EYFS

  • Mrs Radford– EYFS Lead
  • Mrs Corcoran – Early Reading Lead/ KS1 Specialist
  • Mrs Abrahams– Nursery Nurse/ Early Years Practitioner
  • Mrs Heeley – Early Years Practitioner / Communication Lead

Our Aims

  • All children access a broad and balanced curriculum that gives a broad range and knowledge and skills needed for good progress through school life.
  • Close partnership between practitioners and parents/carers. 
  • Quality and consistency in teaching and learning to ensure that NO child gets lefts behind. 

Curriculum

  • The child is at the heart of all planning, learning and assessment. Teaching is adapted to suit the interests and needs of the unique child. Our long-term plan has been carefully planned to facilitate children with the knowledge and skills to prepare them for life beyond EYFS. 
  • We are early adopters of the new revised Development Matters framework. In accordance with the guidance, we have placed more emphasis on high quality adult interactions opposed to extensive tracking and observations. 
  • Practitioners have developed a strong knowledge of every child and continually assess. This is used to inform future planning and next steps.

Enabling Environments

  • We have recently refurbished and invested in our EYFS learning environment. Provision is carefully planned based around topics, quality texts and children’s interests.
  • The EYFS department has been moved back into the main building to be at the heart of the school within the whole school environment, so that children are nurtured from the beginning withing the school family.
  • The learning environment is thoughtfully designed to stimulate children to explore new concepts and deepen understanding. 
  • Provision is changed and reviewed regularly in response to the unique interests and needs of our children.
  • The environment provides a space for child led independent learning and exploration alongside spaces for adult initiated input and discrete teaching.
  • Imagination is captivated to create moments of awe and wonder. Children are provided with high quality experiences to explore new concepts in memorable ways.

Parental Engagement

  • A strong partnership with parents and carers has been built. 
  • Using Marevellous Me and MS teams learning and experiences are shared with parents. 
  • Information, advice and resources on how families can support learning at home is also shared with parents. 
  • Using our ‘what will I be learning this half term?’ resource, parents are given an overview about some of the learning that will take place along with some ideas to support learning at home. 
  • ‘Wow moments’ from home are also shared and incorporated into assessment and children’s learning journeys. 
  • Parent information sessions have been held virtually. For example, RWI parent’s information presentation along with a session on the benefits of reading to your child. We are aware that some of our children do not have lots of books at home.
  • All children were given a book from the Book Trust and the session was modelled around this story. 
  • Children are provided with RWI Book Bag books closely matched to their in school reading books along with a school library book to share at home.

Our Reading Classroom

  • In EYFS we  have instilled a love for books and storytelling. We have a diverse range story books available for children from classic favourites to more modern diverse texts from a range of authors. 
  • Children have opportunities for whole class story sessions alongside time for independent reading and retelling of stories. 
  • Much of our learning is based around stories. This has been invaluable in developing vocabulary and communication and language skills.
  • Through the magic of storytelling, books are  brought to life throughout the day.
  • A range of fiction and non-fiction books are available for children to access across all areas of provision in meaningful contexts. 

Communication and Language

  • Children are read to frequently throughout the day. We use a range of texts in meaningful contexts including non-fiction, rhymes and poems. Our ‘rhyme of the week’ and ‘story of the week’ are shared with parents. Children have already become familiar with a range to texts this year and have a real love of books. 
  •  Using the Ruth Miskin ‘talk through stories’, children are given the opportunity to develop vocabulary, comprehension and the ability to retell stories. New words and concepts are embedded in an engaging manner.
  • Through carefully planned questioning, children are encouraged to share ideas and demonstrate understanding of new vocabulary whilst extending their own thinking. Questions are developed during planning and incorporated in the environment as prompts for practitioners.  
  •  Practitioners constantly model effective communication and language skills for children to mirror. We find MTYT ( my turn your turn)  a particularly effective way of encouraging talk in full sentences.
  • Oracy is developing and children are constantly given opportunities for high quality interactions throughout the day.