Early Years Foundation Stage
The Early Years team at Earlsmead Primary School is made up of 3 classes:
Nursery
Reception Pink class
Reception Yellow class
We have a great team of adults who work very hard to ensure that children get the very best start to their education - academically, personally and socially.
Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
This is how we describe the time in a child’s life between birth and age 5.
This is a very important stage as it helps children get ready for school as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes.
What Is the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework?
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework is a government document that all schools and Ofsted-registered early years providers in England must follow. It sets standards for the learning, development and care of your child from birth to 5 years old. The standards ensure your child will learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe.
In our school we believe that a child’s early years experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; and support their development, care and learning needs.
What Will My Child Be Learning?
The EYFS framework outlines seven areas of learning and development and educational programmes. There are three prime areas of learning, which are particularly important for your child’s development and future learning:
Communication and Language Personal,Social and Emotional Physical Development Development
There are four specific areas of learning, through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied:
1. Maths 2. Literacy 3. Understanding the World 4. Expressive Arts and Design
The staff will consider your child’s needs and interests to plan challenging and enjoyable activities and experiences.
How Will My Child Be Learning?
The EYFS framework identifies the essential role of play in your child’s development. It is through both child-led play and play guided by an adult that your child will develop confidence and relationships with others. Through play, our Early Years’ Team will help your child to extend their vocabulary and develop their communication skills. The EYFS framework identifies three characteristics of effective teaching and learning:
1. Playing and Exploring 2. Active learnng 3. Creating and Thinking Critically
A greater focus on teaching specific skills will occur as your child progresses through their Reception year, which will help them to prepare for Year One.
How Will I Know How My Child Is Doing?
Our Early Years’ Team will use their professional knowledge to understand your child’s level of development. If we have any concerns about your child's progress, we will discuss these with you.
Three formal assessments take place during the EYFS:
Two-Year Progress Check (this will happen between the ages of 24 to 36 months)
Reception Baseline Assessment (at the start of the Reception year)
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (at the end of the EYFS)
Discussions at Parents’ Evenings will inform you on how your child is progressing. At the end of the academic year, a report will be given to you to inform you of your child’s progress and whether they have met or are continuing to work towards their early learning goals (ELGs). There are 17 ELGs your child is expected to achieve by the end of the EYFS.
The changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) has been reformed and there is a new EYFS framework that all schools and settings are required to follow from September 2021. These national changes have been made to better support all pupils’ learning and development. It is also the aim that the new framework will better prepare pupils for the transition into Key Stage 1.
There are some elements of the EYFS that have not significantly changed and some that have.
Below are some of the key points from the new EYFS reforms that include relevant changes:
Early Years staff will be spending less time on large amounts of written observations and assessments for evidence collection. This means they can spend more time supporting and engaging with the children and their learning and development needs.
Pupils will no longer be assessed against statements from an age band category. Instead, staff will use their experience and knowledge to monitor if a child’s learning and development is on track for their age.
The early learning goals at the end of reception have been changed to become more clear and easier to understand. Staff will use their judgements to assess if pupils have met these goals at the end of the EYFS and inform parents/carers.
There is an emphasis on improving pupil’s language and vocabulary through increasing opportunities for conversations, reading of a wide range of books and holding discussions around activities in other areas of learning.
Literacy and numeracy skills focused on in the EYFS have been adapted to better match up with the National Curriculum that starts in year 1.
There is no longer an exceeding judgement at the end of Reception. Pupils will instead be challenged to have a greater depth and understanding of ideas.
Safeguarding and welfare of pupils is still of utmost priority, with the added mention of teaching pupils about the importance of good oral health and how to keep teeth clean and healthy.
Further Information for parents
Earlsmead Primary School - Early Years Foundation Stage - Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement
Intent
At Earlsmead we aim to provide motivating first-hand experiences whilst encouraging children to build resilience, ambition and a lifelong love of learning. We aim to build on the wealth of knowledge and skills children already have when they arrive and are actively developing relationships with parents and carers. We recognise that all children are unique, so we celebrate and welcome differences within our school community. Therefore, our curriculum is child centred following the interests and fascinations of the children in the current year group. We are passionate about children leading and engrossing themselves in their learning.
We aim to:
Provide a curriculum that offers children a wide range of opportunities ensuring that we do not expect children to aspire to things they have never encountered. We will work on broadening their experiences providing opportunities to try new things and encouraging them to enjoy a new challenge
Provide high expectations encouraging them to develop perseverance and self-belief so that they can problem solve and achieve far more than they expected
Provide a learning environment that helps children achieve their potential and support those who need additional help in order to maximise their chances of achieving the Early Learning Goals
Provide children opportunities to develop their sense of wellbeing and ability to regulate their feelings so that they feel confident in our community and are equipped with all the tools they need to transition to Year 1 effectively
Develop the skills and expertise of staff working in EYFS through regular and comprehensive professional development either run by the EYFS Lead or attending courses run by other providers
Implementation
Our curriculum follows the Early Years Statutory Framework for the Early years Foundation Stage. This document specifies the requirements for learning and development in the EYFS and provides the prime and specific areas of learning we must cover in our curriculum. Through our knowledge of each child and formative assessments the EYFS team plan exciting and engaging activities that will move the children’s learning forward. This may involve following a class theme where we take advantage of cross curricular links in order to combine transferable skills and develop a wide-ranging vocabulary which underpins the children’s learning. This may also include following individual children’s interests and making the most of those focused moments where the teaching and learning can be maximised in a one to one way with teacher and child. Each year creates its own unique blend of whole class, guided, adult directed play and child-initiated play activities depending on the nature and needs of the class.
Children in EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active and thinking critically and creatively and this takes place both indoors and in our outdoor area. Our outdoor area is open all year round and in all but the most challenging weather conditions. Children make their own decisions about where they learn best and teachers ensure that there are opportunities for all areas of learning both inside and outside.
The school follows the little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds phonic programme, using Collins Big Cat books to support this. Every child has access to a phonics session every day with keep up sessions for those who may be falling behind. We use the phonics session to also develop children's handwriting. We teach pre cursive and then cursive handwriting as appropriate over the year.
We provide effective and focused intervention for those children who are finding learning challenging and are not on track to meet expectations at the end of the year. This will be provided in an inclusive way and support from parents is also enlisted at an early stage to ensure that the children have every chance to achieve the Early Learning Goals.
The EYFS team collect evidence of children’s learning through work completed in their topic book, observations, photos and videos which are shared with parents using the Tapestry online system. This means that parents can engage with children
about their learning and can contribute to the knowledge we have of the child in school. Parents are very active and love to use Tapestry to record the milestones children make at home during the year.
We love to provide children with opportunities that lots of them have not experienced before or that enhance their learning in school. We go on visits to support this or arrange for people to come in or we involve the children in mobile theatre projects. We ensure that all of our visits are learning related and will provide the spark for further immersion in a theme or topic.
By the end of the year we provide opportunities for children to increase their independence in recording their work as appropriate to ensure they are well prepared for the move to Year 1.
Our EYFS team 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.
Impact
Our curriculum and its delivery ensure that children make good progress. Children in our early years, on average, arrive with much lower starting points than national. During their time in our EYFS, children make rapid progress so that we meet the national expectation for GLD at the end of the year. Pupils also make good progress toward their age-related expectations before transitioning into Year One.
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, talking to children, looking at their work, photographs and videos, recorded on Tapestry. We aim to exceed the National and Local Authority data for children achieving a Good Level of Development. Almost all our children make more than the expected steps progress from their starting points.
The Early Years provision features in all areas of the School Development Plan and has a rigorous plan for development each year. This is monitored and evaluated by the EYFS Lead and the Head teacher..
The impact of the EYFS curriculum is reflected in having well rounded, happy and confident children transitioning into Year1. Our children are often amazing role models for others in school.