EYFS

Early Years Statement

Intent

Our Early Years curriculum has been designed to ensure that children receive their curricular entitlement in a way which is meaningful to their: context, stage of learning, capabilities, interests and prior experiences.
We seek to provide:

• Quality and consistency, so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind
• A secure foundation through planning for the learning and development of each individual child, and assessing and reviewing what they have learned regularly
• Partnership working between practitioners and with parents and/or carers
• Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported

Implementation

Our high-quality early years education has a strong focus on communication and language. Pupils learn through topics, stories, songs, rhymes and following children’s interests with a balance of adult directed and child-initiated activities and challenges within our continuous provision. Planned, purposeful play provides opportunities for teaching, learning and creativity both indoors and outdoors. Children are active learners who learn through firsthand experiences.

Four guiding principles shape our practice in early years:

• Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
• Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships. Strong, warm and supportive relationships with adults enable children to learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others.
• Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
• The importance of learning and development. Children experience the awe and wonder of the world in which they live, through the seven areas of learning: Communication and Language; Physical Development; Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Literacy; Mathematics; Understanding the World; Expressive Arts and Design.

The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations children have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment are crucial. By commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added; practitioners build children’s language effectively.

Reading frequently to children, and engaging them actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems, and then providing them with extensive opportunities to use and embed new words in a range of contexts, gives children the opportunity to thrive. Through conversation, storytelling and role play, where children share their ideas with support and modelling from their teacher, and sensitive questioning that invites them to elaborate, children become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures.

Children develop and learn at different rates through:

Playing and exploring (children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’)
Active learning (children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements)
Creating and thinking critically (children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things)

Impact

We provide a teaching and learning environment where learners are cared for, valued and respected. Parents and practitioners work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect within which children can have security and confidence. We place a high focus on key vocabulary and communication and language and have recently renewed our ICAN accreditation and achieved the enhanced level.

We strive to ensure that our children’s progress across the EYFS curriculum is at least good from their varied starting points. We also strive for children to reach the Early Learning Goals at the end of Reception and to be at least in line with National Expectations. We have exceeded this in the past few years. Evidence in children’s learning journeys support all areas of the EYFS curriculum. The impact of our curriculum is measured by assessment procedures which allow us to measure outcomes against all schools nationally. We measure the percentage of pupils achieving age related expectations throughout the academic year, put supportive interventions in place if and when needed. Class teachers use observations to make formative assessments which inform future planning and ensure that all children build on their current knowledge and skills at a good pace. Summative assessment compares children attainment to age related expectations using the statement bands in Development Matters. This is tracked using a data tracker to ensure rates of progress are at least good for all children, including vulnerable groups such as those with SEND, disadvantaged or summer born children. Our assessment judgements have been moderated both in school and externally with local schools. We also partake in local authority moderation which has validated our school judgements. The impact of our curriculum will also be measured by how effectively it helps our pupils develop into well rounded individuals who embody our values and carry with them the knowledge, skills and attitudes which will make them lifelong learners and valuable future citizens. We endeavour for pupils to be Key Stage 1 ready and have our school values embedded by the time they leave reception, preparing them for their future.

Nursery & Reception