EYFS

At St. John's C of E Primary school, we greatly value the importance of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in providing a secure foundation for future learning and development. We ensure that each child has a happy and positive start to their school life, during which they can build a foundation for a love of learning.

We ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. We promote teaching and learning to ensure children’s school readiness and give children a broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life. Please see our progression of Skills and Knowledge below along with Intent, Implementation and Impact.

 

Progression of Skills and Knowledge

 

Communication and Language Development

We give 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 situations.

Communication and Language progression of skills

Physical Development

We provide opportunities for young children to be active and interactive and to develop their co-ordination, control and movement. Children will practise both gross and fine motor control. They will also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity and to make healthy choices in relation to food.

Physical Development progression of skills

Mathematical Development

We provide children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems and to describe shapes, space and measure.

Mathematical Development progression of skills

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

We help children to develop a positive sense of themselves and others, to form positive relationships and develop respect for others, to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings, to understand appropriate behaviour in groups and to have confidence in their own abilities.

PSED progression of skills

Literacy Development

We encourage children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems and other written materials) to ignite their interest and a passion for reading.

Literacy Development progression of skills

Understanding the World

We guide children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.

Understanding the World progression of skills

Expressive Arts and Design

We help children to develop their artisitc and cultural awareness to support their imagination and creativity.

EAD progression of skills

Intent

At St John’s we understand that every child is unique and we are committed to developing each and every child, embracing learning that is led by the children themselves.

We believe it is important to ignite a passion for learning so that the children are excited, engaged and eager to learn throughout their whole education. We promote positive relationships with parents/carers work and work in close partnership with them to ensure the interests of the children come first. We offer communication mainly through Class Dojo, as well as offering information via our website.

The Early Years Team work very hard to provide an exciting and thriving learning environment both indoors and outdoors. We encourage the children to explore different aspects of learning through a range of continuous provision activities, including mark making and writing, number and shape, role play, physical and sensory. We want the children in our care to flourish and reach the Early Learning Goals by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage. At the very least, we want them to make good progress from their starting point. During the final term, we prepare and support our children to make a smooth transition into Year One, ensuring that they are ready to take on the new challenges that await them in the following year.

Implementation

Here at St John’s we follow the Early Years Statutory Framework, as laid out by the Department for Education (DfE).

This framework requires Early Years settings to focus on Prime areas and Specific areas of learning. The Prime areas being: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, and Physical Development and the Specific areas being: Literacy, Maths, Understanding the World and Expressive Art and Design.

We use these 7 areas to plan activities to develop the children’s learning, however, we are flexible so we can meet the needs of the children. We promote active learning and strive to develop learning characteristics that are vital to support good learning behaviours. These Characteristics of Effective Learning include: Playing and Exploring – Children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’. Active Learning – Children concentrate and persevere when they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements. Creating and Thinking Critically – Children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

Children engage in child initiated Learning tasks as well as taking part in adult guided sessions.

There are lots of opportunities for them through the day to work independently, with others or with an adult. Through the adult guided sessions we are able track each individual child, and ensure we are implementing the correct next steps to help move their learning on.

We want our children to be curious and confident about the world they live in. We support this by asking questions to provoke their thoughts and ideas to help them develop their independence, creativity and problem solving skills. We aspire to lead the children in Early Years to make at least good progress from their individual starting points.

We believe it is important to get to know the children for who they are, not only as a learner but their personality as well.). We will use observations, along with our knowledge of the individual to provide us with the evidence to make formative assessments and inform future planning to build on the children’s knowledge. We believe in the quality of observations and how we can move a specific child’s learning forward. We will also carry out summative assessments which will look at a child’s age related expectations, as laid out in ‘Development Matters’.

Impact

By ensuring we have implemented all the necessary learning opportunities which allow children to grow and become competent learners, each and every child in our care will be equipped to move onto the next stage of their education, being proud of all they have achieved.

Downloads

Page Downloads Date  
EYFS Teaching and Learning Policy 01st Sep 2024 Download
EYFS Date  
EYFS vocabulary progression 02nd Sep 2024 Download