The Curriculum Early Year Foundation Stage Curriculum
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The Curriculum Early Year Foundation Stage Curriculum The EYFS requires us to prioritise the below overarching principles when planning our curriculum: 1. Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured. 2. Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships. 3. Children learn well and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents / carers; and 4. Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in Early Years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities. The National Curriculum for early years in England is divided into 7 learning areas. These learning areas comprise of three prime areas: Personal, Social and Emotional Development Communication and Language Physical Development and four specific areas: Literacy Mathematics Understanding the World Expressive Arts and Design Attainment in these learning areas is measured against 17 Early Learning Goals at the end of Foundation Stage 2. As most of our students entering Foundation 1 have little or no English we focus heavily on developing their speech through songs, rhymes and stories. This ensures children acquire English in a fun and engaging manner. In Foundation stage 1, we also begin the school year teaching ‘Letters and Sounds’ Phase 1 which is the prelude to phonics. In Phase 1 the emphasis is on developing a child’s listening and speaking skills. Seven aspects are covered within Phase 1: 1. General sound discrimination – environmental sounds 2. General sound discrimination – instrumental sounds 3. General sound discrimination – Body Percussion 4. Rhythm and Rhyme 5. Alliteration 6. Voice sounds 7. Oral blending and Segmenting Once a child has successfully moved through these seven aspects they are ready to start learning Phase 2 which is letter sounds. In this phase, the students will learn 23 letter sounds while looking at letter formation, blending and segmenting of the sounds as they learn them. In Foundation 2, children will recap the first 23 sounds and then continue onto Phase 3, which includes the last 8 letter sounds and then moves on to digraphs. It is important for children to be allowed to move and grow. All lessons in our setting incorporate some aspect of fine or gross motor development, which supports children later when they begin to write. In EYFS, we cover Literacy from 2 perspectives they are reading and writing. Before a child is encouraged to hold a pencil, they are given many opportunities to mark make and increase their fine motor control before they hold a pencil. Reading is encouraged right from the beginning of Foundation 1 where children are exposed to weekly stories, which help build vocabulary and foster a love for reading. Once a child’s vocabulary has been established and children have better understanding of the structure of a story they are encouraged to create their own stories and later once able write them down. An important role of teacher and teaching assistant in the EYFS classroom is to help the pupils develop the confidence to approach new activities and to independently choose their resources in the environment. Children are encouraged to think critically about their work and about different topics, and to share their thoughts and ideas during activities such as Circle-Time or Show and Tell. Efforts towards independence are always encouraged and valued and children are encouraged to reflect on their own work and progress through sensible questioning and instant feedback. Tapestry observations are shared with parents and pictures and videos are often shared via Class Dojo. This helps to further boost the child’s confidence and keeps parents involved in their child’s education. Children in EYFS are developing social skills and learning how to share, self-control and how to play in a group. We address this in daily circle time, P4C and character education lessons. All these lessons work together to help children build strong relationships with a good understanding of right from wrong. We further build stronger characters by improving confidence and we do this by celebrating all the successes no matter how big or small of each child. By prioritising child initiated play, we are giving children the ability to learn at their own pace. However, we still manage to do this in a structured environment where a child is able to learn routine and expectations. It also allows them to process and interpret information, which in turn gives children the ability to learn and develop concepts such as number, time, colour, logic and reasoning. We use many different approaches to learning during our child initiated play sessions so that all children are stimulated through positive praise, role modelling and adult/ child interaction. We enhance all our learning areas to specifically augment the stimulation the children receive. We utilise a wide range of physical resources to ensure that children understand the concept and value of numbers before they go on to develop the ability to recognise and write numerals. Through games and practical activities, children are taught the basics of numbers, number bonds and basic calculation. Children are given many opportunities to use numbers in a variety of situations such as songs, games, shape, measurement and role-play. Children are assessed when they apply to the setting and in their first few weeks to better evaluate their starting point against their age related expectations. The baseline assessment provides information about a child’s background, individual needs, ability and aptitude. This information is recorded on tracking ladders. Teachers complete this review within the first 6 weeks of the child entering the setting. The class teacher then highlights the child’s progress on these tracking ladders every term through continuous assessment carried out. Each child is required to make two steps of progress within an academic year. For example, if a child’s baseline says they are emerging in 30-50 months learning outcomes at the start of the year then that child should be secure in 30-50 month learning outcomes by the end of the year. Every month we expect them to move up in the bands on the tracker ladder. If a child does not move, the coordinator meets with the teacher to discuss the reasons for this and parents may be contacted. An IEP (Individual Education Plan) is then created as the next step to support the child. Planning is done as a year group and is differentiated according to the needs of each individual child in the setting. Teachers adapt planning to meet and differentiate for the learning needs of their children by annotating the planning as they go. Most lessons have a WALT, an introduction, a focus activity and a plenary. Extension work is available in the classroom and outdoor area. Activities are planned to suit all types of pupils, kinaesthetic, auditory and visual. Teachers utilise all the different types of resources they have access to provide the best quality and range of learning they can. For example, books, interactive whiteboard, CD players and iPads. At the end of every week, teachers evaluate their planning and highlight the next steps for learning. A different topic is chosen each half term; each topic is made up of a few sub-topics that are chosen from the Long Term Plans or based on the children’s interests. Each session has a balance of adult-led, child-led and child-initiated activities. Teachers keep track of statements they will cover to keep a record of what skills the children have been taught and to make sure children are given the opportunity to learn all skills required in the curriculum. Children’s progress is continuously assessed through the continuous assessment grids and online observations according to the learning objectives of each lesson. Observations are done online through an application called Tapestry. Data from Tapestry is closely monitored by the EYFS coordinator. Data from Tapestry is used with the tracking ladders to directly inform the end of term report. Children are consistently pushed to extend their learning in each activity. At every mid-term teachers look at each child’s next steps according to Tapestry and the continuous assessment tracking ladders and use these results to inform their planning. At the end of the term teachers are given a week to make sure each child has an observation in each learning objective and each child is at the correct level against their age related expectations. Children who are not making the desired level of progress are highlighted and included in an IEP (Individual Education Plan). Cause for concern meetings are held with parents to notify them of the action that we have taken to better support their child. Once the assessment week is complete we use this data to inform end of term reports. Each term school visits are organised to further enhance learning and develop links within the community. These events include activities in the snow, to the farm and with other groups. Each term parents are invited to come and share in their child’s learning during ‘stay and play’ mornings, ‘reading breakfasts’ and other activities during specialist weeks. Our parents are one of our most valuable resources. At the beginning of each academic year parents are invited to a ‘Welcome Meeting’ where the EYFS coordinator outlines the curriculum and the expectations for the year. Parents of F1 are also invited to bring their child in for a welcome to school day in August before school starts to meet the teacher and give the child the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the new environment.