EYFS Curriculum
Curriculum – Early Years
Our Early Years curriculum is based primarily upon Development Matters and the Foundation Stage Early Learning Goals, which set out the expectations for children to achieve by the end of Reception. We recognise that children enter our setting with varied experiences, and we aim to plan and deliver a carefully considered curriculum which meets the particular needs of all our pupils.
It is our aim to provide an enriched, purposeful and stimulating learning environment indoors and outdoors, which promotes exploration, challenge and a love for learning. We value play as an important part of learning and balance adult-directed tasks with opportunities for child-initiated play. We understand the importance of early education in providing the secure foundations for which the rest of a child’s learning is based. We encourage an environment where children and adults have mutual respect for each other.
At St John’s Chapel Primary and Wearhead Primary Schools, we offer 30 hours of preschool provision from the term after a child’s third birthday. Our preschool children are taught with our Reception children as part of our EYFS/KS1 unit.
The EYFS Framework (2021) explains how and what children in our EYFS will be learning to support their development.
Four guiding principles shape our Early Years practice:
- every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
- children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
- children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
- importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates.
Our EYFS pupils learn skills, acquire new knowledge and demonstrate their understanding through seven areas of learning and development.
Early development for the youngest children in EYFS focuses on the following prime areas:
- Communication and language;
- Physical development;
- Personal, social and emotional development.
These prime areas are those most essential for children’s healthy development and future learning.
As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in four specific areas:
- Literacy;
- Mathematics;
- Understanding the World;
- Expressive arts and design.
These seven areas are used to plan our EYFS children’s learning and activities. Our EYFS staff members teach and support the EYFS children, making sure that the activities taking place are suited to each child’s unique needs.
Children in our EYFS typically learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside.
Throughout the EYFS, children are assessed in 17 aspects of the EYFS curriculum. At the end of Reception, their progress is assessed against the Early Learning Goals.
Prime areas of learning and their associated Early Learning Goals
Communication and Language
ELG: Listening, Attention and Understanding
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Listen attentively and respond to what they hear with relevant questions, comments and actions when being read to and during whole class discussions and small group interactions;
- Make comments about what they have heard and ask questions to clarify their understanding;
- Hold conversation when engaged in back-and-forth exchanges with their teacher and peers.
ELG: Speaking
- Children at the expected level of development will:
- Participate in small group, class and one-to-one discussions, offering their own ideas, using recently introduced vocabulary;
- Offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems when appropriate;
- Express their ideas and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past, present and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
ELG: Self-Regulation
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Show an understanding of their own feelings and those of others, and begin to regulate their behaviour accordingly;
- Set and work towards simple goals, being able to wait for what they want and control their immediate impulses when appropriate;
- Give focused attention to what the teacher says, responding appropriately even when engaged in activity, and show an ability to follow instructions involving several ideas or actions.
ELG: Managing Self
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Be confident to try new activities and show independence, resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge;
- Explain the reasons for rules, know right from wrong and try to behave accordingly;
- Manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs, including dressing, going to the toilet and understanding the importance of healthy food choices.
ELG: Building Relationships
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Work and play cooperatively and take turns with others;
- Form positive attachments to adults and friendships with peers;
- Show sensitivity to their own and to others’ needs.
Physical Development
ELG: Gross Motor Skills
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Negotiate space and obstacles safely, with consideration for themselves and others;
- Demonstrate strength, balance and coordination when playing;
- Move energetically, such as running, jumping, dancing, hopping, skipping and climbing.
ELG: Fine Motor Skills
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Hold a pencil effectively in preparation for fluent writing Ð using the tripod grip in almost all cases;
- Use a range of small tools, including scissors, paint brushes and cutlery;
- Begin to show accuracy and care when drawing.
Literacy
ELG: Comprehension
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary;
- Anticipate (where appropriate) key events in stories;
- Use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems and during role-play.
ELG: Word Reading
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs;
- Read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending;
- Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.
ELG: Writing
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed;
- Spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a letter or letters;
- Write simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others.
Mathematics
ELG: Number
- Children at the expected level of development will:
- Have a deep understanding of number to 10, including the composition of each number;
- Subitise (recognise quantities without counting) up to 5;
- Automatically recall (without reference to rhymes, counting or other aids) number bonds up to 5 (including subtraction facts) and some number bonds to 10, including double facts.
ELG: Numerical Patterns
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Verbally count beyond 20, recognising the pattern of the counting system;
- Compare quantities up to 10 in different contexts, recognising when one quantity is greater than, less than or the same as the other quantity;
- Explore and represent patterns within numbers up to 10, including evens and odds, double facts and how quantities can be distributed equally.
Understanding the World
ELG: Past and Present
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society;
- Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class;
- Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling.
ELG: People, Culture and Communities
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps;
- 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;
- Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and when appropriate maps
ELG: The Natural World
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants;
- Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class;
- Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter.
Expressive Arts and Design
ELG: Creating with Materials
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function;
- Share their creations, explaining the process they have used;
- Make use of props and materials when role playing characters in narratives and stories.
ELG: Being Imaginative and Expressive
- Children at the expected level of development will:
- Invent, adapt and recount narratives and stories with peers and their teacher;
- Sing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs;
- Perform songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others, and Ð when appropriate Ð try to move in time with music.