Welcome
Welcome to our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). This is the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5 and we think it is the most important stage of their development, as it helps your child become ‘school ready’ as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes.
We will support your child to be happy, active, inspired, feel safe and secure; and support their development, care and learning needs. In order for children to acquire a deep level of learning, it is important to ensure they have opportunities to build memory prompts, enabling them to recall things which they have learnt and effectively continuing to build their knowledge as they progress throughout education.
Curriculum
The seven areas of learning in EYFS are:
- Communication and Language: The development of children's spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. Children's back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment is crucial. By commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added, practitioners will build children's language
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development : Children's personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is crucial for children to lead happy and healthy lives, and is fundamental to their cognitive development. Underpinning their personal development are the important attachments that shape their social world. Strong, warm and supportive relationships with adults enable children to learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others.
- Physical Development: Physical activity is vital in children's all-round development, enabling them to persue happy, healthy and active lives. Gross and fine motor experiences develop incrementally throughout early childhood, starting with sensory explorations and the development of a child's strength, co-ordination and positional awareness through tummy- time, crawling and play movement with both objects and adults.
- Literacy: It is crucial for children to develop a lif-long love of reading. Reading consists of two dimensions: language comprehension and word reading. Language comprehension ( necessary for both reading and writing) starts from birth. It only develops when adults talk with children about the world around them and in books ( stories and non-fiction) they read to them, enjoy rhymes, poems and songs together. Skilled word reading, taught later, involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words ( decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words. Writing involves transcription ( spelling and handwriting) and composition ( articulating ideas and structuring them in speech, before writing)
- Mathematics : Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers.
- Understanding the World: Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children's personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them- from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children's vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.
- Expressive Art and Design: The development of children's artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore with a wide range of media and materials. The quality and variety of wehat children, see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing their understanding, self-expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate through the arts. The frequency , repetition and depth of their experiences are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.
The Early Years team plan together to ensure all children progress towards the Early Learning Goals. The curriculum is taught through a series of interesting topics, including themes led by the children which will follow their interests and areas of fascination.
Intent
In Early Years Foundation Stage ( EYFS), our curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior knowledge and learning, including from both their experiences at home and any previous setting. We work in partnership with parents, carers and other settings to provide the best possible start at Roskear Primary & Nursery School, ensuring each child can reach their full potential from their various starting points.
We have chosen Development Matters as a secure basis for our curriculum development in EYFS. Our EYFS curriculum consists of everything we want children to experience, learn and be able to do. Our curriculum meets the requirements of the educational programmes in the Statutory Framework for Early Years Foundation Stage.
We want children to succeed through collaborative learning principles and working with others. As such, there is a strong emphasis on the Prime Areas of Learning: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, including oracy and Physical Development.
At Roskear, we recognise that oracy not only improves academic outcomes, but is a life skill to ensure success beyond school, in life and future employment. We want to develop children’s thinking and understanding, promote their self-confidence, resilience and empathy and support their well-being. Our enabling environments and highly skilful and nurturing adult interactions support the children as they begin to link learning to their play and exploration from the very moment they join us.
We provide an engaging curriculum which is sequential and maximises opportunities for meaningful cross-curricular links and learning experiences, as well as promoting the unique child by offering extended periods of play and opportunities for sustained thinking. Our curriculum consists of everything we want our children to experience, learn and be able to do. We provide opportunities to follow children’s interests and ideas to foster a lifelong love of learning. We ensure that their abilities and needs are at the forefront of our planning.
By the end of the Reception year, our intent is to ensure that all children reach the Early Learning Goals and ensure that all children make at least good progress from their starting points. We also ensure that they are equipped with the skills and knowledge to make a smooth transition into Year 1.
Implementation
At Roskear we ensure that children experience the wonders of the world through the seven areas of learning. Through our rich, enabling and resourceful, indoor and outdoor, learning environments skilful practitioners are able to meet every child’s needs and follow their unique interests and fascinations.
While there are a number of priorities in relation to learning within the early years, at Roskear we consider communication and language (speaking, listening and understanding) to be at the very foundation of all we do and as such practitioners use strategies that are highly effective in the development of language skills, for example, through the use of commenting “I see you have built a tall tower, tell me about it”.
We recognise that children learn best through being provided first hand experiences and as such we ensure that all our children are given as many opportunities as possible to experience the things they are learning about. For example, when learning about new life in spring we visited the local farm. Upon the children’s return or engagement in such activities, the practitioners ensure children are given the opportunity to use their new learning while transferring their basic skills e.g. making a book, using their reading skills to find out about the things they have seen.
Learning takes place through ‘child initiated’ and ‘adult led’ learning. Children are encouraged to access the learning enhancements through ‘continuous provision’ to consolidate all that they have been taught and to practice and apply them independently.
Impact
Practitioners have a secure knowledge and understanding of how children learn, what they know and can do. Children are encouraged to demonstrate their knowledge through high levels of engagement and curiosity. Adults model expectations and positive attitudes to learning. By observing and listening to children, adults are able to review their progress and success. Taking into account children’s prior knowledge and achievements, staff plan their next steps to move learning forward. Parental involvement is highly valued across the EYFS and we recognise parents as the children’s first educators.