Roskear Primary and Nursery School

Learning together for a better future

Early Years Curriculum

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Intent

Prior to entry to Roskear, we work closely with our parents, carers and pre school providers to ensure we know as much as possible about our young children before they start school. We carry out visits to home and external providers so that we can see the children in a familiar setting, gathering knowledge about their interests and fascinations’. Children and their families visit us in school to establish effective relationships with the Roskear team early. We find this enables our children to quickly settle and become part of the ‘Roskear Family’.

We create a stimulating, exciting environment which enables our youngest children to access a broad and balanced curriculum across the EYFS. Practitioners plan challenging and playful opportunities across the prime and specific areas of learning and development. This includes the essential knowledge that our children need to prepare them for their future success. Practitioners use ‘Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage’ as their key guidance to support planning.

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 and what they know. 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.

We are proud to report that last year 72% of our children left Reception (Foundation Stage 2) having achieved a ‘good level of development’ – this was in-line with the National data and 2% higher than the local authority average.