What is the Early Years Foundation Stage?

Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which is how the Government and early years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5.

This is a very important stage as it helps your child get ready for school as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes. From when your child is born up until the age of 5, their early years experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; and support their development, care and learning needs.

Intent

Our curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior learning, both from previous settings and their experiences at home. We work in partnership with parents, carers and other settings to provide the best possible, ensuring each individual reaches their full potential from their various starting points.

Our curriculum has been designed to enable children to succeed through cooperative and collaborative learning principles. As such, there is a strong emphasis on the Prime Areas of learning; Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language, including Oracy. We recognise that oracy not only improves academic outcomes, but is a life skill to ensure success beyond school, in life and future employment. Oracy develops children’s thinking and understanding, which in turn promotes self-confidence, resilience and empathy which support the child’s well-being. Our enabling environments and warm, skilful adult interactions support the children as they begin to link learning to their play and exploration right from the start.

 We believe that high level engagement ensures high level attainment. We therefore provide an engaging curriculum that maximises opportunities for meaningful cross-curricular links and learning experiences, as well as promoting the unique child by offering extended periods of play and sustained thinking.

We following children’s interests and ideas to foster a lifelong love of learning both in and outside of school. By the end of the Reception year, our intent is to ensure that all children make at least good progress from their starting points are equipped with the skills and knowledge to have a smooth transition into Year 1.

Implementation

Each half term, EYFS staff introduce a new topic theme to provide inspiration for learning, whilst providing the flexibility for children to follow their own interests and ideas. Children learn through a balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities. The timetable is carefully structured so that children have directed teaching during the day. The timetable changes throughout the year to take into consideration the changing needs of the children. These sessions are followed by small focused group work. This means the teacher can systematically check for understanding, identify and respond to misconceptions quickly and provide real-time verbal feedback which results in a strong impact on the acquisition of new learning. Children are provided with plenty of time to engage in ‘independent leraning’ throughout the variety of experiences carefully planned to engage and challenge them in the provision. The curriculum is planned for the inside and outside classrooms and equal importance is given to learning in both areas.

 How my child will be learning?

 Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.

Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first.

 These are:

• Communication and language;
• Physical development; and
• Personal, social and emotional development.

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.

As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas.

These are:

• Literacy;
• Mathematics;
• Understanding the world; and
• Expressive arts and design.

Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside. Our classes room has a numbers of areas set up both inside and out including maths, mark making, role play, water, sand, art, reading and construction to name a few.

Children are acessed at the end of the Reception Year against the Early Learning Goals. Children at an expected level of development should all achieve these goals.

Our Classroom

We have lots of different areas within our classroom where we can learn. We call time in the areas ' independent learning' as we get to explore and improve our skills independently with an adult near by should we need them. 

We learn both inside and outside and have a number of areas to learn including a Home corner, Creative area, Reading/Phonics Area, Science Area, Writing Area, Maths Area, Small World Area, Construction Area, Sand area, Water Area, Physical Area, Role play Area, Mark Making Area, Physical Area, Maths Area, Large Construction area and a painting area to name a few.

How can you help at home?

All the fun activities that you do with your child at home are important in supporting their learning and development, and have a really long lasting effect on your child’s learning as they progress through school.

Sing and tell nursery rhymes

Talk about the numbers, colours, words and letters you see when you are out and about

Cook / bake together

Allow your child to cut out and stick pictures from magazines

Plant seeds or bulbs in a pot or garden patch

Explore the park at a different time of the year

Share a book

Talk to your child at every opportunity – e.g. what you are doing that day

Online Learning Journal Through Tapestry 

Observations by Staff

In school we use Tapestry as one of several forms of assessment. We observe and record key moments in your child’s development, you will revive these through the tapesty app.

Observations by Parents

One of the fantastic features of Tapestry is that parents can also add observations/wow moments from home to your child’s journal. This is a great way of supporting us in assessing your child outside the school environment, it also provides us with opportunities to celebrate any achievements your child has made at home.

1. Add a title to your observation to summarise your moment e.g. Feeding the ducks
2. When writing your observation keep it simple. Try and record what your child said in their exact words and then comment on why this is a wow moment e.g. ‘X was excited to feed the ducks, she said “Look that duck is big than that duck”.
3. If you wish, then you can then add a photo or video to your observation (please keep videos to a maximum of 1 minute long).

Commenting on observations by staff

When you read the observations by staff there is an option for you to leave a reply. 

Remember: - Any publishing of staff observations from Tapestry onto social media is strictly prohibited. - Contact a member of staff if you are unsure about how to use any of the Tapestry features.

Click on the video links below on how to use tapestry.

Setting up your account

Adding an observation

How to download your child's learning journey

What is the Early Years Foundation Stage?

Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which is how the Government and early years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5.

This is a very important stage as it helps your child get ready for school as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes. From when your child is born up until the age of 5, their early years experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; and support their development, care and learning needs.

Intent

Our curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior learning, both from previous settings and their experiences at home. We work in partnership with parents, carers and other settings to provide the best possible, ensuring each individual reaches their full potential from their various starting points.

Our curriculum has been designed to enable children to succeed through cooperative and collaborative learning principles. As such, there is a strong emphasis on the Prime Areas of learning; Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language, including Oracy. We recognise that oracy not only improves academic outcomes, but is a life skill to ensure success beyond school, in life and future employment. Oracy develops children’s thinking and understanding, which in turn promotes self-confidence, resilience and empathy which support the child’s well-being. Our enabling environments and warm, skilful adult interactions support the children as they begin to link learning to their play and exploration right from the start.

 We believe that high level engagement ensures high level attainment. We therefore provide an engaging curriculum that maximises opportunities for meaningful cross-curricular links and learning experiences, as well as promoting the unique child by offering extended periods of play and sustained thinking.

We following children’s interests and ideas to foster a lifelong love of learning both in and outside of school. By the end of the Reception year, our intent is to ensure that all children make at least good progress from their starting points are equipped with the skills and knowledge to have a smooth transition into Year 1.

Implementation

Each half term, EYFS staff introduce a new topic theme to provide inspiration for learning, whilst providing the flexibility for children to follow their own interests and ideas. Children learn through a balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities. The timetable is carefully structured so that children have directed teaching during the day. The timetable changes throughout the year to take into consideration the changing needs of the children. These sessions are followed by small focused group work. This means the teacher can systematically check for understanding, identify and respond to misconceptions quickly and provide real-time verbal feedback which results in a strong impact on the acquisition of new learning. Children are provided with plenty of time to engage in ‘independent leraning’ throughout the variety of experiences carefully planned to engage and challenge them in the provision. The curriculum is planned for the inside and outside classrooms and equal importance is given to learning in both areas.

 How my child will be learning?

 Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.

Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first.

 These are:

• Communication and language;
• Physical development; and
• Personal, social and emotional development.

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.

As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas.

These are:

• Literacy;
• Mathematics;
• Understanding the world; and
• Expressive arts and design.

Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside. Our classes room has a numbers of areas set up both inside and out including maths, mark making, role play, water, sand, art, reading and construction to name a few.

Children are acessed at the end of the Reception Year against the Early Learning Goals. Children at an expected level of development should all achieve these goals.

Our Classroom

We have lots of different areas within our classroom where we can learn. We call time in the areas ' independent learning' as we get to explore and improve our skills independently with an adult near by should we need them. 

We learn both inside and outside and have a number of areas to learn including a Home corner, Creative area, Reading/Phonics Area, Science Area, Writing Area, Maths Area, Small World Area, Construction Area, Sand area, Water Area, Physical Area, Role play Area, Mark Making Area, Physical Area, Maths Area, Large Construction area and a painting area to name a few.

How can you help at home?

All the fun activities that you do with your child at home are important in supporting their learning and development, and have a really long lasting effect on your child’s learning as they progress through school.

Sing and tell nursery rhymes

Talk about the numbers, colours, words and letters you see when you are out and about

Cook / bake together

Allow your child to cut out and stick pictures from magazines

Plant seeds or bulbs in a pot or garden patch

Explore the park at a different time of the year

Share a book

Talk to your child at every opportunity – e.g. what you are doing that day

Online Learning Journal Through Tapestry 

Observations by Staff

In school we use Tapestry as one of several forms of assessment. We observe and record key moments in your child’s development, you will revive these through the tapesty app.

Observations by Parents

One of the fantastic features of Tapestry is that parents can also add observations/wow moments from home to your child’s journal. This is a great way of supporting us in assessing your child outside the school environment, it also provides us with opportunities to celebrate any achievements your child has made at home.

1. Add a title to your observation to summarise your moment e.g. Feeding the ducks
2. When writing your observation keep it simple. Try and record what your child said in their exact words and then comment on why this is a wow moment e.g. ‘X was excited to feed the ducks, she said “Look that duck is big than that duck”.
3. If you wish, then you can then add a photo or video to your observation (please keep videos to a maximum of 1 minute long).

Commenting on observations by staff

When you read the observations by staff there is an option for you to leave a reply. 

Remember: - Any publishing of staff observations from Tapestry onto social media is strictly prohibited. - Contact a member of staff if you are unsure about how to use any of the Tapestry features.

Click on the video links below on how to use tapestry.

Setting up your account

Adding an observation

How to download your child's learning journey

What is the Early Years Foundation Stage?

Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which is how the Government and early years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5.

This is a very important stage as it helps your child get ready for school as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes. From when your child is born up until the age of 5, their early years experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; and support their development, care and learning needs.

Intent

Our curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior learning, both from previous settings and their experiences at home. We work in partnership with parents, carers and other settings to provide the best possible, ensuring each individual reaches their full potential from their various starting points.

Our curriculum has been designed to enable children to succeed through cooperative and collaborative learning principles. As such, there is a strong emphasis on the Prime Areas of learning; Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language, including Oracy. We recognise that oracy not only improves academic outcomes, but is a life skill to ensure success beyond school, in life and future employment. Oracy develops children’s thinking and understanding, which in turn promotes self-confidence, resilience and empathy which support the child’s well-being. Our enabling environments and warm, skilful adult interactions support the children as they begin to link learning to their play and exploration right from the start.

 We believe that high level engagement ensures high level attainment. We therefore provide an engaging curriculum that maximises opportunities for meaningful cross-curricular links and learning experiences, as well as promoting the unique child by offering extended periods of play and sustained thinking.

We following children’s interests and ideas to foster a lifelong love of learning both in and outside of school. By the end of the Reception year, our intent is to ensure that all children make at least good progress from their starting points are equipped with the skills and knowledge to have a smooth transition into Year 1.

Implementation

Each half term, EYFS staff introduce a new topic theme to provide inspiration for learning, whilst providing the flexibility for children to follow their own interests and ideas. Children learn through a balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities. The timetable is carefully structured so that children have directed teaching during the day. The timetable changes throughout the year to take into consideration the changing needs of the children. These sessions are followed by small focused group work. This means the teacher can systematically check for understanding, identify and respond to misconceptions quickly and provide real-time verbal feedback which results in a strong impact on the acquisition of new learning. Children are provided with plenty of time to engage in ‘independent leraning’ throughout the variety of experiences carefully planned to engage and challenge them in the provision. The curriculum is planned for the inside and outside classrooms and equal importance is given to learning in both areas.

 How my child will be learning?

 Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.

Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first.

 These are:

• Communication and language;
• Physical development; and
• Personal, social and emotional development.

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.

As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas.

These are:

• Literacy;
• Mathematics;
• Understanding the world; and
• Expressive arts and design.

Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside. Our classes room has a numbers of areas set up both inside and out including maths, mark making, role play, water, sand, art, reading and construction to name a few.

Children are acessed at the end of the Reception Year against the Early Learning Goals. Children at an expected level of development should all achieve these goals.

Our Classroom

We have lots of different areas within our classroom where we can learn. We call time in the areas ' independent learning' as we get to explore and improve our skills independently with an adult near by should we need them. 

We learn both inside and outside and have a number of areas to learn including a Home corner, Creative area, Reading/Phonics Area, Science Area, Writing Area, Maths Area, Small World Area, Construction Area, Sand area, Water Area, Physical Area, Role play Area, Mark Making Area, Physical Area, Maths Area, Large Construction area and a painting area to name a few.

How can you help at home?

All the fun activities that you do with your child at home are important in supporting their learning and development, and have a really long lasting effect on your child’s learning as they progress through school.

Sing and tell nursery rhymes

Talk about the numbers, colours, words and letters you see when you are out and about

Cook / bake together

Allow your child to cut out and stick pictures from magazines

Plant seeds or bulbs in a pot or garden patch

Explore the park at a different time of the year

Share a book

Talk to your child at every opportunity – e.g. what you are doing that day

Online Learning Journal Through Tapestry 

Observations by Staff

In school we use Tapestry as one of several forms of assessment. We observe and record key moments in your child’s development, you will revive these through the tapesty app.

Observations by Parents

One of the fantastic features of Tapestry is that parents can also add observations/wow moments from home to your child’s journal. This is a great way of supporting us in assessing your child outside the school environment, it also provides us with opportunities to celebrate any achievements your child has made at home.

1. Add a title to your observation to summarise your moment e.g. Feeding the ducks
2. When writing your observation keep it simple. Try and record what your child said in their exact words and then comment on why this is a wow moment e.g. ‘X was excited to feed the ducks, she said “Look that duck is big than that duck”.
3. If you wish, then you can then add a photo or video to your observation (please keep videos to a maximum of 1 minute long).

Commenting on observations by staff

When you read the observations by staff there is an option for you to leave a reply. 

Remember: - Any publishing of staff observations from Tapestry onto social media is strictly prohibited. - Contact a member of staff if you are unsure about how to use any of the Tapestry features.

Click on the video links below on how to use tapestry.

Setting up your account

Adding an observation

How to download your child's learning journey