Noak Bridge EYFS Early Years Foundation Stage
EYFS Lead: Miss S Bennett
In the Early Years Foundation Stage we set realistic but challenging expectations to meet the needs of our children, with the intention that most will achieve the Early Learning Goals by the end of the their reception year.
Curriculum
Our curriculum is based on the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework and Development Matters documents. The EYFS framework includes seven areas of learning and development, all of which are seen as important and interconnected. Three areas are seen as particularly important for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, for building their capacity to learn and form relationships and thrive. They support children’s learning in all other areas and are known as the prime areas.
Prime Areas:
Prime areas are fundamental, work together, and support development in all other areas.
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
Specific Areas:
Specific areas include essential skills and knowledge for children to participate successfully in society.
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
Characteristics of Effective Learning:
The ways in which a child engages with other people and their environment – playing and exploring, active learning, and creating and thinking critically – underpin learning and development across all areas and are known as the ‘Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning’. Our curriculum, environment and ethos are designed to encourage and develop these behaviours and attitudes. Observing the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning informs the staff of children’s preferred learning styles. We use these to plan effective next step learning opportunities matched to the children’s interests and abilities. The three characteristics are:
- Playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
- Active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
- Creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things
Planning
Our staff are ambitious for all children. We plan activities and experiences for the children that enable them to develop and learn effectively, through providing opportunities for children to rehearse, consolidate, and apply what they have learnt. Play is the foundation for learning in the Early Years, and is essential for cognitive, social, emotional and physical development. Our planning incorporates a careful balance of child-initiated learning (play) in the continuous provision and adult-directed activities.
We aspire to create a calm, stimulating learning environment in which children are encouraged to be autonomous in their learning. Children are taught to look after the learning environment and self-select from different areas across the classroom. Resources for both indoor and outdoor learning are carefully selected and include open-ended resources which can be adapted for the needs of individual children. Staff continually monitor and adapt the learning environment, based on the needs and interests of the class. During child-initiated play in the provision, staff observe, model and scaffold learning, using their knowledge of the individual child.
Provision planning is updated weekly to include enhancements based on weekly themes and topics, as well as the needs and interests of the class. The curriculum overview outlines objectives for each area of learning covered throughout the year. Medium-term plans outline the key objectives and themes for each half term. The weekly areas of learning and provision plan details links to the seven areas of learning and objectives from the development matters framework and Early Learning Goals. The weekly planning document also lists key vocabulary and questions for each area, as well as suggestions for how children could be further challenged. Our planning also extends to the outdoor provision. Staff plan activities closely linked to the different areas of learning and designed to promote children’s natural curiosity and engagement with the natural world.
Staff also consider the individual needs, interests, and development of each child in their care, and consider whether the child needs any additional support. They use this information to plan challenging and enjoyable experiences and scaffold learning accordingly. This could be through targeted interventions or through adult-child interactions during child-initiated play. Where a child may have a special educational need or disability (SEND), staff consider whether specialist support is required, linking with relevant services from other agencies, where appropriate.
In planning and guiding the children’s activities, staff reflect on the different rates at which children are developing and take these into account. Staff use their observations of children, as well as formative and summative assessment to adapt the environment accordingly.
Teaching
Staff make sure that the children experience the 3 key characteristics of effective teaching and learning: playing and exploring; active learning; and creating and thinking critically. These are essential for learning in the early years and promoting positive attitudes to learning. We aim to develop warm, positive relationships with the children, enabling them to feel safe to take risks with their learning and challenge themselves to learn more. Staff explicitly teach and model problem-solving skills and aim to develop critical thinking skills through careful questioning and encouraging independence in the environment. The majority of the day is dedicated to child-initiated play, which enables children to develop and rehearse what they have learnt. In the morning session, children can decide if they want to play inside or outside after snack time. During the afternoon session, the groups rotate to ensure that all children access both the indoor and outdoor provision.
As the children grow older, and as their development allows, the balance gradually shifts towards more focus on teaching essential skills and knowledge in the specific areas of learning, to help the children prepare for Key Stage 1. We teach daily phonics sessions, using the Read Write Inc phonics programme. English and Maths are taught through daily carpet sessions, and after the carpet session, staff work with individual children or small groups to further consolidate and extend learning. Children are given weekly phonics and Maths homework to further consolidate learning. We teach regular Music, P.E., R.E, and Understanding the World carpet sessions to ensure a broad and balanced curriculum and provide the children with essential knowledge and skills required for Year 1. Our daily assembly sessions further develop children’s Understanding of the World, as well as essential language and communication skills. The children participate in a daily fine motor carousel and daily handwriting sessions to develop their fine motor skills and prepare them with fundamental skills for writing. We aim to provide a language-rich environment, and support children’s vocabulary and language development through helicopter stories and learning/reciting poems.
Our teaching of reading and writing is based on a systematic synthetic phonics approach using the Read Write Inc programme.
In Reception we use the White Rose scheme for Maths as a basis for planning teaching and learning.
EYFS Curriculum Map