Superstar Burnley reception teachers receive Step into Quality Award

Reedley Primary School's Mrs Claire King and Miss Jenny Mackenzie both earned the accolade having spent a year on the Step into Quality programme, which is underpinned by the principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage and provides an opportunity for practitioners to spend focused time looking at what they do everyday.

"We developed the routines, transitions from nursery into school, the key person system, and indoor and outdoor environment [learning]," the teachers explained. "[Regarding] learning and development, we ensure that we observe children playing and learning, [then] reflecting, interpreting, gathering and using this information to plan appropriately to meet individual children’s needs."

Also explaining that they have used the course to involve children's parents more, the teachers said that they have developed weekly VIP sessions where "parents can come into the class to observe the teaching of phonics, maths, and English," and which has received positive feedback. Parents are also invited to take part in art and craft activities such as Art Weeks.

Children are also participating in more outdoor learning - sometimes with their parents' help - involving things such as planting seeds, and have been taking part in workshops, including phonics- and maths-based games. Additionally, parents have attended a session on reciprocal reading, where teachers highlighted the importance of ensuring children are understanding what they have read.

"We are a motivated, welcoming, and cohesive team," the teachers said. "We extremely proud of what we have all achieved."