Intent

To ensure children make outstanding progress in Flamstead Village School Early Years, it is our intent to take into consideration their starting points and needs of our pupils as they begin their journey through education. Every child has access to a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum which prepares them for now and for the future. Following personal interests and individual needs, allows us to plan and provide opportunities throughout our EYFS curricula to support learning and development and achieve their next steps.

Our EYFS curriculum aims to enable our children to be:

• Capable and creative learners; who are curious about the world around them.
• Secure and self-assured; who enjoy coming to school, approach new learning with positive attitudes and learning new skills and knowledge building on their existing learning.
• Accomplished communicators; who connect easily with others through language and play, ensuring that they play in a vocabulary rich environment which develops use of language and understanding.

It is our intent to ensure that all children will receive the teaching of early reading through systematic, synthetic phonics through our scheme ‘Supersonic Phonic Friends’ to learn to read words and simple sentences accurately by the end of Reception.

Implementation 

At Flamstead Village School we follow the Statutory Early Years Foundation Stage framework. This is made up of four overarching principles, which our early year’s education is based upon:

Unique Child – Every child is a unique child who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

Positive Relationships – Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

Enabling Environments – Children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and carers.

Learning and Development – Children develop and learn in different ways. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early year’s provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The curriculum provides a play-based and experiential learning environment, combined with focussed teaching and basic skills, to ensure children make rapid

progress before moving onto Year 1. The children in Reception are provided with many opportunities, accessible through our indoor and outdoor provision. They engage in planned, focussed activities as well as self-initiated and free flow activities. The learning experiences within our Early Years are linked to the seven areas of learning and development within the EYFS. 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.

Children benefit from meaningful learning across the curriculum and staff plan resourcefully for opportunities for communication, sustained shared thinking

and physical challenge to build on existing skills taking into account the Characteristics of Effective Learning. Rich first hand experiences (inside, outdoors, visitors and school trips) to widen experiences, awe and wonderment. Exploratory learning and thinking creatively including problem solving across all areas of learning. New vocabulary and concepts through reading will excite and engage all learners that includes staff modelling Standard English and asking high quality questions. Curriculum will promote and support children’s emotional security and development of their character enabling children to take risks in a safe and secure environment. Supporting children to be active and to develop physically including giving clear messages to children why it is important to eat, drink and exercise as well as to be kind to others.

Impact

The children at Flamstead Village School experience a smooth transition between pre-school settings, Reception and beyond. Effective communication and collaboration ensure the children leave the EYFS with a solid foundation of learning which they can build upon. We use exercise books, which evidence to the children and their families the successes of the children throughout their time in Reception. By monitoring and evaluating assessment procedures regularly, we can effectively demonstrate what learning is taking place and how each child is progressing in all seven areas of the EYFS curriculum.