We CARE • Curiosity - Aspiration - Respect - Enthusiasm

Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum

‘Every child deserves the best possible start in life and support to fulfill their potential. A child’s experience in the early years has a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right and provides the foundation for children to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.’ Early Years Foundation Stage Profile- Department for Children, Schools and Families 2012.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the curriculum for children from birth to 5. There are 7 areas of learning in the EYFS:

Foundation Stage Pack 2021

Early Years Foundation Stage Policy

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Children are helped to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others. It builds up their confidence and self-esteem and encourages them to form positive relationships with other people. They learn how to manage their feelings, and understand that their actions and words have consequences. They are encouraged to display positive behaviour and self-control.

Communication and language development

The children are provided with opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations.

Physical development and P.E.

Opportunities are provided for the children to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement, both on a large scale such as playing on a climbing frame and also on a smaller scale, for example through threading to practise hand–eye coordination. Children are also helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.

We do lots of activities to support physical development in the Foundation Stage garden. However, in addition to this, we do have a weekly P.E. session in the hall or outdoors. This includes gymnastics, athletics, dance, ball skills and games.

Literacy

This includes both reading and writing. It involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters. This helps them to work out and read new words. They use the sounds in their writing and so begin to read and write.

Mathematics

Children are provided with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers and calculating. They explore shapes and patterns and use mathematical language to describe shapes. They encounter real life problems and think creatively of ways to solve them.

Understanding the world

This involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.

Expressive arts and design

This enables children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology.

Our Intent

We have the highest aspirations for every child, believing that they should be empowered to take ownership of their learning and their environment
We nurture children’s natural curiosity, joyfulness and intrinsic creativity as powerful motivators across all areas of learning and development.
Our greatest resource are the adults who have sensitive and skillful adult–child interactions focus on extending thinking, broadening communication and introducing challenge
Warm, authentic relationships between our staff, the children and their families are a priority.

Implementation

The Early Years Foundation Stage is based on four themes:

– A Unique Child

– Positive Relationships

-Enabling Environments

-Learning and Development

A Unique Child

Cholsey Primary School recognises that every child is a competent learner who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured and that children develop in individual ways and at varying rates. Children’s attitudes and dispositions to learning are influenced by feedback from others; praise and encouragement is used, as well as celebration, to encourage children to develop a positive attitude to learning.

Positive Relationships

Cholsey Primary School recognises that children learn to be strong, confident and independent from being in secure relationships. Staff develop caring, respectful, professional relationships with children and their families.

Enabling Environments

Cholsey Primary School recognises that the environment plays a key role in supporting and extending the children’s development, where the children feel confident, secure and challenged. The children have daily access to an indoor and outdoor environment that is set up in discrete areas of learning with planned continuous provision. Play-based learning is paramount and children have opportunities to direct their own learning with planned opportunities provided by staff.

Learning and Developing

The EYFS Curriculum reflects the areas of learning identified in the Early Learning Goals. There are seven areas of learning and development that must shape educational provision in early year’s settings. All areas of learning and development are important and interconnected. None of the areas of learning can be delivered in isolation from the others. At Cholsey Primary School, children’s learning experiences enable them to develop competency and skill across a number of learning areas. They require a balance of adult led and child initiated activities in order for most children to reach the levels required at the end of EYFS. Three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive.

Impact

During each term the staff continuously make observations on what is being learnt by the children. These are discussed at weekly meetings and help us to formulate the themes and activities we plan for the future. In order to maximise children’s learning experiences there needs to be a balance between adult-led and child-initiated activities.

An individual pupil profile is kept for every child. Profiles from any previous settings will be forwarded to us to enable staff to build on the individual child’s learning. Staff are continuously updating the profiles; this allows them to track the children’s progress and become very familiar with their development.

Forest School

Each week the children attend Forest School. This is held in our School’s own nature reserve.
Our aims at Cholsey Forest School are to:

respect, learn from, learn about and explore the natural world around us;
develop personal skills such as independence, caring for others, teamwork and communication;
develop physical skills such as jumping, running, climbing, tying knots etc;
develop creative skills like role-play and imaginative games.
For more information click here.

Parent Partnership

We wish to have a close relationship with parents and we are always keen that they are involved in the education of their children and in the life of the school. You might like to help with reading, supervising small group activities, playing a game with some children, doing practical jobs in the setting or at home, or sharing any other of your talents with us.

You may find the information and ideas on Being School Ready useful to help support your child in these early years. (Click on these logos to view the information).