Mrs Megan Taddeo
Class Teacher
Mrs. Taddeo took up a temporary post as EYFS teacher (maternity leave) at St. Uny Academy, shortly after moving to Cornwall from the New Forest, in the Spring of 2019. In October of the same year, she accepted a permanent position at the school: a post that she has enjoyed ever since.
Mrs. Taddeo is a mother to two grown up daughters: Sophie (39) and Fran (29). She is also mother to Opie (the cockapoo) and Pebbles (the springer spaniel/cockapoo). In her spare time she enjoys walking, gardening and reading.
Mrs. Taddeo has worked as an Early Years/KS1 teacher for over thirty years. Originally trained as a Montessori teacher, she taught in several privately run pre-schools, before opening her own successful pre-school partnership. In 2007, she attained a BA (Primary Education) with QTS (First Class) at University of Winchester, going on the complete her first year of teaching at a large, urban primary school in a deprived area of Bournemouth. For the following eleven years, Mrs. Taddeo worked for a federation of three Church of England infant schools in the New Forest, teaching in the EYFS, Year One and eventually joining the Federation Senior Leadership Team as Curriculum Lead.
Alongside full time teaching, Mrs. Taddeo continued her journey through Higher Education until 2020, focusing her studies and research on children's experiences of the transition from preschool to school and the EYFS to KS1. She went on to achieve a Masters qualification (with Distinction) and a Doctor of Philosophy. Mrs. Taddeo has presented her research to numerous influential audiences in the UK and overseas, including EECERA and TACTYC. She has also received several awards for her research, including the EECERA 2018 Practitioner Research Award (Budapest), the Chartered College of Teaching Research Poster Award (Early Years Category) 2018 and the TACTYC Student Reflections Award 2018.
Mr Mark Townsend
Teacher Assistant
Mr. Townsend (or 'Mr. T'., as he is affectionately known) is father to ten year old Archie and Ron and Harry the guinea pigs. Mr. T has over twenty years of experience in early years childcare and primary school settings. He takes care of St. Uny children who attend our breakfast and after school club. He also helps to run the football club which takes place at St. Uny School on a Saturday morning and during the school holidays.
Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage from the children and adults of Tehidy Class.
At St Uny Academy, the implementation of our EYFS curriculum ensures that our children can develop as independent, confident and successful learners. We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework that sets the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to 5.
Community is at the heart of our classroom practice; our children have high aspirations and understand the value of making positive contributions to the world around them. Our goal is to ensure that all of our children are happy and engaged.
Through our child-led curriculum, we provide an environment that allows each child to display high levels of concentration, creativity, energy and persistence. The rationale behind this is that high levels of well-being and involvement foster positive development for children and facilitate deeper learning.
We believe that children should be able to lead their learning by initiating activities that are significant to them, derived from their own interests and ideas. Our curriculum is centred around our children; our EYFS team plan and enhance our classroom provision based on their knowledge of the children. In addition to this, and in order to broaden the experiences afforded to our children, our EYFS curriculum is enhanced each half term with a thematic focus. These themed activities are integrated into our daily classroom practice, with the aim of inspiring our children and enriching their daily learning.
Our EYFS curriculum enables our children to continually demonstrate their ability to:
- Play and explore
- Learn actively
- Create and think critically
