Physical Development is one of the three prime areas within the Early Years Foundation stage.  In this area of learning we recognise the importance of movement and physicality in early childhood.  We work to ensure that our direct teaching sessions and continuous provision areas (particularly our outdoor classroom)  allows children to develop their core strength and larger muscle groups in a co-ordinated way so that they have the confidence to be active and healthy.  Strength in these muscles can then be used as a solid basis for children to develop their fine muscle strength—crucial in developing pencil control that is effective for writing and drawing with accuracy and working competently with other small tools.

Every week children in both Lower and Upper Foundation use the hall for a PE lesson.  We follow the PE scheme ‘Get Set 4 PE’—so children begin a progressive journey through the different elements of PE that will continue through their school journey with us.  In the summer term, Upper Foundation children work with our Elite PE coaches.

All the children use the hall regularly each week to take part in our ‘Wiggle me into Squiggle’ or ‘Squiggle while you Wiggle’ programmes.  These programmes use  dance and large movements to help children develop the fine muscle control they need for writing.

The children also regularly take part in ‘Dough Disco’ activities in the classroom.  This helps them to strengthen their fine motor muscles to enable them to develop their pencil grip, which in turn will help to develop their writing skills.

Our indoor classrooms are regularly  enhanced with ‘Funky Fingers’ tasks to help us to strengthen our fine motor muscles.  We use our observations (and Read Write inc handwriting sessions) to closely monitor which children need additional support in this area, so that we can ensure they participate in  regular interventions throughout the year.  We track the development of childrens pencil grip so that we can ensure that children are ready to begin Year 1 with a tripod grip.

For children identified as requiring additional support in this area of development, we use the ‘Fit to Learn’ motor skills intervention programme.  The programme supports children in making progress and also helps us to identify which children may require referring to external agencies for additional support.