Early Years Foundation Stage

Intent

Our curriculum intent for the Early Years Foundation Stage at Wyndcliffe is to offer a curriculum that is coherently planned, sequenced and rich in wonder and real life experiences. We aim to ensure that all children develop physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally in an environment that is both inclusive and one which values all cultures, communities and people. We strive for our children to be confident and independent, to believe in themselves and interact positively with others.

It is our intention to provide a curriculum that:

offers our children a wide range of exciting opportunities and prepares them for the next stage in their education.
provides our children with the knowledge, skills and language that will nourish both them and the society of which they are members.
is structured to have vertical, horizontal and diagonal links in a deliberate, planned way so that the curriculum is memorable; which will enable our children to build up cumulative knowledge over time.
is ambitious and designed to give our children, particularly the most disadvantaged, the knowledge, self-belief and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.
develops our children’s characteristics of effective teaching and learning across the curriculum so as to ensure that we empower all children to become life-long learners.
broadens our children’s experience by providing opportunities to try new things and encouraging them to relish a new challenge.
provides opportunities that develop our children’s confidence and independence.
ensures that we have stimulating, language rich environments that promote challenge, exploration, adventure and a love of learning.
provides a carefully planned and balanced mix of adult led and child initiated play, to ensure the best outcomes for all pupils.
provides a stimulating, language rich environment, where our children learn to speak clearly and are able express their thoughts and ideas with others.
provides a learning environment that supports all of our children in reaching their full potential.
supports and challenge our children who need additional help, in order to have the best possible outcomes.
provides an environment that values and respects all cultures, communities and people.
creates a unique learning space where there are consistent routines and positive relationships between staff and children.
develops the skills and expertise of staff working in our EYFS, through regular and comprehensive professional development.
engages parents/carers, so as to foster strong links between home and school.

Implementation

The implementation of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum adheres to the learning and development, assessment, safeguarding and welfare requirements of the EYFS Statutory Framework. When implementing our carefully designed curriculum, we prioritise:

creating a language rich environment, through the use of songs, nursery rhymes and stories so as to develop our children’s speech, language and communication needs.
providing time for quality interactions between adults and between peers.
positive and progressive interactions, which support children in developing their oracy skills, through which to become confident communicators.
fostering a love of reading early through our approach to early reading and our systematic teaching of phonics.
developing our children’s mathematical thinking through direct teaching and exploration so that they can apply what they have learnt to real life experience.
ensuring that our curriculum is specifically relevant to the children, we have chosen people, places and problems that reflect and meet the needs of our location, our community, our collective history and our potential for the future.
learning opportunities that allow our children to experience our curriculum through real-life experience thus fostering a sense of awe and wonder.
ensuring that all children are fully engaged in our curriculum, through our carefully planned for and delivered indoor and outdoor provision.
equipping our children ready for their next stage of education and future learning.
actively involving parents and carers to build a strong partnership between school and home (Tapestry).
using our school environment to enable our children to strengthen their core muscles through physical play.
adapting our learning environment so as to reflect our children's interests, needs and support them in making progress.
supporting our children in learning to work together, managing their feelings and communicating their wants and needs.
teaching our carefully planned curriculum through topics, stories, classroom enhancements, trips and visitors.

As part of the learning and teaching process, children are assessed in relation to the assessment requirements of the EYFS statutory framework; we use the non-statutory guidance ‘Development Matters’ and ‘Birth to Five Matters’ to support us in the delivering our curriculum.

Impact

The impact of our carefully planned and delivered curriculum enables children to develop detailed knowledge and skills across the seven areas of learning in an age appropriate way. Through our consistently high expectations for behaviour and outcomes, we support our children’s ethical growth, so as to develop their ability to be trustworthy and respectful, whilst being responsible, fair and caring citizens. This is demonstrated through our well rounded, independent, happy and confident children, who confidently transition into Year One, equipped with the skills needed for the next stage in their education. As leaders and practitioners we:

identify how we have made a difference to each child’s learning and development, and plan their next steps.
demonstrate effective and reflective self-evaluation of practice, so that we know what we are doing, is making a difference.
see the impact of the education we provide by our observations and assessments of children.
continually evaluate the impact of our curriculum, by checking what children know and can do.
are able to talk about and describe our children’s likes and dislikes, their successes and areas for development.
believe that integral to teaching and learning is how practitioners assess what children know, understand and can do, as well as taking account of their interests and dispositions to learn.
know the key principles of effective observation and assessment and are skilled in monitoring progress and planning next steps.
know how to plan and deliver lessons that support and challenge the needs of all of our children and in particular our most vulnerable.

Our judgements are made on the basis of accumulative observations and in depth knowledge of the children acquired through ongoing informal assessments throughout the year.

EYFS Curriculum

Curriculum Areas

Communication and Language

Expressive Arts and Design

Literacy

Mathematics

Pencil Grip Progression Map

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Physical Development

Understanding the World

Curriculum Overview

EYFS Overview

Fundamental British Values

Gold Rights Respecting School

Across EYFS, our children are taught about their rights. In particular, they are taught about the following articles:

Article 7 - The right to be registered at birth, to have a name and nationality, and, as far as possible, to know and be cared for by their parents.

Article 12 - Respect for the views of the child.

Article 14 - Freedom of thought, belief and religion.

Article 17 - Access to information from the media.

Article 23 - A child with a disability has the right to live a full and decent life with dignity, and as far as possible, independence, and to play an active part in their community.

Article 24 - Every child has the right to the best possible health.

Article 28 - The right to an education.

Nursery - Focus Text Overviews

Reception - Focus Text Overviews

Autumn

Reception Autumn - Focus Text Overview - Binny's Diwali

Reception Autumn - Focus Text Overview - Peace at Last

Reception Autumn - Focus Text Overview - People Who Help Us

Reception Autumn - Focus Text Overview - Poetry Week Falling Apples

Reception Autumn - Focus Text Overview - Ready Steady Mo

Reception Autumn - Focus Text Overview - So Much by Trish Cook

Reception Autumn - Focus Text Overview - Sparks in the Sky

Reception Autumn - Focus Text Overview - The Enormous Turnip

Reception Autumn - Focus Text Overview - Whatever Next

Spring

Reception Spring - Focus Text Overview - A Little Seed

Reception Spring - Focus Text Overview - Anasi and the Pot of Beans

Reception Spring - Focus Text Overview - Easter

Reception Spring - Focus Text Overview - Handa's Surprise

Reception Spring - Focus Text Overview - Here Comes Jack Frost

Reception Spring - Focus Text Overview - Jack and the Beanstalk

Summer

Reception Summer - Focus Text Overview - Commotion in the Ocean

Reception Summer - Focus Text Overview - George the Sun Safe Superstar

Reception Summer - Focus Text Overview - Look What I Found

Reception Summer - Focus Text Overview - Pirate Pete

Reception Summer - Focus Text Overview - Splash by Clare Cashmore

Reception Summer - Focus Text Overview - The Fisherman and His Wife

Sustainable Development Goals

Children in Reception will begin to understand:

Goal 11 - How to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Goal 6 - The importance of having access to clean and safe water.

Goal 15 - There is a need to protect plant life and animal life on land.

Goal 14 - How to reduce and prevent pollution through the introduction of the Car Free Street Project.

Goal 12 - How work with recycled materials and understand the importance of looking after our planet.

Goal 10 - Are aware of BAME artists, therefore allowing children of all ethnic backgrounds, religions and cultures to dream of an achievable goal/career for their future self.

Characteristics of Effective Learning

Playing and Exploring - children investigate and experience things and ‘have a go’.

Finding out and exploring.
Playing with what they know.
Being willing to ‘have a go’.

Active Learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy achievements.

Being involved and concentrating.
Keep trying.
Enjoying achieving what they set out to do.

Creating and Thinking Critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas and develop strategies for doing things.

Having their own ideas.
Making links.
Working with ideas.

Overarching Principles

Four guiding principles should shape practice in early years’ settings.

These are:

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.
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.
Importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Seven Key Features of Effective Practice

The best for every child.

High-quality care.
The curriculum: what we want children to learn.
Pedagogy: helping children to learn.
Assessment: checking what children have learnt.
Self-regulation and executive function.
Partnership with parents.