Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

"In early years, children receive an excellent start to their educational journey. Through a well-rounded curriculum, the children learn and remember more. Thanks to highly skilled, nurturing adults, their language development soars. They are encouraged to express themselves, ask questions and engage in meaningful conversations. The learning environment sparks curiosity and wonder, inviting children to explore, discover and create. It is a place where their imaginations take flight, fostering a love of reading and igniting a passion for learning."

- Ofsted June 2023

Intent

At Bethersden Primary School we adhere to the guidance stated in The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage March 2021. As stated in the framework we are dedicated to the belief that ‘every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential’.

We are an inclusive learning community and our vision is to provide an educational setting in which our children feel safe, are offered a curriculum that is ambitious and a wide range of exciting and memorable experiences.

We understand that for a child to make good progress we must ensure that their wellbeing is fostered and curiosity to learn is ignited. Each unique child will come into reception with an individual starting point. Despite this, we aim high and reach for the stars for every single child and encourage them to reach their own personal excellence.

At Bethersden Primary School we aim to ensure that our continuous provision and learning environments both indoor and out provide opportunities for all three characteristics of effective teaching and learning identified by the EYFS Framework. These characteristics are:

Playing and Exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
Active Learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
Creating and Thinking Critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things

In addition, we value outdoor learning as much as indoor. We believe that a nature inspired outdoor approach in the early years supports our vision as a school, provides meaningful learning experiences and allows children to engage with their ‘hands, hearts and heads’ - Juliet Robertson, Messy Maths.

We also value and encourage parental engagement and we work in partnership with parents and carers to develop and nurture their children, to support them to flourish in everything they do with support from our online learning journal Tapestry and opportunities for our families to come into the classroom and experience their child’s learning journey first hand.

Implementation

According to the ‘Good Practice in Early Education’ Research Report, January 2017, good practice in relation to curriculum planning includes approaches that are:

Tailored to individual needs
Capitalise on children’s interests to achieve excellent learning outcomes
Flexible and responsive so that plans are changed or adapted to follow the interests of the children and respond to external events
Informed by on-going assessment
Grounded in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework

In order to achieve our intent at Bethersden Primary School we follow the Cornerstones Curriculum which adheres to the EYFS Framework. The Cornerstones Curriculum is ambitious, concept-driven and knowledge-rich and is built on a sequenced knowledge and skills framework, the curriculum is informed by the latest findings from cognitive science about how children learn best. In addition, it can be easily adapted to meet the unique needs of our pupils and our school. The Cornerstones Curriculum in the EYFS at Bethersden allows us to deliver impactful and engaging lessons through a variety of projects and companion projects. Each project is delivered through a series of well-planned lessons built around Cornerstones’ four-stage pedagogy Engage-Develop-Innovate-Express.

Also, at Bethersden we carefully plan for both our indoor and outdoor classrooms that ignite curiosity and risk taking where a child knows that mistakes made can be turned into opportunities of learning and growth. It is important that our learning environments enable children to explore previous and new learning whilst following their own interests and being introduced to new opportunities to broaden experiences. We also ensure our EYFS team do not control the play and learning but instead enhance through a thoughtful environment, child lead curriculum, caring ethos and high-quality adult interaction and questioning. Children at Bethersden will be given the opportunity to play and learn outside of the classroom every day, no matter the weather.

All of which is underpinned and secured through our six school values; Belonging, Compassion, Respect, Collaboration, Creativity and Resilience.

Impact

The national expectation is for children to achieve a ‘Good Level of Development’ (GLD), at the end of EYFS. GLD is when a child achieves ‘expected milestones within all strands within the prime areas of learning as well as all strands within literacy and maths’.

At the end of the EYFS at Bethersden we expect most children to have made GLD. In addition, we anticipate that our children will reflect the ‘Excellent 8’ dispositions in order to prepare them for their transition into Year 1 and for their learning journey throughout their years at Bethersden.

EYFS 2024

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Intent

Implementation

Impact

EYFS 2024

EYFS Knowledge & Skills Progression

Knowledge Organisers and Key Vocabulary

EYFS Overview

EYFS Policy