EYFS

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24

Just as the wise builder chose to build his house on solid foundations, so a well-lived, successful life requires solid foundations.  Through our curriculum, we aim to give our children the knowledge and skills - the foundations - they need to become fulfilled, successful, loving adults in their world.

Intent, Implementation and Impact – Early Years

Intent

At Netheravon All Saints our EYFS aim is to create a learning environment and build relationships which support, enhance and encourage a child’s curiosity, confidence and individual competency to flourish and grown regardless of background, circumstances or needs. We aim to work collaboratively with parents and carers to encourage independent, enthusiastic learners who thrive and reach their full potential. It is our intent that children who join our EYFS class begin their lifelong learning journey by developing physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally while at the same time developing a positive attitude to school and a love of learning as well as following our school values of love, kindness, respect, trust and determination.

Our curriculum is fully inclusive taking into account the diverse needs of all learners including disadvantaged and military children and is intended to widen their horizons beyond our rural village locality.

To ensure that children make progress and reach their potential, it is our intent to take into account their individual starting points and needs, based on observation and discussion, as they begin their NAS learning journey. Every child has access to a broad and balanced curriculum which prepares them for now and the future in terms of opportunities and experiences.

Our EYFS Curriculum aims to enable our children to be:

• Confident communicators who can listen carefully in different situations; hold a conversation with friends and adults; express and explain ideas, thoughts and feelings clearly using new vocabulary; ask relevant questions, and use full sentences when speaking.
• Independent individuals who are fantastic friends. Someone who can be kind, caring and helpful, show empathy and respect to others, and work and play cooperatively whilst considering the ideas and feelings of others. Someone who is able to understand and follow the class rules, set simple goals and persevere to achieve them, select resources, manage their own personal needs and know how to stay fit and healthy. 
• Amazing athletes who can show strength, balance and co-ordination to run, jump, hop, skip, climb, dance, pedal, scoot and move confidently and safely inside and outside using a range of equipment.
• Talented tool users who can hold a pencil effectively with a tripod grip; hold and use cutlery confidently; use paintbrushes, scissors, tweezers and other tools safely and with confidence.
• Brilliant bookworms who show a love for books and reading; use new vocabulary in conversations and in their play; enjoy talking about what they have read or what has been read to them; retell familiar stories and rhymes; read words by blending sounds including some digraph and read aloud simple sentences.
• Writing wizards who can write letters that are formed correctly; spell words using the phonics that they have learnt; write simple sentence that can be read by others and use writing in their play.
• Maths masters who use maths and maths vocabulary in all areas of their play; who can show a deep understanding of numbers to 10, recognise number patterns within the number system, count beyond 20 and subitise and recall number bonds to 5.
• Historians who know that time passes in sequential order and that the passage of time changes us and the world around us. Someone who can use some specific historical vocabulary; can talk about the lives of people around them; knows about some similarities and differences between the past and present, and can talk about some historical characters and events encountered in class and books.
• Compassionate citizens who know that the world is made up of different countries; can talk about some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries and about where they live; begin to use and create simple maps; understand and use positional language and directions; know how people celebrate different religious festivals including those from other faiths and can talk about stories from different cultures and faiths.
• Eager explorers who show curiosity about the world around them by making observations, drawing pictures, asking questions and using new vocabulary; who can talk about similarities and differences between the local natural environment and other places; understand that the natural world changes and can talk about how to look after the environment.
• Proud performers able to retell a story with expression and confidence using story language; adapt or invent their own stories; recite a nursery rhyme or perform a song, poem or dance to an audience; play a range of percussion instruments correctly and with increasing rhythm.
• Dazzling designers able to choose and safely use the tools and materials that they need to make their creations; draw and paint a recognisable picture; use a variety of construction toys and other materials to make models and talk about what they have made and how they have made it.

Why is play so important?

At Netheravon we recognise the importance of play and that children in the Early Years learn best when they are given the opportunity to explore, investigate and learn about things that interest them. Children are therefore given the opportunity to learn, through play and game based activities, both indoors and outdoors. 

Social and Emotional Development: Play involves learning about collaboration, compromise, communication, healthy competition, resolving disputes and caring for friends. It is a key way in which children develop self-regulation and social skills.

Well-being: Great play is enormously absorbing and fun.

Learning: Play is a laboratory of life, in which children experience and explore the wider world. They embed learning, develop understanding and discover personal interests, talents and identities.

Creativity: Play is an intrinsically creative activity, which stretches learners’ imaginations. 

Rights: Play is a right under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Implementation
 

At Netheravon All Saints we follow the Foundation Stage Statutory Framework. This is made up of four overarching principles which our Early Years education is based upon.

• 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. (See “the characteristics of effective teaching and learning” at paragraph 1.15 of the Framework). The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The curriculum in the Reception class provides a play-based and experiential learning environment, combined with focused teaching of basic skills and direct whole class, small group and individual teaching of daily Phonics (SoundsWrite) Reading, Maths (White Rose Maths) and Writing. Through adult-directed activities and continuous provision the children are able to practise the skills taught. This ensures that the children make the progress necessary to move confidently into Year 1. The children are provided with opportunities for both indoor and outdoor learning. The learning experiences and skills teaching are inspired by topics linked to key texts as well as the children’s developmental needs and where possible their interests. There are also regular daily opportunities for self-initiated activities. Throughout all activities we ensure that the children are challenged and actively engaged in their learning.  The learning experiences and skills teaching are linked to the 7 areas of learning and development within the EYFS. These areas are split into three prime areas and four specific areas.

Prime Areas
Personal, Social and Emotional Development – involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.

Communication and Language – involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves, and to speak and listen in a range of situations.

Physical Development – involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups, and to have confidence in their own abilities.

As children grow and make progress in the prime areas, this will help them to naturally develop skills within the four specific areas. These are:

Literacy – the early teaching of literacy involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children are given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest.

Mathematics – the early teaching of mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers; calculating simple addition and subtraction problems, and describing shapes, spaces, and measures.

Understanding the World – this involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.

Expressive Arts and Design – this involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology.

Impact

Through high quality first teaching in EYFS we will ensure that our children are happy, confident, resilient learners who have developed curiosity for the world around them and a lifelong love of learning in readiness for the next stage of their education.

Baseline assessments are completed during the first six weeks of the children starting school. These are the statutory assessments as well as daily informal observations and discussions between practitioners.

At the end of the Reception Year, which is the end of the EYFS, the Early Years Profile is completed for each child. The children are assessed against the 17 Early Learning Goals of the EYFS Statutory Framework. These encapsulate the knowledge, skills and understanding a child should have by the end of the academic year that they turn 5.

The children’s progress towards achieving these goals is measured throughout the Reception Year informally through our daily interactions with the children in their play and adult guided activities. It is also measured through some formal observations, assessments and monitoring. This enables practitioners to notice quickly those children who need extra support and intervention in order to help them to reach these goals. For some children, extra formal observations may be needed to ascertain the smaller steps needed to achieve progress.

Monitoring within Phonics, Maths and Writing lessons and when reading with children allows teachers to see the progress being made on a daily/ weekly basis. More formal assessments in Phonics and Maths take place at least 6 times a year. These then inform the future planning and next steps.

Children are assessed as being on track or not on track to achieve the Early Learning Goals 3 times prior to a final judgement in the summer term.

Termly pupil progress meetings with the Headteacher give opportunities for discussion about those children who are not on track, the interventions in place and the impact of those interventions.

Writing books are introduced during term 1 and Maths books are used when appropriate for the activity.

Examples of children’s writing during continuous provision are kept and some displayed.

A class floor book is kept to display photographic evidence of children’s achievements and participation in activities. Floor books are also used for R.E and Maths.

Tapestry is used as a communication tool for school and parents to inform parents of special moments and successes in their child’s school journey. Parents are encouraged to contribute to this.

Reviewed January 2024