Curriculum Intent Statement EYFS
September 2019
Foundation Stage Curriculum
Intent
The Foundation Stage includes the Nursery and Reception years of child’s education. It is a distinct stage and important both in its own right and in preparing children for later schooling. The stage places emphasis on how children learn and engage with their own learning journey through;
There are seven areas of learning that make up the curriculum:
The Prime areas
The Specific areas
Here at St Michael’s we ensure a broad and balanced curriculum by planning a variety of topics and themes. We also believe it is vital to follow the interests of the children and therefore plans will also be guided by these possible lines of development.
Enabling Environment
Here at St Michael’s we are committed to providing an enabling environment both indoors and out. This contributes greatly to children’s learning and development, allowing them to become more independent learners in a rich, varied and safe space.
Positive Relationships
All staff endeavour to develop positive relationships with the children in our care. Each child will be allocated a key person who will have responsibility for ensuring that each individual feels safe and cared for.
We also work in partnership with parents to encourage independent happy learners who thrive in school and reach their full potential.
Unique Child
We recognise that every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured. Young children mature in every area of development at their own pace and in their own individual ways. We value and respect the diversity of all and place great emphasis on keeping children safe. We also pay due regard to children’s health as this is an integral part of their emotional, mental, social, environmental and spiritual well- being.
Implementation
At St Michael’s we are fully committed to ensuring that we fully meet all of the requirements and guidelines set out in the EYFS. Our Foundation Stage consists of a Nursery and two Reception classes. The Reception classes are open plan and we work very much as one team.
Regular observations are carried out on all the children, which help us to monitor their progress, identify their interests and give us a starting point for planning. Planning is carried out to ensure that the children’s development is progressed and that the children are being stimulated and any specific areas of focus can be identified and necessary steps can be taken.
We recognise that you as parents are the most knowledgeable about your child. We appreciate the extra insight you can provide. Please tell us about things your child has done and is interested in, so we can include it in the assessment, observation and planning process.
We are open to you at any time to discuss your child, whether this is an informal or a more structured chat. Your child’s Key person is there to discuss your child’s achievements or any concerns you may have. Parents are invited to look at, comment on and contribute to all observations and assessments carried out on their child, and these are available for you to look at any time.
The school has a SENCO which is the person who will work in partnership with parents, Key persons and a range of other agencies to enable children with additional needs to make progress.
Play
Play is one of the main ways in which children learn and develop, it is an integral part of a child’s Early Years Foundation Stage and supports their learning journey to. Young children can develop many skills through the power of play. They develop language skills, emotions, creativity and social skills. Play helps to nurture imagination and give a child a sense of adventure. Through this, they can learn essential skills such as problem solving, working with others, sharing and much more. In order to ensure that children progress in all areas of learning we provide a balance of child initiated and adult led activities.
Teaching of phonics
We use Read Write Inc (RWI) as our synthetic phonics scheme to teach children to read quickly and easily.
Synthetic phonics – is simply the ability to convert letters or groups of letters into sounds that are blended into words.
Stay and Play
We run regular stay and play sessions for parents each term.
Stay and read/Story Time
We invite parents in each week to stay for these sessions to help promote a love of reading.
Parent Workshops
We run a range of parent workshops throughout the year to help parents support their children’s learning and development. If you have any suggestions for future workshops, please let us know.
We look forward to being part of your child’s learning journey and working in close partnership with you.
Miss AM Turner
Assistant Head Teacher & Lead for Early Years
Knowledge Organisers
We will be producing a Knowledge Organiser for each new topic that your child covers during their time in Foundation Stage. These are to be used at home to support the learning that goes on in school. They will include a brief outline of what is covered in that topic, any key vocabulary and additional links to further reading and useful websites.