Skip to content

Curriculum – Foundation EYFS

Curriculum – Foundation Years (Nursery and Reception)

At Knowsley Village school we follow the revised EYFS Framework across our Nursery and Reception class.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the statutory standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5 years old. The Development Matters document is also used to support assessment, tracking and planning children’s next steps. 

There are 7 Areas of Learning which we follow:

Communication and Language

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Physical Development

Literacy

Mathematics

Understanding the World

Expressive Arts and Design

The content of our curriculum has been carefully selected to engage our pupils, whilst ensuring there is progression from nursery to reception in this way we are able to provide our children with the best possible start to their early education.  We have high expectations of all of our children and this is reflected in our child-led, broad and rich curriculum.  Our Early years staff evaluate the impact of the curriculum through regularly checking what the children know and can do whilst also taking into account their needs and interests – their next steps are planned and progress is carefully monitored.  By revisiting carefully selected content we allow our children to consolidate, extend and deepen their knowledge and understanding. 

A strength of our Early Years is the positive relationships that are formed which impact on the children’s learning, development and well-being.  Children are engaged in their learning and eager to explore, happily coming into school each day. The learning environment is accessible to all children and promotes independence, creativity and curiosity.  All aspects of learning are celebrated and children enjoy exploring and engaging with the opportunities provided and adults around them.  The learning environment promotes our values of “Respect for All” and adults establish consistent rules and routines that allow children to feel confident, secure and ready to face challenges. 

EYPP funding is used effectively to ensure high pupil to staff ratios, allowing quality interactions, opportunities and facilitating to take place daily.  Targeted support is put in place for children who need extra support.

INTENT

  • Our EYFS is consistent across our nursery and reception provision, with seamless access to both indoors and outdoors, and consistency in approach.  
  • We provide a high quality, continuous play based curriculum, were all children make progress from their starting points. 
  • We provide a careful balance of child-initiated and adult-led learning using continuous provision, whole class teaching and small group activities across the setting.
  • The curriculum follows Curriculum Maestro topics and builds on what our children know and is carefully sequenced to build on skills and knowledge that children need for their future learning.
  • All children in our setting are challenged and staff share the high expectations of them all.
  • The children are encouraged to become independent learners and supported to achieve this in many ways including modelling, explaining, exploring, facilitating and questioning, building up their confidence and resilience. 
  • Children and adults demonstrate high levels of respect, care and concern for each other.  Children develop and awareness of how their behaviour can impact on others, high expectations of behaviour are established and we promote an atmosphere where all children can thrive.
  • Developing speech, language and communication skills is a consistent priority across EYFS, we provide a language rich environment and provide whole class, group and 1:1 opportunities to develop these skills.

IMPLEMENTATION 

  • High quality adult interactions provide children with the opportunity to learn new and extend known vocabulary.
  • The children’s learning opportunities are developed through well planned and organised continuous provision, also supplemented with specific whole class and group teaching for Read Write Inc, Maths and other areas of learning.
  • Curriculum Maestro topics are closely matched to the children’s interests and these areas of learning are taught through a topic based approach to inspire and engage our children. Staff are highly skilled at adapting planning to meet the needs of all of the children, so that they are able to achieve and succeed at their own level.
  • Staff have a good understanding of how children learn and have a sound knowledge of all curriculum areas and are able to assess the children’s learning and identify next steps which can be planned for. CPD for staff is available to continue to build on their knowledge and understanding.
  • Wellcomm speech and language programme is used to screen all pupils on entry into Reception class, and if needed a tailored programme of support is planned and delivered by staff trained to deliver high quality speech and language programme of support. 
  • Challenges are built into our continuous provision, with the children being encouraged to take on our daily challenges to extend and consolidate their learning in a variety of area. 
  • Our Early years promotes a love of reading, with reading corners, a reading shed and books being used to promote many other curriculum areas. It is a language rich environment, with signs, writing, mark making and reading being promoted in all areas throughout the day. 
  • Through play and active learning children are given the opportunity to become creative and critical thinkers. They develop their concentration, engaging with a particular aspect of learning longer, and becoming more resilient. The children are happy, determined and work hard to achieve in all areas of their learning, feeling safe and secure with the daily routines in place.
  • Our relationship with parents / carers is a strong one which we value, communication is key to supporting the children. We use Seesaw to record children’s learning opportunities and communicate with parents. This communication involves sending a weekly newsletter, also day to day observations are uploaded and parents have the opportunity to comment on these and send their own observations too. Seesaw is also used to share ideas on how to support their children at home and information on areas being covered in class. Termly meetings are also held where parents are able to meet staff to discuss progress and next steps.

IMPACT

  • In our setting all children develop skills and knowledge across all areas of learning, including their speech and understanding of language.
  • They also develop a love of books and reading, listening to a wide range of rhymes, songs, stories and information texts. Early comprehension skills are embedded and children are given the opportunity to share their views, ask and answer questions developing early comprehension skills.
  • Early Maths skills and concepts are embedded through a maths mastery approach, the children are introduced to the White Rose Maths scheme of learning which is used across school and this allows the children to confidently move into the Year 1 curriculum.
  • By providing our children with continuous learning opportunities they are able to develop their fine and gross motor skills needed for their continued development. These opportunities include threading, construction, mark making, riding bikes and scooters, balancing beams and all aspects of outdoor play.
  • Children make good progress from their starting points in EYFS and historically perform at least in line with children of the same age in our Local Authority.
  • Children with SEND, are supported through adapted play plans by skilled staff who are able to adapt the curriculum and the environment to meet the individual child’s needs.
  • When children leave our reception class they are ready and prepared for the curriculum in Year 1. They have been introduced to the phonics programme used through school RWI and also White Rose Maths scheme of learning. The children have solid foundations on which they are ready and able to confidently build.

You can read the latest EYFS handbook and frameworks by clicking on the links below: 

Statutory guidance Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework

Development Matters Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage.

Nursery Class

Reception Class

Skip to content