EYFS
In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) at Chapel End Primary School our aims are to:
support children to make a confident transition from home to school
provide a happy, caring, safe and secure environment for learning
plan learning experiences that meet the individual needs and interests of the children through a balanced provision of adult led and child initiated opportunities
support children to become competent and confident learners so they are able to reach their full potential
provide a broad and balanced high quality curriculum in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage
foster positive home school links with parents and other care providers.
We follow The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum as detailed below. This framework ensures high standards of early education and care that support each child’s development. It underpins all future learning by supporting and fostering the children’s personal, social and emotional wellbeing. It encourages positive attitudes and dispositions towards learning in the children and promotes learning through play.
All children in the EYFS at are encouraged to enjoy and share books with each other, individually and with an adult. The children use ‘Letters and Sounds’ in Nursery and 'Essential Letters and Sounds' in Reception which are synthetic phonics approaches to learning to read and write.
Assessment
Assessment in Nursery and Reception is carried out in line with the ‘Early Years Foundation Stage’ and staff observe the children to create a ‘learning journey’ which evidences the child’s progress through the EYFS. These are shared with parents at Parent’s Meetings and parents are encouraged to add their own comments.
The information below is taken from the Department for Education Document 'Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage'.
There are seven areas of learning and development in the EYFS.
The three prime areas are crucial for igniting the children's curiosity and enthusiasm for learning.
Communication and Language
The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment is crucial. By commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added, practitioners will build children’s language effectively.
Physical development
Physical activity is vital in children’s all-round development, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives. Gross and fine motor experiences develop incrementally throughout early childhood, starting with sensory explorations and the development of a child’s strength, co-ordination and positional awareness through tummy time, crawling and play movement with both objects and adults.
Personal, social and emotional development
Children’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives, and is fundamental to their cognitive development. Underpinning their personal development are the important attachments that shape their social world. Strong, warm and supportive relationships with adults enable children to learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others.
The three prime areas are strengthed and applied through the four specific areas:
Literacy
It is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading. Reading consists of two dimensions: language comprehension and word reading. Language comprehension (necessary for both reading and writing) starts from birth. It only develops when adults talk with children about the world around them and the books (stories and non-fiction) they read with them, and enjoy rhymes, poems and songs together. Skilled word reading, taught later, involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words
(decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words. Writing involves transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech, before writing).
Mathematics
Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers.
Understanding the world
Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.
Expressive arts and design
The development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore and play with a wide range of media and
materials. The quality and variety of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing their understanding, self-expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate through the arts. The frequency, repetition and depth of their experiences
are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.