Implementation of EYFS

At Esh Winning Primary School, we offer a curriculum which is broad and balanced and which builds on the knowledge, understanding and skills of all children, whatever their starting points.

We follow the Early Years curriculum using topic themes and enrichment opportunities.

The aim of our curriculum is to develop a ‘thirst and love for learning’ and ‘Awe and Wonder’ memories by:

• Carefully planning sequences of activities that provide meaningful learning experiences, developing each child’s Characteristics of Effective Learning.
• Providing child initiated activities in line with children’s starting points which enhance their learning and impacts on progress.
• Developing an effective and engaging environment that is rich in language whilst taking into consideration the need for the children to be able to access all areas of learning, both inside and outside at any one time.
• Providing high quality interactions with adults that demonstrate and impact on the progress of all children.
• Ensuring that ‘The Unique Child’ is at the forefront of adult’s interactions and adopting a nurturing approach for those pupils who might need some reassurance to enable them to succeed.
• Using high quality questioning and interactions to check understanding and address misconceptions.
• Staff acting as role models to the children they teach in order for children to develop their own speaking and listening skills.
• Carefully assessing, through observations, which are recorded on Seesaw and shared with parents. These are used to inform the next steps of learning and meet individual needs.
• Allowing children to be successful in their attempts at an activity and using effective feedback to help facilitate next steps in learning but providing enough challenge to develop resilience.
• Suggesting home learning opportunities with information about what has been taught, allowing parents to build on their child’s school experiences, at home.

We recognise the changing needs and interests of our pupils and we are responsive to this, regularly developing existing topics

In Reception we continue to learn predominantly through play, allowing lots of time in the school day for the children to be in continuous provision. This allows children to build upon their own experiences, developing their own child-initiated activities and those important social skills which will serve them well throughout their school lives and beyond.

We believe that learning through the natural world is becoming increasingly important and our children experience nature regularly; whether that be visiting the school garden to plant, harvest or weed, or going to Forest School sessions in the school woodland.

Our reading is taught in differentiated groups through the ‘Read Write Inc’ phonics scheme, which supports our children to learn to read quickly and with confidence.  Sounds are introduced in a systematic manner and progress is monitored with children moving on to read books from the scheme.  Sessions are delivered in an engaging way and activities are revisited to embed learning over the year, supported in a range of ways including Hold a Sentence, Fred Talk and rhymes associated with each sound.  We read a wide range of familiar and unfamiliar books that link to the interests of the children and to our topics. Our writing is taught through this phonics programme, showing children the link between letters and sounds every day. We encourage our children to write and mark make their own thoughts and ideas in all areas of learning which allows the children to develop without fear of failure.

Using White Rose Maths our approach introduces children to maths concepts through real objects, then pictorial (pictures on paper), then to the abstract (such as calculations on a page). High quality learning environments and meaningful interactions with adults, support children in developing mathematical thinking and discussion. Pupils learn through games and tasks using concrete manipulatives and pictorial structures and representations which are then rehearsed, applied and recorded within their own child-led exploration. Children in Reception have daily maths sessions to develop fluency, revisit key concepts and address misconceptions.

Pupils have opportunities to share their learning with their parents and carers through Seesaw. Every term parents and carers have the opportunity to attend a Parents Evening, this allows parents to see the children’s progress and set targets for their child to work on at home.

All of our learning is taught using scaffolding and modelling so that all children feel secure and cement the foundations of their learning step by step.