EYFS Curriculum Statement
Intent – What are we trying to achieve?
We want Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School to be a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe. This core aim permeates our school and its ethos, whether in the classroom or around and about the school.
The knowledge and skills we teach are set out in Development Matters: Non Statutory and the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (both: DfE, 2021). We set these out in a sequence of learning (age-related expectations) with some additional/explicit learning according to children’s interests and our own curriculum, linked to The National Curriculum in England (DfE, 2013).
The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is the foundation for subsequent learning at Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School: the quality of this early learning influences their future attainment and desire to learn. We have four intentions. They help to develop the characteristics of effective learning Development Matters (DfE, 2021).
Enjoyable: We want Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School to be a happy and healthy place to learn. The activities we plan are very much led by children’s own interests and preferences, and are therefore enjoyable. The learning environment enhances this, as do visits, visitors and other enriching activities.
Relevant: The skills and knowledge set out in our age-related expectations for the end of Foundation Stage mean our curriculum content is very relevant for our pupils’ present and future lives. Combined with the characteristics of effective learning, the skills and knowledge mean that our children are ready to continue their learning journey into Key Stage 1 and beyond.
Inspiring: In Early Years, we provide provocations and investigations that inspire children to discover and find out more. These learning provocations engage the children’s curiosity and encourage them to develop their own ideas and strategies for doing things. We inspire our children through stimuli such as stories, pictures and artefacts, learning about significant people, places and events. We aim to promote an appreciation and sense of awe and wonder when learning about the natural world.
Creative: Creating and thinking critically is a characteristic of effective learning. We want our children to develop this from the outset of their learning journey: our children will be creative in their ideas, in their questions, in their solutions.
Adults plan stimulating and engaging experiences that provide the opportunity for children to express themselves in a variety of creative ways, with children then producing their own original responses. For our Early Years staff, the curriculum has flexibility built into it so that they can be creative, such as linking learning with books that inspire.
Implementation – How is our vision translated into practice?
This Curriculum Statement has been developed with clear reference to Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (Department for Education, 2021). We use Development Matters: Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage (Department for Education, 2021) as the basis for the implementation of our curriculum.
This document relates to Nursery and Reception classes.
Early childhood is the foundation on which children build the rest of their lives. We greatly value the importance that the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) plays in laying secure foundations for future learning and development.
The experiences we provide will enable our children to explore, investigate, discover, create, practise, rehearse, repeat, and consolidate their developing knowledge and skills. During the Early Years Foundation Stage, many of these aspects are brought together effectively through play and talking.
It is every child’s right to the best possible start in their school life, both intellectually and emotionally, in order for them to develop their full potential. Through planned, purposeful play, children are able to discover, practise and refine their skills as well as find out about themselves and their environment. In a broad and balanced way, our areas of provision ensure coverage of the seven areas of learning (see below) and respond to the needs and interests of the children. At all times, we consider the principles of the EYFS: we know that the EYFS is about how children learn as well as what children learn. Through our curriculum we promote positive attitudes to learning, an enthusiasm for knowledge and the confidence to become successful learners.
At Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School and Nursery, we aim to support each child’s welfare, learning and development needs by following the seven key features of effective practice (Development Matters, DfE, 2021).
The best for every child – All children are unique and special, regardless of their sex, ethnicity, religion (or no religion), and other protected characteristic. Children develop physically, cognitively, linguistically, socially and emotionally in individual ways and at varying rates. Children have very different backgrounds. We help those from disadvantaged backgrounds to narrow the gap.
High-quality care – The child’s experience is at the centre of the decisions that we make. We provide a safe, secure and caring environment where children feel happy and healthy, knowing that they are valued.
The curriculum – As set out here, we provide a broad and balanced curriculum that will set in place firm foundations for future learning. We allow some time for the child to follow their own interests as a driver for their learning.
Pedagogy – We help children to learn in different ways: through play, modelling by adults, observing each other, guided learning and direct teaching. Learning opportunities are well-planned and organised, providing experiences which build on children’s existing knowledge and understanding in order to challenge, stimulate and develop their knowledge and skills.
Assessment – In the Early Years Foundation Stage, checking what children have learnt is about observing them use and apply their knowledge and skills independently. We use these assessments to inform us about the child’s next steps.
Self-regulation and executive function – We help children to develop an understanding of the social skills, values and codes of behaviour required for people to work together harmoniously. Communication is a key skill in early years and is central to self-regulation.
Partnership with parents – We know our families well. This begins when we visit them at home before the child actually attends. Parents/carers are a child’s first educator so support at home has a significant impact on future learning. We help our parents/carers to support their child’s learning at home through workshops, sharing school experiences through Tapestry, meetings, calls home and informal chats. We offer extra help to those who need it.
Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage
The Statutory Framework sets out the standards that all Early Years providers must meet to ensure that children from birth to 5 ‘learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe’. This document is a principled approach to Early Years education using four themes:
a unique child
positive relationships
enabling environments
learning and development
There are three prime areas of learning and four specific areas of learning. There also three characteristics of effective teaching and learning. Early Years practitioners and teachers are required to pursue rich daily activities in supporting each child’s educational development under these areas.
Development Matters: Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage Development Matters is the non-statutory curriculum guidance that we use to implement our Early Years curriculum. This guidance ‘sets out the pathways of children’s development in broad ages and stages’. Much of the content set out in this Curriculum Statement and our Curriculum Progression Models are taken directly from Development Matters. There are opportunities for practitioners to widen the scope of children’s experiences and extend and deepen learning; this includes opportunities for children to lead their own learning with the support of adults.
Thematic approach with flexibility and freedom
We set out topic themes for our curriculum across the year. The topic themes are typical, but may vary. This recognises that each year, there are likely to be recurring themes that children find inspiring, enjoyable and relevant. Other themes might be planned instead of the themes set out in our Long-term Plans. Also, importantly, there will be additional themes which follow children’s interests.
We are clear that the learning set out in Development Matters is well thought-through and leads to the Early Learning Goals, the level of development that children are expected to attain by the end of Early Years Foundation Stage. Learning takes priority: our approach is objective-led (not activity-led or theme-led). In some cases, the learning will fit naturally into a theme, but in many cases, learning may also be taught discretely.
We follow a long-term plan of topic themes very loosely: we are ready to change the themes a little, or even follow entirely different themes, in order to ensure the learning experiences are enjoyable, relevant, inspiring, creative and – most importantly – have a positive impact on the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
Pedagogy
The role of the adults in the Early Years is fundamental. A practitioner’s good knowledge of Early Years principles in general and of current planning in particular is vital; they should be available to interact with children working in the classroom’s learning areas.
Effective learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage is the result of a balance between:
Research shows that the best outcomes for children’s learning occur where most of the activity within a child’s day is a mixture of child-initiated play (actively supported by adults) and focused learning (with adults guiding the learning through playful, rich experiential activities). This can be illustrated as a continuum of approaches as seen below:
Our EYFS classrooms are enabling environments. The classrooms are set up with different learning areas, where children are able to find and locate equipment and resources independently. They are organised to allow children to explore and learn securely and safely. There are areas where the children can be active and others areas to be quieter. The learning areas are set up following the principles of continuous provision and with a clear sense of purpose:
consistent, familiar resources which have been selected to meet children's predictable interests and needs
additional resources to enhance the learning areas to provide focus for current learning
teacher-planned challenges and objectives; these stem from recent teaching (e.g. a chance to use and apply skills or knowledge learnt) and assessments / observations (e.g. might show more practice is needed in a skill)
The outdoor environment is an integral part of our Early Years classrooms and our Nursery and Reception pupils have their own dedicated enclosed outdoor area which operates as an outdoor classroom. Being outdoors offers children further opportunities to explore, use their senses, develop their language skills and be physically active.
We recognise that young children learn best when they are active. Therefore, our approach is often practical and our settings have an ethos of learning through play. Play is a powerful motivator which fulfils our curriculum intent for learning to enjoyable, relevant, inspiring and creative. Play develops children’s own ideas, understanding and language. Play is also flexible and able to suit the preferred learning style of the child. We also know that our older children need more directed activity in their day; we plan for this to increase as the children journey towards Key Stage 1.
A core part of pedagogy is assessment. Checking what children have learnt is about observing them use and apply their knowledge and skills independently. We use these assessments to inform us about the child’s next steps. A key aspect of the Early Years Foundation Stage is to move the learning:
What children want to know (which may influence future themes) stems from observations of the children and discussions with the children and their parents. What children need to know derives from observations as part of good formative assessment, alongside the Early Learning Goals and Development Matters.
Special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND)
Sacred Heart School is inclusive and is committed to meeting the needs of children with SEND in the most effective way so that they achieve the best possible outcomes:
we want pupils with SEND to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to reach their full potential,
to be ready for the next stage in their education and,
ultimately, to succeed in life.
To do this, we adapt how we implement the curriculum to meet the needs of pupils with SEND so that we can develop their knowledge, skills and abilities to apply what they know and can do with increasing fluency and independence. The adaptations we make are appropriate and reasonable, and are made in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 and the SEND code of practice.
Impact – What is the impact of our curriculum?
Our Early Years curriculum will lead to effective progress over time relative to each individual child’s starting point. Our Early Years Curriculum is designed to prepare children for their future learning by enabling foundations in learning across all subject areas.
We evaluate the impact of our curriculum in the following ways.
Pupil achievement and progress
Pupil achievement – the acquisition of knowledge and skills – is assessed with close reference to Development Matters: Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage (Department for Education, 2021).
We measure pupil achievement and progress in a number of ways, including:
observations
questioning in class
pupil outcomes (which includes writing and other mark-making)
additional assessments that support teacher assessment, such as checks on phonics and ‘tricky words’ (non-decodable words)
Our assessments take place throughout the year:
baseline assessments, carried out once children have settled into their new setting
on-going teacher assessments, taking place throughout the year
end of year assessments, especially at the end of Reception which is the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, and which is in relation to whether children have reached the Early Learning Goals set out in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and in Early years Foundation Stage Profile (Department for Education, updated annually)
Early Learning Goals
The Early Learning Goals (ELGs) are the goals or targets for children to achieve at the end of Reception. There are 17 Early Learning Goals across the seven areas of learning. They are all listed in the age-related expectations tables below – see the right hand column.
The assessments we make are supported by moderation in school and across the Assisi Trust. The assessments may be supported through additional moderation with other schools and with the local authority.
Lesson visits and the monitoring of planning support our assessment of impact.
Areas for development are identified as a result of evaluating the impact of what we do.
