Nursery
Intent
The EYFS Curriculum is the start of our children’s journey. We are dedicated to ensuring our EYFS curriculum gives our children regardless of their starting point the best possible start in life. It is designed to recognise their prior learning from previous settings and their experiences at home, provide meaningful and purposeful first-hand learning experiences and opportunities for academic success, creativity and problem solving, whilst allowing them to build perseverance, resilience, responsibility and reliability. Every unique individual child and their family is recognised and appreciated.
We have high expectations of all children and we are committed to ensuring that every child makes sustained good progress. We carefully plan sequential expert teaching of skills, concepts and values to develop children’s knowledge and understanding and secure key skills. We use a positive behaviour approach to support, guide and engage young children through motivating, enriched opportunities and experiences that make the most out of our local community and environment to inspire learning and expand our children’s horizons to enable them to achieve academic success and prepare them for their next steps.
We provide a quality early literacy programme that builds a secure and embedded knowledge and understanding of reading. We ensure that every child acquires these important foundation skills to enable to them to successfully learn to read.
We endeavour to help each child to achieve their potential and develop into caring, confident and curious young people who have a passion for learning and achieving.
Implementation
Meaningful and purposeful teaching and learning for all children is planned from the analysis of entry and exit points and periodic assessments during the academic year. This enables staff to identify gaps and strengths to carefully plan sequential teaching and learning opportunities and experiences that ensure all children secure and build upon their knowledge, understanding and key skills.
Our priority in EYFS is to support all children so that they make good rates of progress. High expectations of progress apply equally to children working above, at, or below age-related expectations, including those who have been identified as having special educational needs. The effective teaching practices in EYFS ensure and expect everyone to succeed by offering higher levels of support or extra challenge for those who need it, so that all children can access the learning taking place. There is a high expectation of participation, fulfilment and success; and teaching and learning is characterised by ambitious objectives, challenging targets, clear plans and rapid intervention to support and keep a child on trajectory and rigorous assessment to check and maintain children’s progress.
Many children enter our EYFS will poor communication, language and speech skills. A key priority for our children is to acquire and secure these fundamental skills to enable them to achieve future success. Early identification, intervention and external agency support are pivotal in ensuring children make good progress. Our early literacy programme begins in our nursery setting and continues in Reception. Read Write Inc programme is started in nursery for children who are ready, and all children participate in the programme in Reception. Teachers have strong subject knowledge which results in effective challenging and coherent planning, teaching and modelling of pre-literacy opportunities and experiences enable our children to secure the behaviours and skills for their future reading development. This is evidenced through regular high quality CPD (both internal and external) and through highly effective subject leadership. Children participate in literacy experiences daily through adult directed/adult led activities and the continuous provision. There is a balance between adult and child-initiated learning.
Many children enter our EYFS pre-emergent or at the emergent stage of early numeracy. A key priority for our children is to improve their knowledge and understanding of early mathematical concepts/language and to acquire and secure competency in mathematical skills to enable them to achieve future success. Our early numeracy programme begins in our nursery setting and continues in Reception. Teachers strong subject knowledge results in effective challenging and coherent planning of teaching and learning experiences and opportunities designed to develop their ‘number sense’ and to understand mathematical language. This is evidenced through regular high quality CPD (both internal and external) and through highly effective subject leadership. Children participate in mathematical experiences daily/weekly through adult directed/adult led activities and the continuous provision. There is a balance between adult and child-initiated learning.
We provide parents/carers with regular information about their child’s learning through displays, newsletters, Home Learning Opportunities, Tapestry, Stay and Play, Workshops and Open Days e.g. Reading Mornings. Parents/Carers are able to communicate with us in person or via Arbor.
Impact
From low starting points, children develop a range of knowledge and skills across our EYFS curriculum which prepares them well for their next stage of learning. Data shows that non-mobile children perform better than mobile children.
Data shows that children make good progress in their communication and language skills from their starting points. Children’s knowledge and understanding of words is developing through shared reading experiences. Systematic teaching of phonics is securing children’s knowledge and understanding of phonemes and graphemes which is enabling them to read words, sentences and stories with accuracy and developing their fluency. Our EYFS assessment judgements have been externally moderated and validated by Cheshire East Local Authority Early Years.
Children are motivated, determined and proactive in all learning opportunities and experiences they encounter. They can sustain their concentration for longer periods of time. Their independence and self- belief in what they can do is flourishing. They are proud of what they achieve and enjoy sharing these achievements with others in school and at home. They are developing an awareness of themselves as a thinker and learner by having ideas, making connections, making choices and using strategies.
Our children’s first experiences of school have been happy and nurturing. Every child feels valued and respected, their successes have been celebrated and they are well prepared and ready to embark on their next step in the following academic year as effective lifelong learners.
Chester University Early Years Teacher Status Programme Leader has expressed an interest in her students visiting our ‘great’ EYFS SEND provision to observe our practice. Future students visits to be confirmed.
