Early Years Foundation Stage

In Discovery Class we are passionate about providing an excellent starting point for your child’s journey through school. There are four principles underpinning the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

The Unique Child
Every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

We work with children to ensure we provide learning opportunities that reflect their interests, ideas and personalities.

Positive Relationships
Children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and / or teaching staff.

We take time getting to know each child individually. Our EYFS staff model excellent relationships, providing pupils with a happy place to come and learn every day.

Our bright and friendly classroom has well-resourced provision areas which are regularly adapted and enhanced according to our topics and learning activities. The rural location of our school ensures that our outdoor learning area is quiet whilst providing opportunities to explore the local area.

Learning and Development
Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and all areas of Learning and Development are equally important and inter-connected.

Our experienced EYFS team offer broad and varied learning opportunities to ensure children experience a stimulating environment which nurtures individual development.

Intent

At Eastrington Primary School, it is our intent that the children who enter our EYFS develop physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally whilst embedding a positive and enthusiastic attitude to school and learning. We strive for high standards, whilst considering the development of the whole child and seek to foster resilience and independence. We provide inviting indoor and outdoor environments to stimulate learners an engage them in developing in the three ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning’ as set out within the EYFS.

Choice of Content

The early learning goals (the knowledge, skills and understanding which young children should have acquired by the end of the reception year) and the educational programmes (the matters, skills and processes which are required to be taught to young children) are set out in the ‘Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage’. These are broken into Prime and Specific areas:

Prime Areas

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Communication and Language

Physical Development

Specific Areas

Literacy

Mathematics

Understanding the World

Expressive Arts and Design

We believe these 7 areas to be equally important and are interdependent on each other to support a rounded approach to child development. We aim to deliver all the areas through planned, purposeful play, with a balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities.

• Pupils will develop language acquisition and expand their vocabulary in order to become confident and effective communicators
• Pupils will extend their understanding in personal, social and emotional development in order to become resilient and self-assured learners
• Pupils will learn how to manage their feelings and behaviour in a range of situations
• Pupils will develop their knowledge in early literacy and mathematics
• Pupils will extend their physical key skills including fine and gross motor control
• Pupils will acquire a range of artistic knowledge and key skill application including: drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, textiles, printing
• Pupils will explore the world around them and deepen their understanding of living things and the environment
• Pupils will experience a curriculum immersed in story and literature
• Pupils will begin to transfer their knowledge into the wider environment especially the outdoors and become competent problem solvers
• Pupils will experience and extend their knowledge of phonics through a synthetic phonics programme.

• Implementation

  Our EYFS curriculum ensures we are able to meet the individual needs of every child within the Foundation Stage. Children have personalised achievable targets to work towards. Adults ensure children are taught the skills needed in order for a child to achieve their targets.

  We aim to provide a setting that encompasses a safe and stimulating environment where children are able to enjoy learning and grow in confidence that helps them to develop their potential.

Our Early Years curriculum is delivered through:

• • Well planned and purposeful play-based activities
  • Adult directed lessons and learning activities
  • Opportunities for exploration, choice and decision making by the children
  • Vocabulary enrichment activities and a vocabulary rich environment
  • Non-verbal communication and vocabulary strategies to support the development of both receptive and expressive language
  • An effective and validated synthetic phonics programme – FFT Success for All.

Impact

Effective assessment is gathered by practitioners that supports individual learning profiles and is used to accentuate and tailor further learning and knowledge acquisition.

• Floorbooks and learning journeys are used across Early Years to showcase the curriculum offer and evidence pupil learning
• Individual pupil evidence is gathered through a range of sources in Reception including: Literacy/Mathematics/Evidence Files such as Tapestry
• Classroom displays
• Professional dialogue and regular communication with parents/carers, to obtain an accurate assessment profile
• Effective Phonic Assessment

Adults use ongoing assessment as an integral part of the learning and development processes. Adults observe pupils to identify their level of achievement, interests and learning styles. Observations are recorded using “Tapestry”. Tapestry is a secure online learning journal to record our observations of each child to build up a record of their achievements. This system enables us to work with parents and carers to share information and consider observations shared by parents and carers. Parents are provided with their own secure log-in details when their child starts nursery or school.

It is our hope that children will be successful learners and fully prepared for the next stage of their education as they transition from Foundation Stage to Year 1. 

Discovery Class (EYFS) in Action

Literacy
We read with our KS1 and KS2 reading buddies to increase our vocabulary and understanding of
texts.

We fill our continuous provision with a breadth of book choices in order to engage and transfer skills.

We write for different purposes, drawing upon our interests and phonics skills.

We can find rhyming words.

Mathematics

We practice subitising and matching numerals to quantities.

We explore capacity using many different containers.

We love to use real life examples of mathematics to help us problem solve.

We find mathematics all around us.

We use the CPA approach when learning mathematics, offering hands on learning experiences linked to our interests.

We use our skills of 1:1 correspondence to count accurately.

We use our outdoor environment to aid our learning.

We measure length using natural materials.

Understanding the World
We have visits from People who Help us.

We celebrate and learn about other cultures and celebrations.

We have regular visits to our local church to discuss topics such as weddings.

We have a full calendar, celebrating those special days through hands on learning experiences.

We bake regularly, most recently Gruffalo Crumble!

We love trying new foods from around the world.

We attend school trips around our local area. We love the outdoors!

Expressive Arts and Design:
We explore what happens when we mix colours.

We experiment with form and texture. We love to print and paint.

We love to learn new skills like sewing.

We like to draw from observation using lots of different resources.

We focus on a different piece of music each week, exploring its musical features.

We love to role play.

We use our gross motor skills to explore the outdoors whilst taking effective risks.