The Early Years Foundation Stage is the period of education from birth to five years. In our Foundation Stage Unit, we have a Nursery and a Reception Class.
We have a curriculum that is child-centred and based upon the children’s interests. We encourage active learning to ensure the children are motivated and interested. The curriculum celebrates diversity and supports the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Those children with particular needs, including SEND, are supported appropriately allowing them to be successful.
All areas of the EYFS curriculum are followed and planned for to ensure there is a broad, balanced and progressive learning environment. The children will learn new skills, acquire new knowledge and demonstrate understanding through the seven areas in the EYFS:
Daily guided activities are planned that cover different areas of the EYFS curriculum. Areas of need and next steps are identified for all children to ensure good progress is made. There are also a range of stimulating and engaging activities which the children can access independently and a variety of opportunities for child-initiated play.
We also ensure activities support the characteristics of effective learning:
Staff in the EYFS make regular observations of the children’s learning to ensure their next steps are met. These are collected in each child’s online learning journey, via the Tapestry App. We regularly assess where the children are using the Development Matters and then ensure our planning, adult interaction and learning environment support children to reach their next steps. Parents are encouraged to contribute to the learning journals by making observations at home and adding them to the online journal. All children in the EYFS are taught literacy skills using the Talk for Writing (T4W) approach. Children use actions and story mapping techniques to engage with stories which they then innovate by including their own ideas. Regular storytelling sessions are also a key part of the daily routine and literacy opportunities are available as part of the continuous provision. Children in Reception engage in ‘square storytelling’ sessions where they make up and act out their own stories with their peers. This builds confidence and self-esteem, encouraging team-work and co-operation.
The maths curriculum is taught through daily dedicated sessions. These sessions are carefully planned using concrete resources and follow the ‘Can Do Maths’ approach. We want our children to become confident mathematicians who can apply what they have learned to real life experiences. Children in Nursery access regular phonics activities based upon phase one of the Letters and Sounds scheme. Phonics in Reception is taught through daily Read, Write, Inc sessions. The program is followed systematically and ensures that all children become confident in the skills of reading and writing by the time they are in Year Two. We regularly assess the children to ensure they are being taught at the appropriate level for their stage of development. The home reading scheme allows the children to access books that are fully decodable, and all children are heard to read regularly in school.
We keep parents informed using the observations from the Tapestry App, regular ‘stay and play’ sessions and parents’ evenings. We also operate an open-door policy and encourage parents to come in and talk to us at the start and end of every day. We recognise that parents are a child’s primary educator and we work hard to develop warm and trusting relationships with our families.
We aim for all children to make good progress from their starting points and for them to achieve the Early Learning Goals, in line with national expectations. A wide range of evidence is collected to support end of year attainment and judgements are moderated to ensure consistency and accuracy.
Where children do not achieve the Early Learning Goals, we identify individual areas of need and ensure that these are met as they move into KS1. We provide a wide range of opportunities throughout the year to ensure that children leave the EYFS as resourceful, motivated and independent individuals who are equipped to be successful life long learners.
