Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
In our EYFS class, we focus on developing the 3 prime areas first although this depends on the needs of the child. These are:
- Communication and language;
- Physical development; and
- Personal, social and emotional development.
These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning. As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:
- Literacy;
- Mathematics;
- Understanding the world; and
- Expressive arts and design.
Teaching and learning is carefully planned in all these key areas. The curriculum is organised to be practical and fun and takes place within a friendly and supportive atmosphere. Play has a high priority in all areas of learning. Children have access to both indoor and outdoor provision areas. There is a mix of child initiated and adult led learning opportunities.
Reading and Spelling Development
Children are introduced to phonics which support reading, writing and spelling through the use the Department for Education’s ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme.
To continue to develop spelling skills in older children, we use our own scheme of work based on the National Curriculum expectations and an approach using a range of effective strategies for the teaching of spelling. The school using the ‘Accelerated Reader’ programme to support children’s reading development after children are able to blend words effectively and know a number of ‘tricky words’ that don’t follow a phonetic pattern.
The ‘Accelerated Reader’ programme usually begins in Year 1, or in Year 2 at the latest. Reading development is backed up with taught lessons that focus on specific skills. Teachers diagnose what to teach and at what stage with help from ‘Accelerated Reader’ and through their use of a good range of assessment for learning strategies.
There are three “core” subjects in the National Curriculum: English, Mathematics and Science. Computing is taught to all children as a discrete subject yet linked to other areas being taught in the class so therefore integrated into most subjects.
Staff ensure that a broad and balanced curriculum is taught, which includes all the foundation subjects: Art & Design, Modern Foreign Languages (French), Design Technology, Geography, History, Computing, Music, PE and PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education). Religious Education is also taught regularly throughout school. Coverage is managed via our long term plans – these can be viewed below.
