EYFS
‘Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop and grow quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high-quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to be successful as they move through each phase of school and, in later life, as adults.’
In the Early Years at Yardley Wood it is our intent to support and encourage your child to be confident, sociable and independent during their time spent with us. We aim to achieve this by providing a purposeful, creative and engaging curriculum that is rich with language and phonics, enabling all children to achieve whilst being supported by nurturing practitioners.
Our Early Years Curriculum:
There are seven areas of learning and development that must shape educational programmes in the early years settings. All areas of learning and development are important and interconnected. Three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive.
Prime Areas:
- Personal, social and emotional development
- Communication and language;
- Physical development;
Children must be supported in four specific areas, through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied. The specific areas are:
- Literacy;
- Mathematics;
- Understanding the world;
- Expressive arts and design.
In order for children to have achieved a ‘Good level of Development’ by the end of Reception they need to have achieved the expected standard in the Early Learning Goals set out by the Statutory Framework for EYFS.
Characteristics of Effective Learning
The Characteristics of Effective Learning 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.
- Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
The Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) underpin the Early Years Curriculum as they explore how children learn. It is essential children learn to engage with the CoEL as it will support them in their new learning and to persevere to achieve.
Early Reading
Phonics is embedded in the Early Years and children are immersed in it from the start of Nursery. This starts with Fred Talk, rhyming, alliteration and the introduction to RWI pictures. In the summer term Nursery are introduced to the initial sounds in short speed sound sessions. In Reception, RWI sessions are taught daily where all Reception children will learn how to read the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This enables children to start reading and writing at an early age and gives them the skills and knowledge to progress throughout their school life.
Early Mathematics
Maths involves developing a strong grounding in number. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of numbers to 10, the relationships between them and patterns within those numbers. The curriculum will include rich opportunities for children to develop their spatial reasoning skills across all areas of maths including shape, space and measures. The key Mathematics concepts are embedded throughout all strands of the Early Years Foundation Stage. White Rose is used to support the planning of maths sessions, it supports the ethos of the EYFS whilst creating a mathematically rich curriculum which allows for key mathematical concepts to be revisited and developed further throughout the year.
Outdoor Learning
At Yardley Wood Community Primary School, we recognise the importance of learning outdoors. We make use of our EYFS outdoor area as much as possible- come rain or shine!
