Children starting Reception in September 2025
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Welcome to EYFS!

In Early Years our aim is to give our children the best start to life, by providing them with skills, knowledge and understanding in order to thrive today and throughout their life. We are creating foundations to build successful futures.

We aim to : 

•       make certain that all children regardless of school structure and organisation receive their early years curriculum entitlement 

•       develop consistent and high-quality early years provision across all Trust schools in line with the statutory early years framework

•       ensure that all children have access to a broad, balanced knowledge-rich early years curriculum that gives them the range of foundational knowledge and skills needed on which to build

•       provide environments to learn where all children feel safe, secure and happy 

•       guarantee that practice is inclusive of all children, that every child is included and supported through equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice

•       facilitate high-quality CPD focussing on pedagogy and curriculum to secure strong teaching, learning and development

•       motivate children intrinsically, fostering high aspirations, building on their passions and interests. 

Principles of our Early Years curriculum:

We have a clear pedagogical approach to the early years curriculum that is based on a balance of adult led and child-initiated activities. The balance includes age-appropriate structured explicit teaching which is adult led alongside adult guided learning activities, child-initiated provision and enhanced provision.

In all settings, the role of the adult is key to planning purposeful learning. New knowledge is taught, learning is embedded and reinforced through thoughtful and selective use of provision and adult interaction. The development of early language and communication is a priority and is recognised as the key to success in every area of the curriculum. Practitioners are trained to be able to intervene effectively, observe and facilitate children interacting and learning, plan and provide for their next steps. They know how to model language and develop communication enabling children to secure knowledge and embed key skills.

Our early years provision ensures that curriculum planning includes motivating and purposeful opportunities to learn and develop both indoors and outdoors, in all areas of learning whilst prioritising adult and peer interaction and conversation, whilst facilitating physical development. 

The outdoor environment is carefully planned for, is language rich, with provision that further embeds or facilitates curriculum learning and development. The outdoor environment is seen as essential to early years development.

Children learn at different rates, every child can progress well, with the right support.

Every child is on their own unique learning journey and can thrive.  Our Early Years offer aligns to our Principles of Inclusion. Practitioners carefully plan provision for all children to build equity. On entry to the setting or at the beginning of a unit of work practitioners identify what children already know and can do. Scaffolds and adaptations are planned carefully into provision to ensure that the curriculum is accessible to all children using the indoor and outdoor environment, so that gaps do not appear or widen. Practitioners plan opportunities to revisit prior learning, pre-teach and build on existing knowledge and skills. During adult guided activities practitioners address misconceptions at the point of error, support children in making connections to develop schema, facilitating the development of skills and enabling children to know and remember more. 

The EYFS Framework

There are seven areas of learning and development that help to shape educational provision in Early Years settings. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected.

The three prime areas are:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development

The four specific areas are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

Maths is interlinked within all areas of learning. Within provision children are encouraged to talk about number, shape, space and measures, in order to develop these early mathematical skills. In Reception, we use the ‘Can Do Maths’ scheme of learning for teaching mathematics. It is a mastery approach which enables all children to understand, enjoy and succeed in Maths. This is done by developing children’s understanding. By truly understanding each mathematical concept and by mastering learning one step at a time, everyone can do Maths! Children develop the right growth mindset, by solving problems using concrete resources, pictorial representations and abstract thinking. 

You can find more information about Maths at Elm C of E school here.

Children make a strong start to learning Phonics in the Early Years. We use the 'Sounds Write' phonics programme. In Reception, children learn new sounds weekly. They learn to blend and segment words alongside learning correct letter formation. Children's vocabulary grows through role-play, discussion, building sentences and using productive questioning. We place huge emphasis on developing children’s love of reading through enticing story and poetry times. You can find more information about Phonics at our school here.

Curriculum

At Elm we deliver an ambitious, planned and sequenced, knowledge-rich curriculum. The curriculum is the progression model which begins in EYFS, designed to teach foundational knowledge in the early years that forms the bedrock on which later learning in key stage one and two builds. 

The curriculum has been designed to encourage children to build resilience, ambition, and integrity. It is designed progressively from early years to ensure that children have time to embed knowledge and basic skills that are developmentally appropriate, in preparation for later learning.  



Class Blogs

You can find the Pre-School blog here

You can find the Reception Class blog here

         If you require any additional information relating to the Early Years, then please contact Mrs Hart via the school office.