EYFS Curriculum
Intent:
Here at Ivy Bank Primary, we hold high regard for the well-being of all our pupils. We ensure our pupils are ready to access learning through the assessment of their level of well-being and involvement. We then provide opportunities for children to develop this, including the notion of belonging, coping, core self and resilience. We aim to provide a safe, nurturing environment which promotes the highest standard of education for our youngest pupils. Our Early Years team is committed to providing an environment that is rich with possibilities, develops children’s independence and puts children right at the centre of their own learning.
It is our intent that all of our children leave the foundation stage with the skills, attitudes and attributes that they need to continue their learning journey into Key Stage One. As a result, we have a carefully planned, multi-layered approach to the children’s learning experience, which is led by their interests and through their play and independent exploration. A strong focus on oracy, use of high quality texts linked to the children’s interests and experiences, a wide range of opportunities to learn about the world around them at local, national and global level, alongside the careful and structured teaching of phonics, reading, writing and maths gives the children solid foundations for the next stage of their education.
The aims of our EYFS curriculum are to develop young pupils who are:
- Competent learners
- Resilient
- Capable
- Confident
- Communicators
- Independent
- Creative
- Curious and inquisitive
- Self-assured
- Accepting and empathetic
- Positive
- Brave
Implementation:
We believe that play with all its language, physicality and social interaction is what gives children the right and appropriate grounding for their educational journey. Play is our fundamental principle but alongside this, we also incorporate direct teaching times across each day to introduce and consolidate skills in phonics, language and literacy mathematics and personal and emotional development.
We create a sense of wonder through creative ideas which involve the children and, as much as possible, are based on real life experiences. We look to provide opportunity which aims to foster children’s preferred learning styles and demonstrate the various characteristics of effective learning. We provide children with the opportunity to be explorers, be actively involved in their learning, as well, creative and critical thinkers through the planning of open ended tasks. We aim to foster curiosity through carefully planned learning environments enabling children to demonstrate those key characteristics of effective learning. We value the importance of learning outdoors and are making steps to improve our outdoor provision.
At Ivy Bank, we ensure that our learning environments provide:
- stimulating resources, relevant to all the children’s cultures and communities
- rich learning opportunities through play and playful teaching
- support for children to take risks and explore
We also know that children's families are their first and most enduring educators and we value being partners with them in their child’s education. We look to forge positive relationships with parents to enable us to support learning both at home and school. We share the children’s learning through a range of ways including; teacher/parent meetings, termly progress reports, positive notes/stickers and an open-door policy.
Impact:
Our EYFS curriculum provides a sustained high quality, well planned and progressive curriculum for the unique child. The positive relationships developed between staff and children ensure that the children are self-confident, with a good degree of self-esteem and resilience. In addition to this the children’s level of involvement ensures they are intensely engaged in activities which encourage deep level learning and development.
At Ivy Bank we use the Development Matters document as guidance for our practitioners to help them implement the educational programmes in the statutory framework. We use this information to plan a challenging and enjoyable experience for each child in all areas of learning and development. We have carefully designed our curriculum to ensure that the content, sequencing and progression in the areas of learning are secured, so that the children develop, consolidate and deepen their knowledge, understanding and skills. It has been designed to challenge children and ensure that they are fully prepared for the next stages in their learning. Alongside this the children are given a wide variety of experiences to enrich and enhance their learning.; staff regularly review pupil progress through pupil progress meetings, Early years advisor support, staff supervision meetings and moderation (both in school, across schools and county). This ensures that all judgments of attainment are accurate and clear. All children’s progress is tracked on DC pro and attainment is closely monitored. By the end of the EYFS phase (end of Reception), all children will have had a completed Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) outlining their attainment across the phase, in line with the statutory guidelines. From this it is judged whether children are achieving at age related expectations and have achieved a ‘good level of development’ (GLD).
All children will have Quality First Teaching. Any children with identified SEND or in receipt of pupil premium funding may participate in further interventions, in order to access the curriculum dependent upon their needs. As well as this, our school offers a demanding and varied curriculum, providing children with a range of opportunities in order for them to reach their full potential and consistently achieve highly from their starting points.