds and abilities, as they acquire, rehearse and perfect the skills to be effective readers and writers.

From Reception onwards children take part in daily RWI (Read, Write Inc) lessons. It is an approach to teaching phonics in which individual letters or letter sounds are blended to form groups of letters or sounds, and those groups are then blended to form complete words.

In the Acorn, children take part in daily phonics lessons once they are developmentally ready for this. The RWI scheme is used but it is important that the children can access the phonics learning that suits their own needs so it is adapted to meet the interest and attention skills of the pupils. 

There are two elements to reading that your child will develop: phonics and comprehension. All the teaching and activities around reading that the school puts in place will be aimed at supporting one of these elements.

In England, children are taught to read the words on the page using phonics. Phonics is an approach to reading that focuses on building words from sounds. A sound might be represented by a letter (such as ‘s’ or ‘m’) or a group of letters (like ‘ch’ or ‘igh’). In Reception, children will start by learning the letters and the sounds they make, and how to put them together to read simple words. For example, once they know the individual sounds for ‘s’, ‘a’ and ‘t’ they can blend them together to form the word ‘sat’.

Good comprehension skills are vital in reading as they help children understand the meaning of the words, as well as supporting their vocabulary and knowledge of the world. It is likely that children will be able to understand books and stories that are much more complicated than the books they can read by themselves, so most comprehension teaching will focus on children listening to and experiencing books that are read to them, or with them, and then answering questions and discussing them.

Snack and water bottles

The children in the Acorn are asked to bring a snack and water bottle/drink from home each day as it is recognised that they may have their own dietary preferences. 

PE

The Acorn children take part in several PE sessions throughout the week developing different skills. Their lessons take part indoors in the Acorn Hall.

Children in the Acorn will wear pumps for PE at first and begin to change clothing to PE kit once they are ready.

PE Kit consists of:

·         White T-Shirt

·         Black Shorts, leggings or joggers

·         Black pumps