The curriculum offered in our Early Years covers all the many areas of the Foundation stage. Learning is a range of direct teaching (in small groups or 1 to 1) and, most importantly, child-led use of the provision. Every effort is made so that children can consolidate teaching and also make their own inquisitive exploration, combining these to solve problems or pose their own questions and lines of enquiry. The timetables in both Nursery and Reception are busy and highly structured to ensure that no opportunity is wasted; however the school day from the children’s point of view is less structured, flows smoothly and allows a range of playful and engaging experiences both indoors and outdoors.

We, as a school, understand that it can be hard for a parent to gain a true understanding of their child’s curriculum and what is being focused on in Key subjects. To help address this we offer a variety of parent workshops throughout the school year:

• Preparation for Success: Key skills that help a child to be ready for their school journey

This workshop covers:

• The Social and Emotional aspects of learning
• The importance of Communication
• Self-help skills and why they matter
• Physical Development
• Dispelling myths about learning

• Storytelling Workshop in Nursery

This workshop covers:

• Observe a storytelling session
• Introduction to the lending library system
• Guidance on storytelling 

• Mark Making into Writing in Nursery

This workshop covers:

•  The mark making journey from Birth - 5
• The importance of physical development 
• Pencil control support
• Addressing misconceptions with letter formation

• Early Maths in Nursery & Reception

This workshop covers:

• The counting principles
• The Learning Journey
• Achieving Mastery in the early years
• The Walk Home Challenge 
• Supporting the Maths Journey at home
• Maths stay & play

• Reading and Phonics in Reception

This workshop covers:

• The Characteristics of Effective Learning
• School systems for the teaching of Reading
• Why Phonics matters
• The ‘Letters and Sounds Programme’ and the key phases within it
• Blending and Segmenting skills
• Making phonics fun
• Home reading (including reading and being read to)

In addition to these, we meet parents on a 1:1 basis at our school Parent’s Evenings. This provides the opportunity to update parents on their child’s progress and current priorities, and also helps parents to understand how their child’s stage of learning compares with the age related skills and understanding set out in the Development Matters Framework and, towards the end of the Reception year, with the statutory Early Learning Goals. 

CoEL advocate that in planning and guiding children’s activities, practitioners must reflect on the different ways that children learn, and then reflect these in their practice. A child’s individual learning characteristic will determine the way they respond to both the teaching and learning taking place in the environment.  The three key strands identified by the EYFS 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; and
• creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

The focus of the CoEL is on how children learn rather than what they learn i.e. process over outcome. Underpinning the CoEL is the understanding that during their earliest years, children form attitudes about learning that will last a lifetime. Children who receive the right sort of support and encouragement during these years will be creative, and adventurous learners throughout their lives. Children who do not receive this sort of support and interaction are likely to have a much different attitude about learning later on in life. Hence, why the supportive practitioner, and the environment they provide, need to nurture these CoELs to occur, but without forgetting that children are individuals who bring their own needs, talents and histories to the learning environment.

For information regarding EYFS staff & the transition process to our school, follow the link to our EYFS parent page below.