EYFS at St. Mary’s
At St Mary’s, we believe that every child deserves the best possible start in life. At this fundamental age, the development of the whole child is essential. So, the physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and cultural aspects of each child’s life are considered and respected. In the EYFS at St Mary’s, we believe that children learn best through a balance of play-based activities, first hand experiences, as well as carefully planned adult directed tasks. They have the opportunity to think creatively, investigate and solve problems both individually and within a group. We believe that each child is unique and is valued as an individual.
At St Mary’s, we aim to…
- To provide a secure environment where all children have the right to feel safe and happy.
- To provide a stimulating environment where learning is engaging.
- To establish a partnership with parents/carers for the education and wellbeing of their children.
- To establish warm and safe relationships with children and adults.
- To value and expose children to cultural diversity within school, the community and the wider world.
- To ensure the smooth transfer from home to nursery, from nursery to reception and from reception to Y1.
- To encourage all children to become confident and independent learners.
- To ensure every child is included and supported through equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice.
- To provide a well-balanced curriculum in line with EYFS Framework for each child to develop socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually.
- To give children access to a broad and balanced curriculum that gives them the broad range of knowledge and skills needed to make good progress through school, preparing them for their next stage in education and life.
- To ensure quality and consistency in teaching and learning so that every child receives quality first teaching, with no child being left behind.
Understanding
Our curriculum follows the Early Years Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, effective from November 2024 alongside Development Matters non-statutory guidance. These documents specify the requirements for learning and development in the EYFS and provide 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 dependant on the nature and needs of the class of individuals. We look forward at the start of a year to see where the class will lead us.
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 areas are open all year round and in all but the most challenging weather conditions.
The school follows the ELS phonic programme, using a wide range of physical and online resources to support this. Every child has access to a phonics session every day with intervention opportunities for those who find this area of learning more difficult. We also use the phonics session to develop children’s expertise in handwriting.
The EYFS team ensure they gain secure knowledge of each children through quality interactions.
Progression and curriculum coverage is evidenced in a class ‘Learning Journey’ for Maths, Understanding the World, Physical Development, PSHE, Expressive Arts & Design and Beliefs & Values as well as individual books for Phonics, English and Maths, all these books show a range of both adult led and child initiated learning.
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. We also ensure that the pedagogy in Year 1 reflects the independent learning skills children have gained in EYFS, working together as a school team to develop expertise and confidence in all teaching staff. 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.
