Physical Development

Physical development is made up of 2 areas: gross motor development and fine motor control.

Gross motor development is the children's large scale physical skills and how they control their body. This is taught throughout our environment in nursery and reception, including a purposeful agility course to develop core strength and key skills physically and access to being taught (by trained staff) how to ride balance bikes following the balanceability course. Reception also have weekly PE lessons in the school hall to develop further skills needed to prepare them for their journey in the KS1 National Curriculum.

Fine motor is the control needed for intricate movements, including pen control, fastening clothing and similar activities. The aim is that all children leave reception with a dynamic tripod grip ready to access the KS1 curriculum. In order to do this, we engage the children in a range of activities including dough disco, threading of beads and pasta, hammering of nails and golf tees, using tweezers and a wide range of other activities. 

Fine Motor Opportunities

At Tyldesley Primary School, we develop the children's fine motor strength through a variety of activities. We have playdough, tweezers, sequins and threading in our provision daily, as well as a wide assortment of mark making tools. We also have specific fine motor enhancements that we add into our provision weekly, we also have planned fine motor sessions daily - these include sewing, bracelet making, scissor skills, threading, colouring, stenciling, dough disco and number rhymes. In reception, we begin to look at our handwriting and how we form letters.

We like to find differing ways of developing our fine motor skills. We are really enjoying our busy board within our nursery classroom.

Balanceability Course

Members of staff in EYFS are both fully trained in the balanceability course. 

They take 3 groups a week to train the children fully in how to ride a balance bike. The course looks at differing activities and develops the child's balance on and off a balance bike. Every child in EYFS is taught to ride a balance bike.

Agility Course

At Tyldesley Primary School, we have designed a purposeful agility course that works on developing the children's physical skills including balance, co-ordination, strength, stamina and agility.

We have invested through our sports premium to ensure we build the foundations for our children in terms of their core strength and attributes, and ensure they have the building blocks that they need for future success. 

Our 'Forest School' area is now established and is being used by the children in a variety of ways.

Over the summer we have continued to develop our EYFS outdoor provision and are excited by its continuous growth.

We have a 'long term' plan that we are chipping away at each year. Planned for this year are an easy to access bike shed and a 'changing' shed so our all weather gear is even easier to change into! We are also hopeful to further develop our construction site, with purpose built storage.