Beech Street Community Primary School

Early Years Curriculum

Intent

At Beech Street Primary School we offer a curriculum rich in language and memorable experiences. We work hard to provide a stimulating environment that provides exciting opportunities, promotes challenge, exploration, adventure and a real love of learning. It is our intent that all children develop physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally in an environment which promotes inclusion and values all cultures, communities and people.

We have high expectations for our children and aim for them to be confident independent learners, to believe in themselves and interact positively with others.

We understand that play is an integral part of learning and this is at the heart of our early years curriculum. We believe that the correct mix of adult directed and child initiated play ensures the best outcomes for pupils.

We recognise the crucial role that early year’s education has to play in providing firm foundations upon which the rest of a child’s education is successfully based and understand our role in preparing children for their next stage of learning. Warm, positive relationships between staff and children, consistent routines and strong relationships with parents and carers are also key.

Communication and Language and Literacy

Below are 2 examples of our quality rich texts in Nursery…Owl Babies and Kipper’s Toy box.

Some of our Early Years Children enjoying books and puppets in our school library.

Implementation

At Beech Street Primary School we meet the welfare requirements as set out in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and actively safeguard and promote the welfare of all of our children.

We understand the huge impact acquiring a wide and varied vocabulary at an early age can have on a child's future prospects and so create a ‘language rich’ environment through songs, nursery rhymes and the use of quality texts. We are very proud of our strong commitment to 5- a-day ensuring that 4 stories are shared each day in school and encouraging our parents and carers to share that all important 5th story at home. We believe that stories are so important in the lives of our young children, we even ask our parents to sign a pledge to support us with their reading and language journey. Providing time for quality interactions between adults and peers is extremely important, well trained staff ensure that interactions are positive and progressive, allowing children to flourish and gather words at pace in order to become confident communicators. We also use the “Welcomm” programme to support our children’s communication and language skills.

Children are encouraged to not only become confident early readers through enjoyment of books but also through the systematic teaching of phonics. Children in EYFS follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised program to ensure they make rapid progress in applying their phonic knowledge to support reading skills.

We also want our early years children to become confident mathematicians who can apply what they have learnt to real life experiences. Children develop their maths mastery understanding and skills through a mix of direct teaching and exploration using the White Rose scheme.

We have built our school environment to enable our children to strengthen their core muscles through physical play, children spend time outdoors in their natural environment in all weathers. They develop through wonderful, exploratory, sensory experiences in our outdoor kitchen, giant sandpit and bike track.

The curriculum is taught through topics which are enriched with classroom enhancements, trips and visitors. Topics are also supported by quality key texts. These are chosen carefully to encourage children's speech, language and communication development.

We understand the importance of parental engagement and believe that our parents have a crucial role to play in their children's education. We work hard to create strong partnerships between home and school. Through Class Dojo, Parents receive regular newsletters to inform them of what their child is learning each half term. The staff also share photographs and videos of the enhanced areas of learning and regularly share photographs of the children playing, interacting and exploring.

If parents and carers would like information about where your child should be developmentally, this is a really useful guide...

https://foundationyears.org.uk/files/2015/03/4Children_ParentsGuide_2015_WEB.pdf

Above are some of our high quality texts that we share and explore in Reception.

Impact

Our curriculum and its delivery ensure that all children, from their own starting points make good progress. Children in our early years, on average, arrive with much lower starting points than national. During their time with us children make good progress towards the national expectation for a good level of development at the end of the year. Pupils also make good progress toward their age-related expectations both academically and socially, developing a sense of themselves before transitioning into Year One.

Children develop their characteristics of learning and are able to apply their knowledge to a range of situations making links and explaining their ideas and understanding.
Children are confident to take risks and discuss their successes and failures with peers and adults drawing on their experiences to improve or adjust what they are doing.