Early Years Foundation Stage 

Intent – Why do we teach what we teach? 

At St Patrick’s we place great value on the development of children as individuals and providing them with the skills, knowledge and understanding they need to prepare them for the challenges in Key Stage One and beyond. Our aim in the EYFS is to build strong foundations rooted in academic success as well as moral and spiritual development, so that ultimately our pupils can be successful throughout their education and go on to be active citizens of society with a passion for life-long learning.  

Our curriculum offers the cultural capital our pupils need so that they can gain the knowledge, skills and understanding they require for success. They can only do that if we embed the right habits for learning through the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning – Play and Exploration, Active Learning and Creative and Critical Thinking.  

At St Patrick’s, we follow the four guiding principles from the EYFS Framework that shape our practice within Early Years settings.  

• Every pupil is a unique pupil, who is consistently learning and can be resilient, capable, confident, and self-assured. 

• Pupils learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships. 

• Pupils 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. Pupils benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers. 

• Importance of learning and development. Pupils develop and learn at different rates. 

These are central to us creating a Foundation Stage that starts with the pupil, supports, and develops the role of parents, offers a high-quality environment, and provides pupils with exciting contexts for their learning. To ensure pupils make the best progress, it is our intent to take into consideration their starting points and the needs of pupils as they begin their learning journey. Every pupil has access to a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum which prepares them for now and for the future in terms of opportunities and experiences. Following personal interests and individual needs, allows us to plan and provide opportunities throughout our EYFS curriculum to support learning and development and achieve their next steps. 

Many of our pupils have English as an additional language and we value the contribution this can bring to our setting. As such, beginning in Nursery we prioritise personal, social and emotional development and communication and language in our curriculum.   Our enabling environment and adult interactions support the children as they begin to link learning to their play and exploration. As the pupils move into Reception, we help pupils set and reflect on their own goals by aiming high and developing a love of reading, writing and number.  This is delivered through a holistic curriculum which maximises opportunities for meaningful cross-curricular links and learning experiences as well as promoting the unique child by offering extended periods of play and sustained thinking following children’s interests and ideas.  We value imagination and creativity and seek to create a sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning through a vibrant continuous indoor and outdoor provision, alongside trips, visits and regular forest school sessions.  

Implementation – How do we teach what we teach? 

The core of our EYFS curriculum is the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, which is supported by Development Matters, Read Write Inc, and the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile.

The pupils will learn new skills, acquire new knowledge, and demonstrate understanding through the seven areas of the EYFS curriculum: 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development 

Physical Development 

Communication and Language 

Literacy 

Mathematics 

Understanding the World 

Expressive Arts and Design 

EYFS have a curriculum map that outlines key areas of learning with an enquiry led focus. This enables us to ensure that pupils experience a curriculum that is broad and ambitious that develops their vocabulary and prepares them for their next stage of learning. 

Pupils learn through a balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities. The timetable is carefully structured so that children have directed teaching in maths and phonics everyday with weekly sessions to focus on PSED. Our school’s approach to teaching early reading is through the Read Write Inc programme which ensures pupils learn though synthetic phonics to read words and simple sentences accurately by the end of Reception. All staff are trained in Read Write Inc and ensure that pupils practice their reading from books that match their phonics knowledge. Opportunities to develop maths skills are carefully planned following the White Rose Maths scheme using concrete resources and models. It builds on prior learning and real-life experiences. RE is taught weekly through our Catholic teaching programme, The Way, The Truth and the Life. 

Children are provided with plenty of time to engage in ‘exploration’ throughout the variety of experiences carefully planned to engage and challenge them in the provision. The curriculum is planned for the inside and outside classrooms and equal importance is given to learning in both areas. The curriculum offer and environment is designed to allow children opportunity to revisit and embed knowledge, This enables our pupils to know more and remember more ready for future learning.  

The Reception baseline assessment is carried out within the first six weeks of the Autumn term and is an activity-based assessment of pupils’ starting point in language, communication and literacy and mathematics. Throughout the Nursery and Reception years as part of the learning and teaching process, pupils will be assessed in relation to their progress towards Development Matters and the Early Learning Goals. These judgements are made based on accumulative observations and in-depth knowledge of the pupils acquired through ongoing assessment. These ongoing assessments are used to inform planning and next steps in teaching and learning for all pupils throughout the year. End of year assessments are finalised during the summer term, summarising each pupil’s development at that point against the Early Learning Goals and Development Matters. To record the children’s achievements and highlight next steps or concerns, we use the Tapestry Online Learning Journal.  

Impact – how do we know what pupils have learnt and how well they have learnt it? 

Baseline: Prior to children starting, staff spend time gathering information from the child’s parents, previous settings and read previous learning journeys to gain an understanding of the whole child and where they are at. During the first half term in Nursery or Reception, all staff use ongoing assessments, observations and conversations with the child to develop a baseline assessment. This identifies each individuals starting points in all areas so we can plan experiences to ensure progress. The following baseline assessments are also carried out. The RBA (Statutory Reception Baseline Assessment) This assessment focuses on ‘Language, Communication and Literacy,’ and ‘Mathematics.’ The purpose of this is to show the progress children make from Reception until the end of KS2.  

Ongoing Observation: Observations are used to inform weekly planning and identify children’s next steps. Observations are uploaded on to Tapestry and shared with the supporting parents and carers. This formative assessment does not involve prolonged periods of time away from the children and excessive paper work. Staff draw on their knowledge of the child and their own expert professional judgements through discussions with other practitioners, photographs and physical examples such as a child’s drawing / making. Parents and carers are also able to contribute to their child’s journal throughout the EYFS. 

Assessment: Phonics is assessed half termly to quickly identify pupils that are not making expected progress. Our aim is for children to ‘keep up’ rather than ‘catch up’ where possible. Assessments are completed three times per year and shared with parents. In Summer Term 2, the EYFSP is completed where the teacher judges whether the child has met each of the 17 ELG’s. They will be assessed as either ‘emerging’ or ‘expected.’ 

Impact is also evident through successful transitions into Year 1. Children leave the EYFS stage with the skills, knowledge and confidence to continue their journey as scientists, historians, artists and geographers in their future education.