Early Years Curriculum

Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception) at Warmsworth Primary School

Our Early Years Foundation Stage leader is Mrs Finn, who is also one of our Foundation Stage Two teachers.

 Early Years Foundation Stage at Warmsworth Primary School

At Warmsworth Primary School we appreciate the uniqueness of each child and recognise their full potential. 

We aim to motivate and challenge them, to achieve life-long success and to become 21^st century citizens. 

By providing our children with an engaging, exciting and an empowering curriculum that equips them to go forward and meet the challenges of the National Curriculum and beyond.

We recognise children’s prior learning and their interests. Our EYFS team provides first-hand experiences that allow our children to develop interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers.

Our EYFS curriculum aims to enable our children to be:

• Competent and creative learners; who are curious about the world around them
• Secure and confident: who enjoy coming to school and learning new skills and knowledge building on their existing learning
• Skilful communicators; who connect with others through language and play, ensuring that they play in a vocabulary rich environment

It is our intent to ensure that all children will receive the teaching of early reading through a systematic, synthetic phonics programme to learn to read words and simple sentences accurately by the end of Foundation Stage 2.

At Warmsworth Primary School we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework 2021. This is made up of four overriding principles, which our early year’s education is based upon.

• Unique Child – Every child is unique, 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 in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and carers
• Learning and Development – Children develop and learn in different ways. The framework covers and the education and care of all children in early year’s provision, including children with special educational needs

Our curriculum design provides a play-based and experimental learning environment, combined with focused teaching and basic skills, to ensure children make rapid progress before moving into year 1.

The children in both Foundation Stage 1 and Foundation Stage 2 are provided with opportunities to access indoor and outdoor provision daily.  They engage in planned, focused activities as well as self-initiated activities.

The learning experiences within our early years are linked to the seven area of learning and development within the EYFS. These are split into the Prime and Specific areas.  The three prime areas are those which the children should develop first hand and are considered most essential for the healthy development and future learning of our children. These include:

• Physical Development – This involves providing opportunities for children to be active and interactive; to develop their co-ordination and control of gross and fine motor skills. Children must be also helped to understand the importance of physical activity and to make healthy choices in relation to lifestyle and food
• Communication and Language – This involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situation
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development - This involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves and other; to form positive relationships and to develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their own feeling and behaviour; to develop the skill to self regulate and be able to behaviour appropriately in a variety of situations e.g. in a group and as part of a class.

As children grow and make progress in the Prime areas, this will help them to naturally develop skills with the four Specific areas:

• Literacy – the early teaching of literacy involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. We use the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme ‘Little Wandle’. The children have a decodable reading book from the ‘Collins Big Cats’ book selection and they also have a choice of a none scheme book to ignite their love and interest in reading. From the beginning children are taught to blend for reading and segment words when writing
• Mathematics – the early teaching of mathematics is delivered through the ‘White Rose’ maths scheme. Opportunities for counting, subitising, calculating addition and subtraction problems, creating patterns and problem solving are provided within provision and through direct teaching
• Understanding the World – this involves guiding children to make sense of the natural world around them and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, the past and present
• Expressive Arts and Design – this involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role play and design and technology.

Children benefit from meaningful learning across the curriculum and staff plan resourcefully for opportunities for communication, sustained shared thinking and physical challenge to build on existing skills taking into account the Characteristics of Effective Learning.

Rich first-hand experiences, both inside and outside, as well as visits and visitors widen their experiences, awe and wonder. Exploratory learning and thinking creatively including problem solving across all areas of learning. We have a text led curriculum which supports the learning of new vocabulary and concepts through reading engaging all learners in answering and asking questions about the text and retelling familiar stories.

Our curriculum promotes and supports children’s emotional security and development of their character enabling them to take risks in a safe and secure environment. Supporting children to be active and to develop physically including giving clear messages to children why it is important to eat, drink and exercise as well as showing empathy and to be kind to others.

The children at Warmsworth Primary School experience a smooth transition between Foundation Stage one, Foundation Stage two and beyond. Staff effectively communicate and collaboration ensures the children leave EYFS with a secure solid foundation to meet the needs of the National Curriculum.

We use a ‘Focus Education’, EYFS curriculum to plan our curriculum content.  The children have a variety of exercise books to evidence their learning. Assessments are recorded and meaningful observations are carried out and logged in the childen’s books. Photographs and floor books demonstrate the scope of learning.

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