Curriculum EYFS
Intent
Pupils benefit from meaningful learning across the curriculum. Our curriculum is ambitious and designed to provide all children with the knowledge, skills, self-belief and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. It is carefully planned to ensure learning experiences build on prior knowledge and what children can already do. It also takes strong account of what they cannot do so practitioners can build upon new skills and knowledge. Our curriculum matches the pupils’ needs in order to promote effective learning and is designed to engage and excite. It is strategically planned to ensure learning is cumulative and forms the foundation of skills and knowledge that children will need to achieve the Early Learning Goals. It also covers those that will be revisited throughout the EYFS and built upon in subsequent year groups as pupils progress through the school. To support our pupils, we put a strong focus on the development of vocabulary, the embedding of knowledge and the securing of personal, social and emotional skills that will allow children to flourish as individuals and as a collective.
We believe that play underpins the delivery of the curriculum. Through play, our pupils explore and develop learning experiences which help them make sense of the world. They practise and build up ideas, collaborate and think creatively, and have many opportunities to investigate and solve problems. They have the opportunity to think creatively alongside other children, as well as on their own and have many opportunities to communicate with others, as they investigate and solve problems. All children are involved with both groups and individual play, some initiated by adults, some by the children. They learn through being active learners working with a wide range of resources.
We believe that it is essential to view the outdoor and indoor areas as one learning environment. The status of the outdoor provision is equal to the indoor provision, as staff understand the importance of creating environments that support the intent of an ambitious, coherently planned and sequenced curriculum that incorporates the seven areas of learning. Both indoor and outdoor environments are meticulously planned to ensure the full coverage of the curriculum, with a high emphasis on the development of social and emotional skills, communication, literacy and numeracy skills. Such purposeful environments encourage pupils to take managed risks, immerse themselves in real and imaginary worlds, and challenge themselves as they play and learn.
Implementation
We follow the Early Years Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. This Framework specifies the requirements for learning and development in the Early Years and is organised into seven areas of learning and development: three prime areas and four specific areas. These are reflected in our long-term, medium-term and short-term planning.
PRIME AREAS:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) – involves learning how to work and play,
co-operate and function in a group, develop personal and moral values, understand themselves and others.
This is a precondition for success in all other areas of learning.
Communication and Language (CL) – involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment, to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves, and to speak and listen in a range of situations.
Physical Development (PD) – involves the development of physical control, mobility, and awareness of space and manipulative skills in both indoor and outdoor environments.
SPECIFIC AREAS:
Mathematics – involves the development of mathematical understanding and the foundations of numeracy with a deep understanding of numbers to 10.
Literacy - involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems and other written materials) to ignite their interest. There is a particular focus on comprehension of stories.
Understanding of the World – involves developing knowledge of their environment, themselves, other people in their lives and features of the natural and made world. This forms the foundation for later work in Science, History, Geography, Design Technology and Computing.
Expressive Arts and Design – involves children being encouraged to address their curiosity through Art, Music, Design Technology (construction) and dance.
Practitioners use the Development Matters document alongside carefully planned knowledge organisers to plan and deliver the Early Years curriculum. The knowledge that children will learn during their time in the EYFS is organised into awe inspiring topics that change half-termly. To ensure that this knowledge is sequenced appropriately and that it is progressive across the Early Years and beyond, knowledge organisers are used to structure the knowledge that pupils will learn. Knowledge organisers also include the key vocabulary that children will need to learn as well as key questions that practitioners will pose.
To find out more about the skills that the pupils will be learning over their time in the Early Years, please look through the Development Matters document.
Curriculum Overview/Long Term Plans
Great consideration is given to ‘why’ and ‘when’ a particular topic is chosen to ensure children make links, are excited to learn and are provided with opportunities to expand their horizons. The year begins with a focus on the individuals in the class through the topic ‘Ourselves’, where the children focus on what is familiar to them; themselves and their families. Then throughout the year, the children’s understanding slowly expands, by moving onto topics which focus on the local area and then move onto a wider understanding of their place within the world. This enables us to provide engaging and enriching learning opportunities which our children have a keen interest in and are familiar with. Teachers use medium term planning documents to ensure that all seven areas of learning are covered under the final topics chosen.
View the topics that the children will learn in our curriculum overview/long term plans below:
Medium Term Planning and Knowledge Organisers
Our medium-term planning documents map the learning objectives in Literacy, Maths, Understanding the World, and Expressive Arts and Design over the coming half term. It provides a guide from which learning objectives for all areas of learning are taken. A weekly text is highlighted on the MTP and all activities in the provision are linked to this text, providing not only an immersive and stimulating classroom environment, but also a text rich environment.
This rigorous planning procedure ensures that skills are carefully monitored to support progression. In addition to the progression of skills, the progression of knowledge is also planned for. Each topic is represented in a knowledge organiser. These documents support the weekly planning for each topic, providing a structure of key questions, information, vocabulary and facts. It is also clear using the knowledge organisers where the children have been exposed to the knowledge previously and where they will encounter it again, supporting the process of developing long-term memory of this knowledge through repeated exposure. The knowledge and vocabulary for each half-termly topic is noted in the relevant curriculum progression documents, tracking the knowledge children learn across their entire learning journey at Tidemill.
View examples of our knowledge organisers below:
Phonics and Reading
At Tidemill, we follow the lesson structure and sequence from the Little Wandle, Letters and Sounds revised scheme. Phonics is taught daily as discreet 20–30 minute sessions. Phonics sessions have a strong focus on the application of skills and all children move at the same pace. Carefully planned daily keep up sessions are provided for children who require extra support to ensure they are not falling behind their peers. All staff are highly trained in the teaching of phonics and are closely supported by the Phonics, Reading and Writing subject leads.
Click here for more information about supporting your child with phonics.
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