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Early Years Curriculum
The Early Years Foundation Stage is the period of education from birth to 5 years. In our Foundation Stage we have a morning nursery, afternoon nursery and a limited number of all-day places. We have two reception classes.
Intent
At Roding we aim to support all children to become independent and collaborative learners. We will provide a broad and balanced curriculum that will enable each child to develop personally, socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically, creatively and intellectually to their full potential. The curriculum is progressive and coherently planned to incorporate child choice and to build upon the children’s current knowledge. They can only do that if we embed the right habits for learning through the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning – Play and Exploration, Active Learning and Creative and Critical Thinking.
We intend:
To work in partnership with parents and carers to encourage happy learners who thrive in school and reach their full potential from their various starting points.
To create a happy, safe, and nurturing environment where children develop their independence as learners.
To understand and follow children’s interests and provide opportunities throughout our EYFS curriculum to support learning, consolidate and deepen knowledge
To ensure that learning is accessible for all and that children’s individual progress is valued.
To create an indoor and outdoor environment where children safely explore risks and challenge their own learning.
To support transition into KS1.
Implementation
Across our EYFS, we follow the Early Years Statutory Framework. This Framework specifies the requirement for learning and development in the Early Years and provides prime and specific areas of learning we must cover in our curriculum.
Prime Areas
· Personal, Social and Emotional Development
· Physical Development
· Communication and Language development
Specific Areas
· Literacy
· Mathematics
· Understanding the World
· Expressive Arts and Design
These areas are used to deliver rich, exciting and engaging learning experiences in our EYFS setting. We believe the best learning is taking place when the children are driving it. We fully recognise the importance of the outdoor environment and ensure children have access to the wide range of opportunities this provides as often as possible.
In addition to the learning opportunities outlined in the long term planning we use the outcomes from observational assessment to inform planning for children, acknowledging their interests and facilitating their next steps in learning. Staff meet regularly to discuss observations made and use them to plan the next steps in learning.
We use a combination of objective led planning and focus children approach. Objective led planning enables us to go into the child(ren)’s play and draw outcomes out using the context with which they are playing, rather than pulling a child out of their play ‘to learn’. As the year progresses into the spring term, we begin to facilitate small group learning opportunities with the children. The children are invited to learn with the adult. Alongside this we use a Focus Child Approach on a rolling programme. These children are worked with more closely during the week, more observations are carried out with them and planning/environment is enhanced with these children’s learning needs and interests in mind.
Our inclusive approach means that all children learn together, but we also have a range of additional intervention and support for children who may not be reaching their potential, or are showing a greater depth of understanding and need further challenge. This includes, for example, sessions for developing speech and language, social skills, fine motor skills, phonics, and mathematics. In addition, we have a higher than average number of children on EHCPs, where bespoke plans have identified that learning may need to take place away from the classroom due to sensory needs.
Impact
We strive to ensure that our children’s progress across the EYFS curriculum is good from their varied starting points. We measure progress and children’s learning across the year through formative and summative assessments which are based on the teacher’s knowledge of the child, their learning journeys, photographs and videos recorded on Tapestry. We aim to match the National and Local Authority data for children achieving a Good Level of Development.
Observations and formative assessments inform future planning and ensure that all children are able to build on their current knowledge, skills and vocabulary at a good pace. Parents are also invited to share learning from home via Tapestry which teachers use to inform their future planning and assessment.
Summative assessment compares children attainment to age related expectations in Development Matters. This is tracked using Target 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.
The teaching and pedagogy are reviewed and evaluated regularly through monthly phase meetings. We ensure that the areas we discuss and develop are reflected in changes and developments in our classroom practice.
We aim to ensure that our children leave the EYFS ready to move with confidence into KS1.
