EYFS At Spring Bank Primary School

EYFS Intent – why do we teach what we teach?

At Spring Bank Primary School, we believe that good quality learning experiences are essential in providing the children in Reception for future success. We provide an enriched and nurturing environment where our children feel safe and happy. We ensure our children are valued and build positive relationships to develop their confidence and support them in being independent learners.

We are proud of and celebrate the different cultures that make up our school community. We use this uniqueness to educate our children about other cultures from around the world. Every child is valued as an individual and to enable them to progress and achieve their full potential, we plan for each child’s stage of development. The teaching of vocabulary using our adults as role models provides skilful adult interactions and a language rich environment to provide learning experiences for our children. Our curriculum is broad and balanced with a wide variety of challenging learning experiences, accessible both inside and outside. We encourage our children to be curious, ask questions, take risks and learn through firsthand experiences. This will occur when children lead their own learning, and they are learning through play. We value parental contributions and enjoy the opportunity to work with parents and carers to achieve the best possible outcomes for our children.

EYFS Implementation – how do we teach what we teach?

In early years, we follow the EYFS statutory framework covering the seven main areas of learning. This provides us with a broad and balanced curriculum through which we provide stimulating environments that enables our children to be challenged and achieve their full potential whilst developing resilience and independence. At the heart of our curriculum, are the characteristics of effective teaching and learning which give the children the skills they need to thrive in a school environment.

Our children learn through a combination of adult-led and child-led activities, whole class group learning, group work and individual support. Our timetable works so that all children are given equal opportunities to access our whole curriculum. They have opportunities to explore the learning environments both indoors and outdoors. These opportunities are well planned and thought out to cater to all our children.

In Reception, we base our learning around books. We promote a love of reading and immerse children in a wide variety of stories and books. In our school, we follow the successful Floppy’s Phonics programme vigorously so that children can have good outcomes for reading. In Maths, we teach using the Maths Mastery approach which has an emphasis on studying the key skills of number, calculation and shape so that pupils develop a deep understanding and an acquisition of mathematical language. Children learn through tasks, activities and games using concrete manipulatives.

Within our EYFS curriculum, children are assessed through observations which inform future planning and the next steps in their learning. This enables us to ensure that all children’s need are met, and that we are supporting them to make the best possible progress.

EYFS Impact

The impact of our early years provision can be seen through the outcomes of our children and seeing them accessing provision in a happy and safe environment.