Curriculum 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 but also takes strong account of what they cannot do so practitioners can build upon new skills and knowledge.

Our curriculum matches the pupil’s 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 will be revisited throughout the EYFS and built upon in subsequent year groups as pupil’s progress through the school.   

At Tidemill 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.

To support our pupils, we place 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.

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 it is organised into seven areas of learning and development:

Prime Areas

· Personal, Social and Emotional Development

· Physical Development

· Communication and Language development

Specific Areas

· Literacy

· Mathematics

· Understanding the World

· Expressive Arts and Design

The EYFS staff mantra of ‘read, write, number, excite’ leads to targeted and stimulating activities that challenge children across all areas of learning. Skills and knowledge are taught through highly engaging and exciting topics, with child-initiated learning used to develop skills and deepen understanding. The use of innovative and creative approaches to themed learning, as well as opportunities to read, write and count both indoors and outdoors results in highly purposeful environments. This encourages pupils to take managed risks, immerse themselves in real and imaginary worlds, and challenge themselves as they play and learn. 

Staff understand the importance of creating indoor and outdoor environments that support the intent of an ambitious, coherently planned and sequenced curriculum. Such environments cater for all areas of learning, with meticulously planned provision ensuring 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.  

Through a combination of adult led carpet sessions and carefully planned free-play, the pupils are given the tools to be leaders of their own learning.

You can see an example of the topics that the children will be learning in our Long Term plan below.

To find out more about the skills that the pupils will be learning over their time in EYFS, please look through the Development Matters 2020 document. 

The knowledge that the pupils will learn during their time in 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 early years and beyond, knowledge webs are used to structure the knowledge that the pupils will learn. Alongside the knowledge, the knowledge webs include the key vocabulary that the children will need to learn as well as key questions.

To see an example of a knowledge organiser, click on the link below.

To have a tour of a Reception classroom, click on the video below.