EYFS

Subject Lead = Mrs Towle

Early Years Foundation Stage

_{The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage sets the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five years.}

Intent

At St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School, our intention is to make every child’s first experience of school positive and meaningful. We want children to feel excited about coming to school and we place great emphasis on making our Reception classroom a place where children feel safe, valued and motivated to learn. Our dedicated EYFS team work collaboratively to maintain high standards of education for all the children in our care and each academic year we strive to improve our practice through training opportunities and MAC EYFS working group meetings. We recognise and celebrate that each child is unique and has different strengths, interests, prior experiences and learning styles. Therefore, we adapt our curriculum to meet the needs of our current cohort and to reflect their interests. Furthermore, we ensure our curriculum provides children with opportunities to gain the skills and knowledge that will later be enhanced and embedded in Key Stage 1. We create an atmosphere where children are relaxed and able to quickly form positive relationships with the adults; and where mutual respect is paramount. We have high expectations for behaviour and learning, with all adults using consistent positive recognition strategies, which help children to follow and understand our school values and rules: ‘Be ready, Be respectful, Be safe, Be the best that you can be.’ We praise, recognise and reward not only the outcomes of children’s learning, but also their effort – we want to ensure that our children understand the importance of being resilient, tackling challenges and persevering. Our intent is to nurture a lifelong love of learning, both in and outside of our school.

We intend:

• To work in partnership with parents and carers to encourage independent, happy learners who thrive in school and reach their full potential from their various starting points.

• To understand and follow children’s interests and provide opportunities throughout our EYFS curriculum to support learning, consolidate and deepen knowledge and ensure children meet their individual next steps.

• To offer a wide range of rich, first-hand experiences to ensure learning is meaningful and memorable.

• To create an exciting, engaging and well planned indoor and outdoor environment, which supports independent and collaborative learning.

• To foster the development of each child’s character, their personal development, health and wellbeing.

• To prepare children to reach the Early Learning Goals at the end of the Foundation Stage and ensure every child makes at least good progress from their starting points.

• To support a positive transition between Reception and Year 1, ensuring that children are equipped with the skills and knowledge to have a secure foundation for future learning, as they progress into Year 1 and beyond.

Implementation

Each term, a new topic is introduced and this enables inspiration for learning, whilst we also provide the flexibility for children to follow their own interests and ideas.

Children learn through a balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities. The timetable is carefully structured so that children have directed whole-class teaching throughout the day, as well as working in small, guided groups with the class teacher. Small, guided group work means the teacher can systematically check pupils’ understanding, identify and respond to misconceptions quickly and provide real-time verbal feedback, which results in a strong impact on pupils’ acquisition of new learning.

Children are provided with plenty of time to engage in ‘exploration’ throughout the variety of experiences, which are carefully planned to engage and challenge them in continuous provision. The curriculum is planned for both the inside and outside classrooms.

English / Literacy:

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and our aim is to encourage a love of reading right from the start. In the EYFS, we expose the children to a variety of texts that not only develop a love of reading, but have been chosen specifically to develop their oracy, vocabulary and comprehension. These books are embedded in our provision through activities, story sessions and on display for children to access independently. We plan our English curriculum using resources such as the ‘Talk for Writing’ framework and Literacy Shed. Through these, children begin to internalise new vocabulary and language patterns and become more confident in retelling and creating stories.  

We support the children to strengthen and develop their fine motor skills through adult-led handwriting sessions and by providing access to a writing area and a permanent fine motor skills area of provision, alongside providing writing opportunities in other areas, for example, the construction area and role-play.

Phonics:

We implement the Twinkl Phonics Programme which is a DfE validated scheme. In Reception, children cover Phases Two to Four, where they develop GPC recognition, as well as blending and segmenting skills to read and spell words which include these GPCs.

Pupils undertake phonics assessments (using Phonics Tracker) to identify any GPCs which they are not yet secure with. Reports from these assessments are used to inform the planning of interventions so that they are tailored to the pupils’ areas of need. Each child in Reception takes home a phonics keyring, which includes all of the GPCs which they have learnt within the phase so far, so that they can re-visit them in short, sharp bursts each day from home.

Children are encouraged to read at home daily and they are listened to regularly in school, on an individual basis and in guided reading sessions. Pupils are given books that match the GPCs which are being taught in school each week, in order for them to apply their learning with the aim of becoming successful, confident and fluent readers. A Phonics and Early Reading Information Session for parents is held at the beginning of each academic year, organised by the Phonics and English Leads. The aim of the workshop is to deepen parents’ understanding of the phonics curriculum and how they can support their child’s learning from home.

Mathematics:

In Reception, we follow the White Rose Maths Scheme of Learning. Within our high-quality learning environment, meaningful interactions with adults support children with developing their mathematical thinking, reasoning and problem solving skills.

Pupils learn through games and tasks, using concrete manipulatives, which moves into drawing pictorial representations and then applying their learning in more abstract, problem-solving concepts.

Religious Education:

10% of the EYFS curriculum time is dedicated to the teaching of Religious Education. These lessons are planned using the ‘Learning and Growing as People of God’ Diocesan Strategy and lessons are planned which enable the children to demonstrate their learning through practical, creative and open-ended activities. Carefully crafted questioning enables pupils to reflect and contemplate.

From the beginning of Reception, pupils are taught how to make the Sign of the Cross, and they say a range of traditional and contemporary prayers throughout each day. Pupils participate in weekly whole-school assemblies, Key Stage assemblies and class-based collective worship. As the year progresses, children play a more active role in our class assemblies, by leading and making decisions, for example, choosing the music or Bible story.

Meaningful links with our Parish Priest, Father Kevin, are formed from the beginning of Reception, through our Blessing of the Stones ceremony. Pupils attend Mass with peers from different year groups on a rolling-programme, and these dates are documented in our liturgical planner.

Wider Curriculum:

Our wider curriculum is taught through the following two Specific Areas: Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. Exciting, purposeful and contextual activities are planned to build on children’s natural curiosity. Building further on our oracy focus, children are encouraged to apply subject-specific language, and vocabulary is modelled by practitioners.

Our inclusive approach means that all children learn together but we have a range of additional intervention and support for children who may not be reaching their potential or are showing a greater depth of understanding and need further challenge. This includes, for example, sessions for developing speech and language, fine motor skills and phonics.

Impact

Baseline:

Prior to the children starting, EYFS staff conduct home visits, and communicate with previous settings, where appropriate, to gain a holistic view of each child and their abilities. During the first few weeks in Reception, staff use observations and conversations, as well as the DfE Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) outcomes, to deepen this knowledge. The RBA identifies each individual’s starting points in Mathematics, Literacy and Communication and Language.

Ongoing Observations:

Ongoing observations are used to inform weekly planning and identify children’s next steps. This formative assessment method does not involve prolonged periods of time away from the children or excessive paperwork. 

Summative Assessment:

Phonic assessments are undertaken using Phonics Tracker to quickly identify pupils that are not making expected progress. In Reception, daily ‘keep-up’ phonics sessions are held, for those children who have not retained the phoneme of the day. Children who are ‘not on track’ for Reading are also involved in planned interventions. Our aim is for children to ‘keep up’ rather than ‘catch up’ so that no child gets left behind.

Summative assessments against each of the ELGs are completed four times per year, using Bromcom. Pupils are assessed as either ‘on track’ or ‘not on track’ against the ELGs. Whilst there is no longer a judgement to state if a child is exceeding beyond an ELG, an internal ‘on track +’ judgement is used to identify those pupils who should be targeted to achieve Greater Depth as they progress into Year One. In the Summer Term, the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile is completed, where a judgement is made on whether each child has met the seventeen ELGs and subsequently reached a Good Level of Development.

For the past three academic years, our EYFS Profile data has been in line with, or above, the national average:

• 2021-22 - 71% achieved a GLD, compared to the national figure of 65.2%.
• 2022-23 – 76% achieved a GLD, compared to the national figure of 67.2%.
• 2023-24 – 67% achieved a GLD (awaiting national results)

Early Learning Goals

Statutory Framework