EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE

Our Curriculum for Early Years Foundation Stage is centred on the three prime, and four specific areas of learning and development from the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum guidance. Below is a brief overview of the key skills that each area of learning will address.

Prime Areas

• Communication and language development: We give children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak, listen and engage in a range of back-and-forth interactions. We teach children lots of new vocabulary through topic and other adult led sessions as well as exchanges in continuos provision. 

• Physical development: We provide opportunities for young children to develop their fine motor skills through manipulating small objects such as play dough, threading, peg boards. We provide opportunities for young children to be active and interactive and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement through PE lessons and in continuous provision throughout the day to develop their gross motor skills. 

• Personal, social and emotional development: We help children to develop a positive sense of themselves and others and to form positive relationships and develop respect for others. We help children develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour and have confidence in their own abilities.

Specific Areas

• Literacy development: We encourage children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Every day, we teach children phonics where they learn sounds which enable them to read and write. We follow Mckie Mastery phonics. If you would like to learn more about our phonic scheme then please ask Miss Seddon. Children have access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest.

• Mathematics: We provide children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems and describing shapes, spaces, and measures.

• Understanding the world: We guide children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, communities and the environment.

• Expressive arts and design: We enable children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. We  also provide opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, design and technology.

 

The prime areas are fundamental to children's successful learning in the specific areas. The specific areas cannot be encountered in isolation. A strong foundation in the prime areas is essential as evidence shows that, if it is not securely in place by age five, it holds children back in other areas of learning and development.

Children will be observed daily in their activities to enable us to support each child's learning journey individually. Most of these observations can be found on Tapestry. The support provided for your child will be appropriate to an individual child’s level of development and progress.

Children are treated as individual learners, and the practitioners within Reception at Welbourne Primary school, will introduce aspects of the specific areas of the curriculum to your child as we judge appropriate. This can be earlier for some than others.

By clicking on the headings above, you can see the objectives your child is aiming to have met by the end of the Foundation Stage.

If you have any queries about the curriculum observations or your child, please come and see me or feel free to email me at: office@wel.education or message on Class Dojo.