Early Years Foundation Stage

Introduction

At Stow-on-the-Wold Primary School, we know that children achieve and thrive in a safe, happy environment, with learning opportunities that are carefully planned to meet all needs and is conducive to high quality teaching and learning.

Our highly qualified and experienced staff, plan learning opportunities rigorously, to ensure tasks are exciting, fun and challenging. We encourage children to know how best they learn, to strive always to do their best, and to learn the skills they need to support their future life chances.

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Learning

In Reception (Early Years), we follow the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (September 2021) and Development Matters (July 2021.)

These are the four Guiding Principles that shape our practice:

• Every child is unique, constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

• Children learn to be independent through positive relationships

• Children learn and develop in environments conducive to high quality teaching and learning and, where their experiences are nurtured and developed.

• Children learn in different ways, at different rates and where the curriculum is delivered in a variety of styles.

The Characteristics of Effective Learning are developed through

• Playing and exploring (being curious and asking questions) so that children become engaged. They have opportunities to find out and explore, play with what they know and develop the confidence to ‘have a go’.

• Active learning so that children are motivated. They learn to become involved, concentrate, keep trying (be resilient) and enjoy achieving

• Creating and thinking critically so that they have their own ideas, can make links in learning and can choose ways of doing things.

Learning takes place through a range of adult led and child initiated activities. Children take part in whole class and small group learning opportunities, throughout the day, with experienced adults. This takes place in the different settings of the school including the classroom the atrium, the Class One outdoor area, or outside in the playground or field or in the Library or sometimes at the Hub. Wherever possible, we take the children’s interests into account when planning, allowing for “in the moment” activities.

The curriculum for Early Years is organised into 7 Areas of Learning. There are Prime and Specific areas.

All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected. The Prime areas are the crucial foundations for engaging and promoting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, for building their capacity to form relationships and thrive.

The three Prime Areas are: Communication and Language, Physical Development, Personal, Social and Emotional Development

The four Specific Areas are: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design.

Communication and Language

There are two Early Learning Goals in this area:

Listening, Attention and Understanding: Children listen attentively in a range of situations. They listen to stories, accurately anticipating key events and respond to what they hear with relevant comments, questions or actions. They give their attention to what others say and respond appropriately, while engaged in another activity. Children follow instructions involving several ideas or actions. They answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about their experiences and in response to stories or events.

Speaking: Children express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs. They use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future. They develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas or events.

At Stow-on-the-Wold Primary School we believe that the ability to communicate effectively opens the doors to success in all other areas of learning. Children need to be fluent and confident in a range of situations and with a range of people. They need to be able to listen to the views of others, responding appropriately by questioning or commenting. Speech needs to be clear, ideally with eye contact made. Children take part in sessions where specific skills are taught. These skills are then rehearsed, in every area of learning. Effective listening and pronunciation is vital for learning phonics and time is spent supporting the correct sounding of each phoneme. Children need to be able to pronounce sounds and words correctly, as this has a direct impact on their phonic development. Parents are also inducted into correct phonic pronunciation in order to support their children’s literacy development.

Physical Development

There are two Early Learning Goals within this area:

Gross Motor Skills and Fine Motor Skills: Children show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements. They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing.

Children at Stow-on-the-Wold Primary School have many opportunities planned to develop effective fine and gross motor skills that will support a range of learning experiences from handwriting, and using a knife and fork effectively, to putting on PE kits and coats. These skills increase the children’s levels of independence and well-being.

Children have daily access to the Outdoor Area, allowing opportunities to develop gross motor skills in a wide range of activities. Here they are encouraged to challenge themselves and to take risks within a safe environment. Their self confidence grows as they learn from their mistakes. They also take part in PE sessions where specific skills are taught, through Dance, Gymnastics and Games .Provision is made daily to support developing fine motor control such as cutting activities, Finger Gym and using construction equipment to build models. Children also take part in handwriting activities tailored to suit their differing needs, with support for those who need enhanced provision

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

There are three Early Learning Goals within this area:

Building Relationships: Children play co-operatively, taking turns with others. They take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activity. They show sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings, and form positive relationships with adults and other children.

Managing Self: Children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. They manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently.

Self Regulation: Children talk about how they and others show feelings, talk about their own and others’ behaviour, and its consequences, and know that some behaviour is unacceptable. They work as part of a group or class, and understand and follow the rules. They adjust their behaviour to different situations, and take changes of routine in their stride.

The children learn about their rights and responsibilities. They learn that with adult support they can uphold their responsibilities and be outstanding citizens. Behaviour management is closely linked and children understand that they work for the good of the class, as well as for themselves. Circle times are effective in teaching children management skills around feelings, emotions and friendships.

Play activities and the problems children face during their play form a large part of our curriculum. For example, supporting children as they learn to share and take turns in a variety of situations and also guiding children, as they learn to make new friends and work through friendships issues that may develop.

The Year 6 “Buddies” help children in the playground, by showing their peers how to take turns, play fairly and give support when making new friends.

Literacy

There are three Early Learning Goals within this section:

Comprehension and Word Reading: Children read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately. They also read some common irregular words. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read.

Writing: Children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.

There are many opportunities in Class One for children to engage in activities that promote a love of books and writing. They enjoy taking part in story and rhyme sessions and exploring mark making, with a range of medium.

Children engage in activities that develop pencil control and they learn to write their names almost straight away.

Children are usually grouped in focus groups for reading, writing and phonics, enabling learning to be specific, targeted and personalised.

Phonic and handwriting sessions take place daily and are used to enhance the links between sounds, reading and writing. Planned weekly sessions of shared and guided reading take place in small groups or as individuals. We have replenished our reading books with modern, engaging and decodable texts which are matched to the Phonics taught in class.

Mathematics

There are two Early Learning Goals within this area:

Number and Numerical Pattern: Children count reliably with numbers from one to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number. Using quantities and objects, they add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer. They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.

In Mathematics, children learn to count, order, record and recognise numbers. Much Mathematics is embedded through work and play in other areas, when making and building things or through role play, for example. They develop skills in adding and subtracting, nd using numbers in problem solving situations in and around the classroom. Children explore shapes, and learn the vocabulary of Mathematics. They have further opportunities to compare measurements and to use non-standard measurements in their play.

People Culture and Communities: Children describe their immediate environment and can explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non fiction texts and maps.

Throughout the year, the children receive visits from people who work in our local community including firefighters and police officers, helping them to develop a better understanding and interest in different occupations and ways of life.

They know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.

We continually refer to our British Values of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs.

The Natural World: Our school has excellent natural facilities, with forest school areas and a pond, so the children have plenty of opportunities to explore the natural world around them, making observations, learning new vocabulary, drawing pictures of animals and plants and sorting materials. Through a variety of resources, they are able to compare Stow-on-the-Wold with contrasting environments, eg. the Arctic for our topic on Cold Places, “Frozen.”

The children understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, particularly the weather and the seasons and also changing states of matter.

Through various hands-on, practical tasks, children can explore why things happen and how things work. The children have the opportunity to learn about a range of technology, including use of the construction kits, class i-pads and programmable toys. Independence is encouraged alongside thorough e-safety training.