Learning for Life
Our curriculum has been designed based upon what we want children to learn and experience during their time with us. This will develop the knowledge, skills and character set out in our vision, values and overarching intent. Our curriculum for EYFS is designed to be ambitious and carefully sequenced and we have carefully considered what we want children to encounter, explore and master. Our practice is lead by the four guiding principles of the EYFS.
We have used the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework and Development Matters to support our curriculum planning across the 7 areas of learning outlined in the Educational Progammes within the EYFS Framework. These three prime and four specific areas of learning are essential for your child's development and learning.
Our S plans break these educational programmes down into small steps and identify key skills and behaviours that are part of children’s journey. These inform our curricular experiences. In addition to this, we have identified key intentions for our current cohort. They are based on our context and what we have noticed about our children, cohort and community. This includes their starting points, interests and prior experiences. Our key intentions for EYFS are linked to our overarching ambition and intent for all children. These are not exhaustive and our planning remains responsive to the needs of the children.
We use a mix of approaches to deliver the curriculum, but we offer a primarily play based approach where children choose their own learning (COOL time). Play is fundamental to learning and helps children understand themselves and the world around them. A carefully planned environment is central to this and children have daily opportunities to be both outside and indoors. As well as learning through play, adults provide modelling, guided learning and direct teaching of key skills and knowledge. Enhanced provision and challenges provide further invitations to learn and adult directed tasks are used where appropriate.
The characteristics of effective learning (how children learn) are crucial to their success. We want our children to approach their learning with curiosity, bravery and enthusiasm. Tasks are designed to develop children’s engagement, motivation and thinking.
We health check at each milestone, informed by our evaluations of what children know and can do as they progress. This helps us ensure children’s knowledge and skills are secure before trying to move them on.