Early Years Foundation Stage – EYFS

Our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

The Early Years Foundation Stage incorporates birth to the end of the Reception year. At Golborne Community Primary School, some of our children start their school journey after they have turned three and then, attend our School Nursery. Currently we have a 60 place Reception cohort and a 26 place, School Nursery.

At Golborne Community Primary School we believe that The Early Years Foundation Stage is where our curriculum starts for every subject/area, and is also designed to prepare all children for the start of Year 1. We are fully aware that children develop in a variety ways and at different rates, which is why we ensure, a high quality curriculum that is ambitious, starts in the School Nursery and progresses each term, so all children have the fundamental knowledge/skills, by the end of Reception.

The EYFS includes seven areas of learning:

The Prime Areas

Communication and language:

Listening, Attention and Understanding
Speaking

Physical development:

Gross Motor Skills
Fine Motor Skills

Personal, social and emotional development:

Self-Regulation
Managing Self
Building Relationships

The Specific Areas

Literacy:

Comprehension
Word Reading
Writing

Mathematics:

Number
Numerical Patterns

Understanding the World:

Past and Present
People, Culture and Communities
The Natural World

Expressive Arts and Design:

Creating with Materials
Being Imaginative and Expressive

Linking the seven areas, to our curriculum

Our curriculum has been carefully constructed, to ensure it starts from ‘3 and 4 year olds’, using the ‘Development Matters’ statements, to inform assessment and track the progress of all children. However, the start of our ambitious curriculum is far more than this, as it provides many exciting experiences whilst always developing pupils’ vocabulary. The learning and experiences are all linked to meaningful texts each week, so all of the children become engrossed in their own development. Here is how the seven areas, link to our curriculum:

All staff at Golborne Community Primary School are fully aware that the Prime Areas are time sensitive and need to be well embedded as early as possible for the children to be able to fulfil their full potential across the specific areas. They are delivered in such a way that they will be fully integrated within the teaching and the continuous provision in the classrooms, both inside and outside. They are taught through a balance of adult led and child-initiated activities, with careful observations and assessments being made of each child across each area in order to inform the developmental needs and next steps.

Our children make the smooth transition from our fully integrated School Nursery setting into our Reception classes. Some children attend other educational settings that exist within our community, but due to strong partnership with these feeder settings we ensure smooth transitions are maintained for each child through a carefully planned induction procedure and face-to-face transition meetings with parents and staff from each setting.

Our ‘Text-Led’ Curriculums

School Nursery

SCHOOL NURSERY TEXT OVERVIEW

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SCHOOL NURSERY JOURNEY TO RECEPTION

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Reception

RECEPTION TEXT OVERVIEW

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Intent:

Our curriculum is purposefully planned through text led learning. The texts have been chosen to engage children into a love of reading and learning as a whole. It is designed to provide our children with a memorable and joyful early school experience. We aim to give each child the skills, knowledge and a solid foundation on which to build in their further learning. Through core experiences, planned purposeful play and high-quality interactions, we promote the importance of making links beyond the local environment; opening our children’s eyes to the jobs, landscapes, cultures and opportunities in the wider world.

We will work tirelessly to ensure all our children become confident speakers and thoughtful listeners. We expose our children to a broad and ambitious vocabulary and teach them the power of language for communicating ideas, solving problems and developing a strong self-identity. We carefully choose stories, rhymes and songs to weave a golden thread through all learning. We make story time a priority as we believe that sharing books enables our children to make connections, relationships; develop their imagination and it allows them to become confident independent readers who love books and reading.

Children leave our Early Years with knowledge, skills and memories to draw upon in their next stage of their learning. Our children have the curiosity, resilience, self-control, independence and creativity necessary to succeed. They have developed respect for themselves and others; built strong positive relationships and know they are a valued member of our school community.

Our principles and philosophy of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage underpin the following:

Early childhood is the foundation on which children build the rest of their lives; it is not just a preparation for the next stage – it is vitally important in itself.
Children develop emotionally, intellectually, morally, physically, spiritually and socially and at differing rates – all aspects of development are important and are interwoven.
What children can do rather than what they cannot do are the starting points to their learning.
Children who are encouraged to think for themselves are more likely to act independently and learn most effectively by actively doing rather than being told.
Playing and talking are powerful ways through which young children learn and they need time and space to produce work of quality and depth.

Implementation:

Purposeful learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage:

At Golborne Community Primary School, we believe purposeful learning is imperative to our curriculum; the children have high quality learning environments both indoors and outdoors. Through this, our children explore and develop learning experiences, which help them make sense of the world. They have the opportunity to practise skills, develop ideas and think creatively both alongside other children and on their own. Our curriculum enables them to see a need for rules and enables them to take risks and make mistakes. Children’s communication skills are highlighted through play and they communicate by investigating and solving problems at their own levels of development. Within their learning, children have the opportunity to express their fears or re-live experiences in a controlled and safe environment and they are scaffolded, where necessary, by trained practitioners.

Characteristics of Effective Learning

We ensure that our environment and delivery of the curriculum incorporates the three characteristics of effective teaching and learning and these are at the forefront of our planning.

Playing and exploring
Active learning
Creating and thinking critically

Early Reading

At Golborne Community Primary School, reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We are very passionate and ambitious that all children share a love of reading and that all children learn to read fluently and for meaning. We also value the importance of Communication and Language and believe that this needs to be fully embedded at the earliest possible age for children to fully embrace their reading acquisition.

All children will take part in a focused phonics session on a daily basis and will practise and apply their knowledge in a fun and active way. Our chosen systematic, synthetic, phonics (SSP) programme is ‘Supersonic Phonic Friends’.

All children will be listened to read on a weekly basis with books which match the sounds they know and they are learning to read. We aim to develop children’s oral language, establish their phonic knowledge and give them a broad range of reading opportunities including independently reading books and sharing a growing range of books with adults throughout the school day and beyond, with home reading be of high importance. Our curriculum texts will be around the children’s interests and will be fully integrated into our provision across all aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Inclusion:

At Golborne Community Primary School, we believe that all our children matter. We always give our children every opportunity to achieve their best and have the best possible start in life. We set realistic and challenging expectations tailored to the needs of the children, so that all children have the best start and best chances to success based on their different starting points on entry to the school. We plan carefully to meet the individual needs of all children.

Planning opportunities that build upon and extend children’s knowledge, experience and interests, and develop their self-esteem and confidence;
Using a wide range of teaching strategies based on children’s learning needs;
Planning challenging activities for children whose ability and understanding are in advance of their language and communication skills
Providing a wide range of opportunities to motivate and support children and to help them learn effectively;
Providing a safe and supportive learning environment in which the contribution of all children is valued;
Using resources which reflect diversity and are free from discrimination and stereotyping;
Monitoring children’s progress through carefully developed Target Tracker Learning Journeys;
Tailor make the continuous provision to meet the individual needs.

Impact:

At Golborne Community Primary School, assessment plays an important part in helping parents, carers and practitioners to recognise children’s progress, understand their needs and to plan activities and support. Ongoing assessment (also known as formative assessment) is an integral part of the learning and development process. It involves practitioners observing children to understand their level of achievement, interests and learning styles, and to then shape learning experiences for each child reflecting those observations. In their interactions with children, practitioners should respond to their own day-to-day observations about children’s progress, and observations that parents and carers share. Observations of the children’s learning are moderated on a half termly basis.

We make on going assessments of children’s learning, and we use this information to ensure that future planning reflects identified needs. The collection of assessment data in the Foundation Stage

Profile is a statutory requirement. Both the School Nursery and Reception complete Learning Journey’s, which forms an assessment profile for each child’s interest’s needs and development. This is collated on our Target Tracker System and children’s attainment and progress are carefully tracked.

Practitioners use on entry information to understand each child’s prior knowledge and stage of development. The progress of the cohort is regularly monitored and steps on Target Tracker are updated half termly. These assessments allow us to identify patterns of attainment within the cohort, in order to adjust the teaching programme for individual children and groups of children. We share the information contained in the EYFS at our parent meetings.

Phonics assessments, using Phonics Tracker, will take place across the School Nursery and Reception every 7 weeks and the assessment will be a summative assessment of the Phonics phase taught. This will be continued to be monitored and progress tracked by the English Co-ordinator to ensure all children are making good levels of progress in phonics.