EYFS
Bidston Village Primary School

'Hi my name is Mr Blagg and I am the Early Years Lead at Bidston Village. I am currently the teacher in Nursery but I work very closely with the 2's room, Sunflowers and both Reception classes. As part of the leadership team I am working closely with all subject leaders and my aim is to continue to develop new ways of learning through 'hands on' and explorative experiences, continually adapting these to the children's interests. We hope to instill all children who come to our early years setting with a love of learning, a love of school and a 'can do attitude'. I am happy to meet with any early years parents to discuss any matters concerning our provision.  

Curriculum Intent

The aim of the curriculum at Bidston Village is to provide a literacy-rich opportunities that are broad and balanced to meet the needs of the children in our Church community.

Our EYFS provision sets the foundations for our Christian values within all early learning experiences that take place in order to enable each individual to meet their full potential spiritually, personally, emotionally, physically, intellectually and creatively. We aim to motivate and inspire our youngest learners right from the start, giving them the firm foundations to flourish in their primary education and succeed in life.

Each child is valued for uniqueness and we strive to build upon this through our positive learning environment and interactions.  Our curriculum is well planned to ensure a wide range of opportunities are provided that inspire, interest and excite learning. Our curriculum is well planned to meet the needs of all children, recognising that children learn at different rates.

We aim for every child to make good progress from whatever their starting point, and we celebrate their success and achievements as a school community.  Our curriculum meets the needs of all children recognising that all children learn at different rates, and bring a wide range of experiences and backgrounds.

We prepare children to reach the Early Learning goals at the end of the Foundation Stage and ensure children make at least good progress from their starting points.

We want our curriculum to be broad and enriching to allow our pupils to experience a wide range of opportunities and expose them to as much as possible. 

The importance of a love for learning is vital so we aim to encourage the characteristics of effective learning right from the start. We want our pupils to develop resilience and become capable, confident and self-assured. 

Our strong focus on good communication and oracy is intrinsic to our provision, we recognise the importance of speaking and listening as a basis for success.  Rich language experiences underpin everything we do in all areas of learning.  Every child’s voice is valued and respected.

We take pride in creating a highly inclusive environment, where children of all abilities demonstrate high levels of enjoyment in their education, and all children are nurtured and supported.

 Implementation

Our early years provision follows the statutory guidance from the Early year foundation stage (eyfs) statutory framework

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2

Our planning and assessment is guided by the use of Development Matters and Birth to Five Matters documents.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/development-matters--2

https://birthto5matters.org.uk/

We actively safeguard and promote the welfare of all of our children. We recognise that children will learn most effectively when they are healthy, safe and secure, when their individual needs are met and when they have positive relationships with the adults who care for them.

We aim to provide a setting that encompasses a safe and stimulating environment where children are able to enjoy learning and grow in confidence and independence.

Our Nursery and Reception classes follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and work towards the Early Learning Goals.

 The 7 areas of learning are:

· Personal, Social and Emotional Development

 · Physical Development

· Communication and Language development

· Literacy

 · Mathematics

 · Understanding the World

 · Expressive Arts and Design

The three prime areas of PSED, PD and Communication and Language are the firm foundations starting in our 2 year old provision.  We work hard to support these areas to enable the skills and concepts within the specific areas to be fully taught as pupils join nursery, aged 3.

Our themes are driven from child-centred topics based on providing our pupils with ‘enticing experiences’ which motivate the children, and are deeply rooted in the love of stories and reading. We aim for our learning to be sequential, allow for mastery and enable pupils to build on prior learning.

Subject knowledge of the EYFS curriculum is strong among all practitioners and is used to plan a broad, balanced and progressive learning environment and curriculum for all of our pupils.

We use schemes to support this progression including RWI for phonics, Pathways to write, Mastering Number NCTEM and White Rose maths.  We use Jigsaw and My Happy Mind to enable all elements of PSED to be taught directly.

RE is based on the Chester Diocese syllabus.

Nursery and reception classes set out their curriculum on a long-term plan that is reviewed yearly.  This ensure key skills and concepts are covered but there is an element of flexibility to allow for in the moment planning based on high levels of interest from the children.

Continuous provision is organised to allow for all children to learn effectively through play.

Impact

Our children have varied and diverse starting points. Therefore, we have high expectations to ensure that points all children make ‘strong progress’ across all of the areas of the EYFS curriculum. Progress is evident in individual books, floor-books and internal data.

Monitoring of progress takes place throughout the year.  With termly pupil progress tracking, based on formative assessments.  These assessments enable all children to be supported with their next steps, and pupils who need further support to be identified.

At the end of EYFS our children;

·         are happy and confident,

·         have made good progress with many displaying strong communication skills, both written and verbal.

·         listen respectfully and with tolerance to the views of others,

·         take pride in all that they do, always striving to do their best,

·         demonstrate emotional resilience and the ability to persevere when they encounter challenge,

·         show good levels of fluency in number,

·         develop a sense of self-awareness and become confident in their own abilities,

·         are kind, respectful and honest, demonstrate inclusive attitudes and have a sense of their role in our wider society.

From their own starting points, children make good progress academically and socially, developing a sense of themselves so that they are well prepared for Key Stage 1.