EYFS

Intent

At Warley Primary, we place high value on the development of children as individuals and providing them with the skills, knowledge and understanding they need to prepare them for the challenges in Key Stage One and beyond. However, our greatest endeavour is to ensure children’s wellbeing is prioritised and that they are happy at school at all times. Our aim in the EYFS is to build strong foundations rooted in academic, social and emotional success, so that ultimately our pupils can be successful, go on to be active citizens of society and happy, curious life-long learners. 

Our curriculum is therefore designed so that they can gain the knowledge, skills and understanding they require for success. We embed the right habits for learning through the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning – Playing and Exploring, Active Learning and Creating and Thinking Critically. 

Many of our pupils arrive below national expectations for their age with some coming from disadvantaged backgrounds and with complex needs. We teach them how to listen, speak and meet the high expectations for behaviour by working together and being kind. We focus heavily initially on personal, social and emotional development and communication and language. Our enabling environment and warm, skillful adult interactions support the children as they begin to link learning to their play and exploration. We invest time and energy into helping pupils aim high and develop a love of reading, writing and number.  This is delivered through a curriculum which maximises opportunities for meaningful cross-curricular links and learning experiences as well as promoting the unique child by offering periods of play and sustained thinking following children’s interests and ideas.  We value imagination and creativity and seek to create a sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning through a vibrant continuous indoor and outdoor provision, alongside trips, visits and other outdoor experiences such as our Woodland Welly Walks. Children continually receive high quality teaching. 

Implementation

Our curriculum follows the Early Years Statutory Framework with our learning experiences linked to the seven areas of learning and development within the EYFS. Pupils learn through a balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities.  The timetable is carefully structured so that children have directed teaching in Literacy, Mathematics and phonics everyday with regular sessions to focus on PSED and other areas of the EYFS curriculum.  These sessions are followed by group work where children work with a member of staff.  This focused group time means the teacher can systematically check for understanding, identify and respond to misconceptions quickly and provide real-time verbal feedback which results in a strong impact on the acquisition of new learning.   

Children are provided with plenty of time to engage in ‘exploration’ throughout the variety of experiences carefully planned to engage and challenge them in the provision. The curriculum is planned for the inside and outside classrooms and equal importance is given to learning in both areas. The curriculum is planned in a cross-curricular way to enable all aspects of the children’s development including understanding the world and expressive art and design as well as to promote sustained thinking and active learning. 

Our inclusive approach means that all children learn together but we have a range of additional interventions and support to enhance and scaffold children who may not be reaching their potential or moving on children who are doing very well. This includes, for example, Time To Talk, Narrative Therapy and nurture groups. 

Our regular monitoring of teaching and learning includes support from the EYFS Leader so that teachers develop a good subject knowledge and are effectively supported. Our EYFS staff work closely together with regular meetings focused on moderating outcomes across the phase so that every member of our team feels confident in making accurate judgements about where individual pupils are and their next steps for learning. Moderation meetings also take place with other local primary schools, which helps to ensure that our judgments are consistent with other settings. 

Please click the link for the EYFS Yearly Overview: EYFS Long Term Plan

For more detailed information about individual subjects, please visit the subject pages found on the 'Curriculum Page'. 

 Impact

The impact of the EYFS curriculum is reflected in having well rounded, happy and confident children transitioning into Year 1. Our curriculum meets the needs of our children, including our disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND. We spend time looking at and evaluating how children are learning.  This is achieved through talking to children, looking at their work, observing their learning experiences and analysing data and progress by year group, class, groups and individuals. Every member of staff uses ongoing observational assessment to identify children’s starting points and plan experiences which ensure progress. This information is tracked on Target Tracker. During each assessment window, three times a year, teachers update the progress children have made onto Target Tracker which allows us to assess and evaluate the impact of teaching.   Evidence of children’s learning including observations, work samples, photographs and contributions from parents are kept in paper Learning Journeys.

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 towards their age-related expectations before transitioning into Year One.  We believe our high standards are due to the enriched play-based exploration alongside the rigour of assessment and teaching the children have as they move through the early years – a rich diet of balanced learning experiences is undoubtedly the best way to develop happy, curious children.