EYFS Curriculum
Curriculum Intent
Our vision in action creates a safe and nurturing environment that empowers children to be brave, resilient, and confident as they engage with both indoor and outdoor learning.
We help children develop a strong sense of self while fostering friendships that enable them to play thoughtfully and collaboratively with their peers and adults.
We celebrate each child's interests and promote fun and laughter throughout their play and learning experiences.
Utilizing the language-rich ShREC approach along with sustained shared thinking (SST), we encourage children to deepen their play and learning through engagement, discussion, and exploration. This approach inspires them to problem-solve through their ideas and creations.
We ignite curiosity in children through our weekly themes, using a key text to spark awe and wonder. Our enriched environments allow children to connect new learning with prior knowledge while offering daily challenges.
We support children's growth by fostering happiness in a curious environment, providing security, and maintaining a positive atmosphere guided by our behaviour policy.
Parental involvement is crucial to us, as we promote strong home/school connections to enhance teaching and learning. We encourage parents to share in the responsibility for their children's development and to create positive family experiences together.
In our Early Years setting, we strive for every child to reach their fullest potential today and always.
Implementation
We develop our plans using a tailored curriculum specifically designed for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Throughout the terms, we emphasise the curriculum objectives to ensure comprehensive coverage, allowing us to track progress effectively. Our progression of skills document plays a crucial role in monitoring each child's development, helping us identify their learning needs by the end of each milestone.
To support our practitioners, we conduct weekly professional learning and development sessions focused on key areas such as ShREC and communication and language. We also incorporate key texts each week, which are chosen to ignite a sense of awe and wonder. Discovery sessions are crafted around specific knowledge and skills we aim for the children to acquire, and we complement these with additional books for enjoyment.
Enhancements to the learning environment are made through the introduction of key focal points. We plan unique experiences for the children, including activities like forest school, cooking, Talk for Writing (T4W), and various trips, alongside regular weekly activities. Our key teaching points cover essential areas such as mathematics, phonics, discovery, story time, shared reading, and letter formation.
In our approach to early reading, we are book-rich for children in Little Reception, Nursery, and Reception. Additionally, we implement the Early Talk Boost program in Reception to further support language development.
Parent partnerships are key and we establish effective communication is established from the start, ensuring that parents and caregivers are actively involved in their children's learning journey.
Impact
Reading engagement is thriving, with parents taking an active role in contributing to reading diaries and practising phonics at home, which we document on Tapestry. We consistently track phonics results to monitor progress. Additionally, Age-Related Expectations (ARE) results are recorded each term, and Good Level of Development (GLD) assessments are conducted to gauge overall student readiness. Wellcomm baselines are established and evaluated at the end of the year to assess communication and language skills.
To support data collection, we utilise termly assessments in both math and literacy, and weekly writing tasks are assigned to showcase student progress. We are focused on preparing children for Key Stage 1 (KS1) by establishing clear behaviour and learning expectations. This preparation ensures that children are capable of writing letters, words, sentences, and numbers effectively.
The implementation of Maths Mastery provides a solid foundation for math learning as students transition into KS1. The Big 6 framework encourages children to articulate their learning, with reflections documented in floor books. All children have access to a variety of zones and areas within the provision, enhancing their learning experience.
Educational trips further enrich the curriculum and foster writing skills, offering practical experiences that complement classroom learning. Moreover, Early Talk Boost is employed to track communication and language progress, with baselines assessed at the end of the year to measure growth and development.
EYFS in Action
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