Our Intent, Implementation and Impact for Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage is the period of education from birth to 5 years. In our Foundation Stage we have provision for children aged 3 – 5 years. We have a Nursery, known as the Robins and three Reception Classes, the Kingfishers, the Owls and the Woodpeckers. 

Intent - this is what we want our children to learn. It is our vision and aim for them.

We aim to ensure that every child in our Foundation Stage receives the best possible start to their education. We aim to create a learning environment where all children feel safe, secure and confident so they can explore, play and learn.

We aim to develop positive relationships which support, enhance and stimulate a child’s curiosity, confidence and individual competency to flourish regardless of backgrounds, circumstances or needs. We aim to work in partnership with parents and carers to encourage resilient, independent, enthusiastic learners who thrive and reach their full potential from their various starting points.

We believe that children’s early learning experiences deeply affect their future. Therefore, it is our ultimate aim to ensure that their early years in our school are positive, memorable, exciting, ambitious and engaging. We aim to provide motivating first-hand learning experiences whilst encouraging our children to build resilience, ambition and a positive attitude to learning.  

We advocate a play-based approach to learning, with a balance of child-initiated and adult-led learning. We provide our children with a curriculum that is designed to be flexible, engaging and exciting so that their unique needs, passions and interests are embraced. Our curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior learning from previous settings and their experiences at home and use this as a starting point for their learning. We strive to create an indoor and outdoor learning environment which encourages curiosity and self-exploration whilst also supporting learning. We aim to ensure that all children develop the vital skills that they need to achieve and to succeed in life. We want our children to be effective, independent learners with inquisitive minds who make progress in all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Every child is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome diversity in our school community. We focus on teaching the basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values. We believe that a child’s first experiences of school should be happy and positive, enabling them to develop a lifelong love of learning.

Implementation - this is how we teach our children.

Our curriculum follows the Early Years Statutory Framework for the Early Years 2021. This was revised and updated in 2021. This document specifies the requirements for learning and development in the EYFS and provides the prime and specific areas of learning we must cover in our curriculum.

The learning experiences in our Early Years are based on the seven areas of learning and development outlined in the framework. These areas are split into three prime areas and four specific areas. The three prime areas are those which the children should develop first and are considered most essential for the healthy development and future learning of our children. These include:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development.

As children grow and make progress in the prime areas, this will help them to naturally develop skills in the four specific areas. These are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

Children in our EYFS benefit from meaningful learning experiences and activities across the curriculum. These provide the opportunities for children to develop a range of skills both indoors and outdoors and take into account the Characteristics of Effective Learning to ensure that purposeful learning takes place. These 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

The Early Years Statutory Framework and Development Matters underpin our curriculum and planning. Our curriculum and planning cover the seven areas of learning and development, to ensure a broad, balanced and progressive learning environment and curriculum. We have an appropriate balance between adult-led activities, which include an adult working with children on a whole class, a small group and 1:1 basis, and child-initiated activities. This balance of activities ensures that every child develops the appropriate skills and is prepared to access the Year 1 Curriculum.

We regularly assess the children's progress and achievement, through accurate and detailed observations. These provide us with information for immediate and future planning, not only for our individual classes but also for individual children’s next steps in their learning. Observations enable us to ensure learning is embedded and consistent and that all children continue to make progress within our EYFS. Our ongoing assessments ensure our planning, adult interaction and learning environment; including continuous provision, support children to reach their next steps. We will include interventions for groups or individuals if and when necessary. 

Tapestry is used to build online learning journeys to celebrate the children’s learning and progress over time. Evidence of learning is also recorded in Nursery and Reception “Big Books”, which document the children's learning experiences over the academic year.

We provide regular opportunities for parents and carers to come into school and work with their child, share their work and celebrate successes. We keep parents informed and we meet regularly with them to ensure children’s transition into school and through the EYFS is happy and allows them to reach their potential. Some children might need support and we ensure that the appropriate support is put in place to meet their needs.

Opportunities for parents and carers to speak to us include:

• Information evenings for new parents
• Transition days
• Visits to other Early Years' settings and nurseries or home visits
• Stay and play sessions
• Parent and Carer workshops
• Family days
• Special events such as: Our “Wolsey House Christmas by Night” and our “Easter Eggstravaganza” for the Reception classes and the Teddy Bears' picnic for the Nursery.
• Tapestry is a secure electronic platform on which we share a range of information including their child's learning journey through photos, video clips, examples of work. WOW moments and achievement certificates
• Parental and Carer consultation evenings during the Autumn and Spring terms 
• Frequent informal communication to suit individual families when the need arises
• The end of year formal written report

Our Foundation Stage team work tirelessly to ensure that children are surrounded by a kind, caring and happy environment which helps them develop the same skills in their journey through school. It is a positive place to be, where resilience, perseverance and successes are celebrated and every child feels valued and respected.

The role of the adult is key. Adults are organised to accommodate and facilitate indoor and outdoor provision. They support learning through a mixture of direct teaching and supporting play through child-initiated activities. During these activities, they assess the children's progress and achievement. Through observation, direct teaching, quality interactions, questioning and modelling, teachers and teaching assistants create an ‘enabling’ environment in which children can progress. We carry out home visits to ensure that we collect as much information about the child as we can before they start school and to ensure the children’s transition into school is happy. We know that support from parents impacts positively on the progress the children make.

Impact - this is what the children have learnt - the knowledge and skills developed through our Curriculum.

The impact of our curriculum is measured by assessment procedures which allow us to measure outcomes against all schools nationally – Early Years Foundation Stage Handbook. We strive to ensure that our children’s progress across the EYFS curriculum is at least good from their varied starting points. We also strive for children to reach the Early Learning Goals at the end of Reception and to be in line with National Expectations. Evidence in children’s learning journeys support all areas of the EYFS curriculum. We measure the percentage of pupils achieving age-related expectations at regular intervals throughout the academic year. At pupil progress meetings and through ongoing professional dialogue we discuss progress and achievement of all pupils and put targeted interventions in place if needed.

Class teachers use observations to make formative assessments which inform future planning and ensure that all children build on their current knowledge and skills at a good pace. Summative assessment compares children attainment to age-related expectations using month bands in Development Matters. This is tracked using INSIGHT to ensure that rates of progress are at least good for all children, including vulnerable groups such as those with SEND, or disadvantaged children. Our assessment judgements have been moderated both in school and externally with local schools in our development group. 

The impact of our curriculum is also measured by how effectively it helps our pupils develop into well-rounded individuals who display our school values. We endeavour for pupils to be Key Stage One ready and have our school values embedded by the time they leave Reception, preparing them for their future. Their individuality is valued and the unique child has every opportunity to achieve and excel, based upon their own personal strengths, interest and core values whilst learning in EYFS, and in the future.

By the end of the Foundation Stage we aim for our children to:

• Have developed good communication skills, both written and verbal. Our
• Have developed effective listening skills. We encourage them to listen respectfully to others and that they demonstrate tolerance towards the views of other people.
• Take pride in all that they do and that they strive to do their best.
• Demonstrate emotional resilience and the ability to persevere when they encounter something that they find challenging.
• Develop a sense of self-awareness and become confident in their own abilities.
• Be kind, respectful and honest, demonstrating inclusive attitudes and that they have an understanding of their role in our school community and in the wider community.