EYFS curriculum at Forest Fields

Aims/Intent

At Forest Fields Primary School we recognise that every child is an exceptional individual. We believe that all children deserve an education that is rich in wonder and memorable experiences that allows their natural creativity and curiosity to flourish.

We put children at the heart of all we do. We provide a secure foundation for future learning and development within a safe, stimulating and respectful environment that inspires exploration and encourages collaboration. We ensure that our children experience an ambitious and inclusive curriculum that educates in knowledge, skills and understanding. It is designed to be creative, inspiring and challenging, to provide all children with opportunities to be aspirational learners. We are passionate about creating opportunities for children to communicate more easily through developing language and communication skills and specifically teaching vocabulary. We create opportunities for children to communicate more easily through developing language and communication skills and specifically teaching vocabulary. Language theory research informs us that young children's language development is influenced by many factors, including having sensitive adults and older children around them who will listen and attend to their expressions and use and model appropriate language themselves. The research of Hart and Risley (1995) identifies a 30 million word gap, the findings from the Oxford Language Report recognises that the word gap has a significant impact on a child’s academic potential. We understand that language development is part of their holistic development, emerging from cognitive, emotional and social interactions. Therefore, the social and cultural environment, the people in it and their interactions are absolutely fundamental to language development. We wish our children to believe in themselves, their abilities and capabilities, to belong to the school learning community and the wider community.

Implementation / Pedagogy / Learning and teaching

 In the Early Years children are developing more rapidly, intellectually and socially, than at any other subsequent stage in their lives. This growth is, however, very individual and children vary greatly in their maturity in the different areas of development and each child enters the setting with a unique range of experiences, abilities and understanding. The educational experiences planned at Forest Fields Primary will take account of these individual achievements and needs. The aim of the Early Years Curriculum at Forest Fields Primary School is to nurture and build upon children's natural energy, enthusiasm, curiosity and sense of humour.

Staffing arrangements

We have 3 F2 classes: Valerians; Dahlias and Buddleias. Our teachers in F2 are Mrs Harper, Mrs Mirza, Mrs Davies and Miss Davis. We have three teaching assistants, Mrs Porter, Miss White and Miss Shaw

F1 children attend for either morning or afternoon sessions, both of which run for 3 hours. We offer 15 hours to all 3-year olds. Miss Dhillon teach F1 and Mrs Cooling and Mrs Swinscoe are the teaching assistants.

Curriculum Design:

Our Early Years curriculum is one that has been designed, tailored and enhanced specifically for the F1 and F2 children at Forest Fields Primary School based on educational theory and research. It aims to embed opportunities to develop social and cultural capital so that they develop a love of learning and confidence in their place in the world. Through well-chosen texts and experiences, children are provided with exciting opportunities to apply their learning in real life contexts and make links with the community around them as well as the wider world. There is a strong focus on the child as a whole person and support for the child’s overall development. Relationships and participation are central to learning. We understand that children develop and learn in many different ways that are socially and culturally approved and constructed. Our practitioners develop a respectful, secure, caring relationship with each and every child. We provide our children with the skills to build social capital through their relationships and friendships that they make with people from all different backgrounds with all different needs.

Please see an example below of one of our milestones

In F2, children receive a carefully balanced diet of directed teaching in Little Wandle Letter and Sounds Phonics sessions, Little Wandle Reading sessions, Creative Writing, Pen Patrol, Mathematics, Understanding of the World, Expressive Arts and Forest School which is complemented by daily extended continuous provision where they have the opportunity to put these skills into practice through independent application. To facilitate this, our highly skilled practitioners observe and identify “teachable moments” specific to that child through the modelling of language, modelling, demonstrating and explaining, exploring ideas and questioning, providing a narrative and setting challenges to measure understanding of each taught concept.

Daily Structure

In F2 the children come in to a morning RMC (Recall, Misconceptions and Catch-up) task. This is name recognition or name writing in the Autumn term and moves onto phonics and sentence writing as the year progresses. They have a daily phonics session and we use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds scheme. The children then have a Creative Writing session based on the text of the week. There is time for developing and rehearsing their skills in continuous provision in door and outdoor followed by maths input session. These sessions help to develop vital habits of learning: learning as a group, listening to the teacher, taking turns to answer, concentration etc.

In the afternoon we have maths RMC (Recall, Misconceptions and Catch-up) time then our Little Wandle Reading sessions, Big Question activities, Finger gym and Pen Patrol. There is a story time every day.

Impact:

At the end of EYFS we have the following expectations for our children, that they:

• are working towards the National Standards for GLD
• are kind, respectful and honest, demonstrate inclusive attitudes and have a sense of their role in our wider society
• 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
• develop a sense of self-awareness and become confident in their own abilities