Early Years Foundation Stage
Intent
At St Oswald’s, we believe that in the Early Years all children deserve to have an equal chance of success. Through our school vision we enable our children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable and can be used to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development as well as developing resilient learners who have a love of learning, that will then enable them to achieve their aspirations. Through the three characteristics of effective teaching and learning we aim to provide an inclusive school community, rooted in mutual respect, understanding and kindness towards others. Our commitment to developing positive relationships with parents and carers begins before the children start their school journey. This strong relationship nurtures the physical, emotional and social development of the child, by working in harmony it will improve the educational and social outcomes of the child.
In line with the aims of the Early Years framework, the EYFS curriculum at St Oswald’s CE gives a high priority to developing children’s language and vocabulary skills and encourage this through planned activities based on a range of high-quality texts.
Implementation
We implement a curriculum that is progressive from the beginning of their school journey in nursery until they finish in Year 6. Through the EYFS curriculum programme we strive to deliver activities and experiences that will help them flourish within all 7 areas of development. We ensure that each area of the Early Year’s curriculum has the same importance given to it as mathematics and literacy, as we feel this is fundamental in enabling all children to gain ‘real-life’ experiences.
The Early Years curriculum at St Oswald’s CE is taught through a range of texts that are linked to a half termly theme. This provides a language rich environment which strengthens speech and language development for all. At the beginning of each theme, children have opportunity to engage in pre-learning activities. Discussions allow them to begin to develop their own curiosity surrounding a particular topic and demonstrate what they already know. This informs the programme of study and ensures that lessons are relevant, taking account of children’s different starting points. Our early years children are provided with the knowledge they need at the beginning of a new topic and have opportunities to continually refer back to this through the use of a floor book. Throughout the theme staff will use high quality questioning that will that challenge the children to think and overcome any obstacles to their learning.
Our staff are committed to continuing professional development, allowing them to develop their own subject knowledge and become better Early Years practitioners for the benefit of our children.
The development of early language is supported through the delivery of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention and WellComm taught by highly skilled and experienced practitioners.
To enable our parents to experience as much of their child’s personal and academic growth as possible we deliver half termly workshops. Each workshop is related to the principles of the EYFS complimenting the learning and development taking place in Early Years settings.
Impact
At St Oswald’s CE early years learning is loved by teachers and pupils. Teachers have high expectations of the children, they are encouraged to strive to reach their full potential with confidence. As children progress across the early years, they develop a deep knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the seven areas of learning. The early years at St Oswald’s CE extend children’s interests and knowledge beyond their immediate experiences, The Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic approach to teaching and learning is fundamental in all our curriculum provision.
Assessment is crucial in improving learning. Through observations and interactions with the children formative assessment regularly informs the early years staff of ongoing progress and allows adjustments to be made that reflect the learning needs of all children in our settings. In line with our school assessment policy, summative assessment in the form of teacher assessment is carried out at the end of each term in Nursery and Reception, this informs the overall annual progress made by each child.
We want the children to thoroughly enjoyed learning in the Early Years therefore encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and, in the future, and be able to understand the part they play in it.
All children in the Early Years will be able to communicate about their learning, skills and knowledge.
