| Early Years Foundation Stage | |
| Longhorsley First School EYFS overview | Download |
EYFS Curriculum
We use the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage Framework as a guide to the curriculum we offer. The EYFS Framework builds on the early learning that begins at home and prepares the children for more formal learning in Key Stage 1. The EYFS Framework is inclusive and respects each unique child, emphasises the importance of positive relationships and an enabling environment, and acknowledges that children learn and develop in different ways and at different rates. The curriculum will be specifically tailored to ensure it is accessible to all children, including those identified as having special educational needs and/or disabilities.
The EYFS curriculum is organised into seven areas of learning which includes the following:
Prime Areas
- Communication and Language
- Personal, social and emotional development
- Physical Development
Specific Areas
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
In addition, the curriculum offer enables children to develop the Characteristics of Effective Learning (the skills needed to become life-long learners) which includes:
Playing and exploring – engagement
- Finding out and exploring
- Playing with what they know
- Being willing to ‘have a go’
Active learning – motivation
- Being involved and concentrating
- Keeping trying
- Enjoying achieving what they set out to do
Creating and thinking critically – thinking
- Having their own ideas
- Making links
- Choosing ways to do things
EYFS Learning Environment
The learning environment is key in delivering the EYFS curriculum. It includes spacious indoor and outdoor areas and allows children to move between the two. The early years practitioners plan and organise the learning environment together to ensure it is accessible yet challenging for all children. They will scaffold child-led learning within it through high-quality interactions. Early years teachers also plan more focused adult-guided learning experiences. This combination of teaching and learning strategies promotes the best outcomes for our children.
Early Reading
Core Books, Phonics & Reading
Many of our core story books come from Pie Corbett’s Reading Spine, which is a collection of high-quality books which foster a love of reading. The books are used to inspire our wider curriculum and provide children with motivating experiences that invite thinking and learning as well as promoting rich opportunities that particularly support children’s developing literacy skills. These books have been specifically chosen as they include features such as rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, simple story structures etc., which, when read over and over again enable children to develop a love of books, develop their phonological awareness and enable them to retell these stories as well as begin to make up their own stories. Using core books in this way also supports children to develop their writing skills.
Alongside the core book approach, activities are planned to prepare children for reading, by developing children’s phonological awareness. Children who have good phonological awareness skills can orally segment and blend sounds such as b-a-t, the word is ‘bat’. Once children are assessed as being confident in this skill, we use the Read Write Inc. programme to teach children to read through a systematic phonics approach, where children learn that letter symbols represent a sound (grapheme when written down). When children are ready, they will be given a levelled reading book matched to their phonic development, to take home and read with you. There will be many opportunities for you to learn more about our Read Write Inc. programme.
Handwriting
In EYFS we begin by building the physical skills (both gross and fine motor) needed to write such as, hand-eye coordination, muscle memory, posture, and body control. Activities indoors and outdoors support these skills and are prioritised to ensure children are ready to write. Children arrive every morning to their ‘challenges’, which are activities which have been specifically chosen to support them to develop their fine motor skills such as using tweezers. They also have lots of opportunities to participate in ‘dough disco’, which is a fun activity that involves manipulating a small ball of playdough in time to music. When children are assessed as being ready, we teach the formation of lower case letters, using the Read Write Inc. letter rhymes. We then refine these skills, allocating each letter to a family (movement related); curly caterpillar letters, ladder letters, one armed robot letters and zigzag monster letters.
| Supporting your child at home: 1. Encourage your child to be as independent as possible at home e.g. getting themselves dressed in the morning; doing up their own coat; using the toilet independently; 2. Share favourite books and sing nursery rhymes together; 3. Talk about what you are doing when out and about and give children opportunities to be responsible e.g. ticking off items on the shopping list; 4. Give your child opportunities to talk about their day at school; 5. Listen to sounds in the environment and play games to encourage children to hear sounds in words e.g. I spy; 6. Look out for numbers and letters when out and about and encourage children to recognise and write their own name; 7. Encourage your child to count in everyday situations e.g. setting the table at teatime for the correct number of people in the family; 8. Encourage your child to be polite and demonstrate manners e.g. please and thank you; 9. Find time to play board games together to encourage turn-taking as well as other skills such as recognising numbers on a dice; 10. Share any significant learning you have seen your child doing at home with school. |
