Our Curriculum

Child Led Learning in Reception

We believe in the importance of learning in Reception as the foundation for future academic achievement and we recognise that interest and engagement of the children plays a pivotal role in this.

We have developed a planning structure which allows us to reflect the Early Years Principles.

A Unique Child

We ensure that all children feel safe and secure within our Foundation Stage Unit. All of our staff within the unit are qualified in Child Care and Development. Three teachers work within the unit and oversee the development of the children ensuring opportunities for all areas of development and cultural diversity are planned and delivered.

Positive Relationships

Each child within the unit is assigned a Key Worker who looks after their wellbeing and tracks their progress closely. The staff work hard to build relationships with all the children within the unit and meet regularly to discuss observations and plan next steps. A strong relationship between parents and staff is formed, this begins with home visits the term before the children start and continues through informal chats, coffee mornings, parent consultations, story café and stay and play sessions. Parents are encouraged to contribute towards their childs’ learning journey by writing star moments and sending them into school to be shared in class.

Enabling Environments

The Foundation Stage Unit has been set up to encourage the use of the three environments as a seamless flow. The two indoor classrooms have been planned to enable children to explore the resources available to them independently and initiate their own learning from them. The outdoor environment has been developed as a reflection of the indoor classrooms to enable the children who prefer to learn outside the same learning opportunities. Throughout the day the staff within the unit observe the learning taking place. They use these observations to plan the children’s next steps in learning, this informs the weekly planning.

Learning and Development

Within the EYFS Curriculum learning and development is identified within the three characteristics of learning. These characteristics must be reported on to parents at the end of the year.

Playing and Exploring	Active Learning	Creating and Thinking Critically
The children are encouraged to explore their environment and ask questions to find out more. They have the opportunity to revisit previous learning and the staff are skilled in moving the learning on through skilled questioning and challenging.	The whole class taught sessions are always active ensuring the children are involved in the learning through the games played. The environment for learning encourages the children to be active throughout the day.	The resources within the environment are set up in order for the children to initiate their own learning and engage in purposeful play allowing them to choose their own learning and make links between their ideas.

Curriculum Map

The staff within the Foundation Stage follow the EYFS curriculum as a long term plan. They plan themes following the children’s interests and identify the objectives taught retrospectively through discussions of observations made of the learning that has taken place. Next steps are identified weekly and fed into the planning cycle. The overarching theme is identified using the interests of the children observed during each week and changes regularly.

Assessment

All children within the Foundation Stage are assessed using the Foundation Stage Profile. Evidence of their achievements and progress is collected and recorded in their Learning Journey. Their progress towards the Early Learning Goals is tracked half termly and each child is judged against the goals at the end of the May, children should achieve the Expected level within the Early Learning Goals by this time. The data from the half termly assessments is collated and the predicted number of children to achieve GLD is tracked by the Foundation Stage Leader