Early Years Foundation Stage (Nursery & Reception)

We follow a wide and varied Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum which builds upon and develops each child’s knowledge and skills. Our curriculum is play based and children will learn through a range of child-led and adult-led activities in both our indoor and outdoor spaces.

The EYFS has seven areas of learning and development. Three areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving.

These are the prime areas:

• communication and language
• physical development
• personal, social and emotional development

The four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied.

The specific areas are:

• literacy
• mathematics
• understanding the world
• expressive arts and design

Children learn through a balance of child initiated play and adult directed activities. Purposeful play is central to the curriculum with children engaged in learning at their own age and stage led and managed by skilled professionals within the unit.

During their time with us the children will continue on their journey of learning to read and write. We aim to provide a print rich learning environment for our pupils and to encourage them to make marks in all areas of the curriculum. Children begin taking home library books in Nursery and books to read to parents and carers once they are ready. Children will have daily phonics sessions as soon as they start with us. We follow the ‘Jolly Classroom’ scheme for our phonics teaching. We do not have one specific reading scheme instead we have a range of books which are carefully banded into colour groupings for the children to choose from.

Children also begin their mathematical journey, learning to count and recognise numbers and assign meaning to these numbers, understanding ‘the threeness of three!’ We introduce the children to our ‘Big Maths Beat That’ scheme in Reception helping them to practice adding numbers and recognising their number bonds to 10.

A crucial part of our Early Years unit is the outdoors. We have a very fantastic and varied outdoor space which is safe and secure. All seven areas of the curriculum are represented in the outdoor and indoor provision and children are allowed to flow freely from one to the other during child led learning time

For more information please refer to the documents below: