Reception
Our Early Years Curriculum
EYFS Intent
At the beginning of each new year we look at the individual needs of our children and take into account their different starting points to develop our flexible curriculum which enables them to follow the path of their learning journey, at a point, that is suitable for their unique needs and stage of development. We believe that every child is unique and should be treated so, allowing them the opportunity to develop and learn in a nurturing environment where play and learning is one. Learning at Latymer All Saints is fun and challenging. We strongly believe in first-hand experience, valuing the importance of play and the development of children’s thinking and problem solving skills. We strive to equip children with a love of learning and a natural curiosity. We are committed to giving our children the best possible start to their school life, teaching them skills which ensure their well-being now and success in the future.
Four guiding principles shape our practice; these are:
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 with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
We follow the EYFS framework, which is a statutory framework that sets the standards that all early years’ providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well, are kept healthy and safe and have the knowledge and skills they need to start school.
We use Development Matters, which is the non-statutory curriculum guidance for the EYFS framework that offers a top-level view of how children develop and learn, to support us in providing a quality education for each child. Development Matters covers a range of Areas of Learning and Development, from reading to maths and beyond.
Characteristics of Effective Learning:
Interlinked with these subject areas are the children’s characteristics of learning which we support and help develop by providing children with opportunities to initiate ideas and activities so that they can develop the learning characteristics which are assessed by the EYFS profile. The following characteristics also support lifelong learning:
Children;
• Are willing to have a go
• Are involved and concentrating
• Have their own ideas
• Choose ways to do things
• Find new ways of doing things/problem solving
• Enjoy achieving what they set out to do
Quality interactions, observations and knowing how to support children as individuals is at the heart of understanding the importance of the characteristics of effective learning.
All children will quickly become part of the school family. They will learn about our school vision of learning and thriving together to achieve our dreams, and will learn the values of being a determined, respectful, excellent, aspirational, mindful and supportive member of the school and wider community. Alongside this, the children will learn to follow the school rules of being ready, respectful and safe.
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Characteristics of effective Learning |
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Playing and Exploring |
Active Learning |
Creating and Thinking Critically |
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Finding Out and Exploring |
Being Involved and Concentrating |
Having their own ideas |
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· I am interested in the resources that are here. · I am interested in the adults and my friends. · I am interested in things that happen when I am playing and learning. E.g. a visitor · I use all of my senses; I touch, feel, try, smell, taste and hear to explore the experiences in the environment around me. · I keep returning to resources, experiences that I really like that I am interested in and enjoy. · I am happy to play with resources that are open ended that mean I need to use my imagination. |
· I will spend a lot of time doing an activity that I enjoy and am interested in. · I am fascinated by the resources in the environment and am always excited when you introduce something new. · I am good at staying on track and other noises and children do not easily distract me. · I notice my environment and any changes, I know what happens next during my day. · I am aware and interested in different adults or visitors to the setting. |
· I think of my own ideas and use lots of words like “ How about” and” what If” and “ I have an Idea” and “ Let’s try this” · I remember what I did last time and whether it worked or not. · I can change the way I do something to get a different result if I need to. |
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Using what they know in their play |
Keeping on trying |
Using what they know to learn new things |
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· I use resources in my pretend play e.g. I pretend blocks are mobile phones to call my mum. · I use the resources to share my experience e.g. washing the dishes in the home corner. I pretend that I am my dad driving the car outside. · I am happy to play with my friends and take on a role e.g. mum, Spiderman, the shop keeper. I act out experiences such as making the tea, rescuing people as Spiderman. |
· I will keep trying if I start to find things difficult. I will revisit activities or resources to try to work them out for myself. · I will try different ways of doing things to try to work them out. · If things go wrong, I don’t get discouraged, I keep on trying. |
· I remember what happened before when I did something and use this to help me work out how do other things. · I can suggest what I think might happen, what I will see or what I might need to do next. · I take the time to test out my ideas.
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Being willing to have a go |
Enjoying achieving what they set out to do |
Choosing ways to do things and finding new ways |
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· I am happy to start to play with activities and resources on my own. · I look for experiences and resources that give me new skills and are a challenge to me. · I don’t give up when something goes wrong or it gets hard. I keep having a go. · I am not afraid to have a go. |
I set my own goals and am so pleased with myself when I meet them. · I am proud of how I can work things out, even if the end result wasn’t what I thought it would be. · Even though I like to be praised, I am happy to try things out, knowing I am doing my best. |
I will make a plan and think about how I want to do something. · I always check on what is happening and can change my approach if I need to. · I think about what I have seen, heard or experienced and am able to talk about what has happened and whether it worked or not. |
EYFS Implementation - Learning and Development:
Early Years at Latymer All Saints is based strongly around the needs of our community, whilst following the principles of the EYFS. Our curriculum is designed around a language rich environment and aims to develop the foundations for excellent communication skills. Our curriculum intent is to provide the children with both a range of familiar topics, linked to their experiences, as well as unfamiliar topics, to spark their interest and exploration of the wider world. In doing this we provide a curriculum and environment where the children feel safe and secure when developing their language skills, yet are challenged and are exposed to new language and vocabulary.
The EYFS framework includes 7 areas of learning and development that are equally important and inter-connected. However, 3 areas known as the prime areas are seen as particularly important for igniting curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building children’s capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive.
The prime areas are:
Communication and Language
Physical Development
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
The prime areas are strengthened and applied through 4 specific areas:
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design
Please click on the link below to access the full documentation of EY Progression of Skills & Knowledge.
EY Progression of Skills & Knowledge
Children in Nursery and Reception will learn their phonics through the Little Wandle programme. Little Wandle is a proven synthetic phonics programme that ensures early success in reading, writing and spelling. Nursery children will follow the Little Wandle Foundations for Phonics with a big focus on rhymes, listening to sounds, reading and quality interactions, Reception children will follow Little Wandle Phonics and will learn both phonemes and graphemes. Children will also be given as many opportunities as possible to develop their Literacy skills through different weekly independent activities.
We follow ‘The Literacy Tree’ in Reception. Literacy is taught through high quality texts and creative teaching. The aim is to engage and motivate children in their learning and deepen their understanding of texts. Children have the opportunity to fully engage with a story, helping them to develop their language and literacy skills. The stories also create a wonderful context for the play- based activities that take place throughout the day.
Nursery plan around themes and stories and develop learning in response to the children’s questions ideas and comments. Our curriculums are adaptive and flexible depending on the children’s interests, needs and events in their lives.
The children in Nursery and Reception follow White Rose Maths to support the planning and teaching of maths. National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) resources will also be used in Reception to complement White Rose.
In Reception, Kapow will be used as a tool for providing coverage within the areas of Understanding the World and Expressive Art and Design. All activities are child friendly and set the foundations of skills, vocabulary and knowledge needed when the children start Year 1.
Across Early Years at Latymer All Saints, children participate in daily carpet sessions and circle time to encourage their development and understanding of language, social communication and listening skills. Spontaneous activities are also built round the interests and needs of the children. Staff all model language and use opportunities to teach through interacting with the children. Through effective questioning they encourage children to develop their own thinking and learning.
In order to support the children’s development of Characteristics of effective learning and their self-regulation strategies we plan extra ‘challenge activities’ each week. The children begin in Nursery with a weekly challenge and work towards completing 6 challenges by the end of Reception. We aim for our children to leave EYFS as capable, resilient and resourceful learners who are able to work independently and for their own gain. This we feel will give them the best possible start to their ‘school’ life.
The team in EYFS 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.
EYFS Impact
The impact of the EYFS curriculum is reflected in having well rounded, happy and confident children transitioning into Year 1. Our children are often amazing role models for others in school. We measure progress and children’s learning across the year through formative and summative assessments which are based on the teacher’s knowledge of the child, their learning profiles recorded on Class Dojo, Learning Journey displays and floor books. Almost all our children make more than the expected steps progress from their starting points (children generally enter our Nursery setting with well below the expected level of development).
The experiences of tasks will be revisited and demonstrated through being deeply engaged in play. Our children will grow to be confident, competent lifelong learners and good citizens. The children at Latymer All Saints experience a smooth transition between Nursery, Reception and beyond. Effective communication and collaboration ensure the children leave the EYFS with a solid foundation of learning of which to build upon.
As a team, we carry out regular internal moderation sessions and also ensure that staff attend and training to ensure that we feel confident with our judgements and that these judgements are consistent. Assessment starts with careful observations which are then used to inform planning. Learning and teaching is thus effective when children feel a sense of belonging, curiosity and competence showing resilience and tenacity. By monitoring 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. Progress toward the ELGs will ensure a positive disposition to learn.
Please click on the link below to view a short video giving a flavour of our Reception classes: