Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Curriculum

Intent, Implementation and Impact

Intent

At Greatfield Park, we believe that a child’s time in the early years is critical to their development throughout school and later life.  We value all learning experiences offered in school and at home, working in partnership with parents and carers to provide the best possible opportunities, ensuring each individual child reaches their full potential.

We follow the EYFS framework, which is a statutory framework that sets the standards that all early years’ providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well, are kept healthy and safe and have the knowledge and skills they need to start school. 

We use Development Matters, which is the non-statutory curriculum guidance for the EYFS framework that offers a top-level view of how children develop and learn, to support us in providing a quality education for each child. Development Matters covers a range of Areas of Learning and Development, from reading to maths and beyond.

We use the Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) to support children and make sense of how the children are learning, in order to provide high quality teaching and learning outcomes.  The CoEL focus’ on three key elements; engagement, motivation and thinking.  Making observations and knowing how to support children as individuals is at the heart of understanding the importance of the characteristics of effective learning.  

We use CUSP (Curriculum with Unity Schools Partnership) as an ‘unapologetically ambitious’ curriculum to deliver our learning opportunities. CUSP is rooted in the strongest available evidence about how pupils learn and retain knowledge in the long term. There is an emphasis on oracy and vocabulary acquisition, retention and use, to break down learning barriers and to accelerate progress. A rich diet of language and vocabulary is deliberately planned for.

1. Substantive knowledge

This is the core subject knowledge, skills and vocabulary in the Early Years. The three Prime Areas, Communication and language (CL), Personal, social and emotional development (PSED) and Physical development (PD), describe universal core aspects of early child development. It is through these aspects that a child accesses the world around them and relationships with other people, which in turn opens the door to learning in all areas. The Prime Areas therefore strongly influence learning in the Specific Areas of learning and development, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the world and Expressive Arts and Design.

2. Disciplinary knowledge

In addition to the core knowledge within the Prime and Specific Areas of learning within the Early Years we also intend to develop the Characteristics of Effective Learning: playing and exploring; active learning and creative and critical thinking throughout our curriculum. The Characteristics of Effective Learning describe behaviours children use in order to learn. To learn well, children must approach opportunities with curiosity, energy and enthusiasm. Effective learning must be meaningful to a child, so that they are able to use what they have learned and apply it in new situations. These abilities and attitudes of strong learners will support them to learn well and make good progress in all the Areas of Learning and Development.

We believe that good teaching for SEND children is also good teaching for all children. Our curriculum is ambitious for all pupils. Pupils with SEND are entitled to think hard.  Nevertheless, we are mindful of potential barriers to learning for children with additional needs. Therefore, we have considered ways to adapt our teaching to encourage independence and to ensure that it is accessible to all.

We adapt the curriculum, to prevent overloading the working memory by:

- Identifying the ‘critical core content’ that pupils with SEND need to know and use;

- Identifying key vocabulary and icons;

- Giving clear instructions which may need repeating for specific pupils;

- Chunking knowledge/models into manageable sections;

- Using structured ‘deliberate practice’ to increase attention and retention;

- Scaffolding tasks to enable success in ‘hard thinking’, with a view to remove the scaffold;

- Opportunities to rehearse and practise key vocabulary to help consolidate knowledge;

- Giving more time during the ‘attempt’ phase to experiment or secure understanding;

- Considering using an alternative space for specific children to focus;

- Using a multi-sensory approach (visual images, hearing the words again, my turn/your turn);

- Providing adult support to discuss or collect their ideas to aid with discussion or critiquing others works.

All children will quickly become part of the school family.  They will learn about our school vision of learning and thriving together to achieve our dreams, and will learn the values of being a determined, respectful, excellent, aspirational, mindful and supportive member of the school and wider community.  Alongside this, the children will learn to follow the school rules of being ready, respectful and safe. 

Implementation

At Greatfield Park Primary School, we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. This is made up of four overriding principles which our early year’s education is based upon:

• Unique Child – Every child is unique child who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

• Positive Relationships – Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

• Enabling Environments – Children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and carers.

• Learning and Development – Children develop and learn in different ways. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early year’s provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The curriculum provides a play-based and experiential learning environment, combined with focussed teaching and basic skills, to ensure children make rapid progress before moving onto Year 1. The children in Reception are provided with ample opportunities accessible in our indoor and outdoor provision. They engage in planned, focussed activities as well as self-initiated and free flow activities. The learning experiences within our Early Years are linked to the seven areas of learning and development within the EYFS.

We teach our curriculum through CUSP.  The CUSP Early Foundations offer is presented in three parts:

1. Foundational knowledge: what pupils should know and be able to do throughout the EYFS and how this will support their development and prepare them for success in Key Stage 1 and beyond. 
2. Opportunities and experiences: how this foundational knowledge can be learnt and embedded through direct teaching, independent play and guided activities that will allow pupils to explore, experiment with and think hard about new and important concepts. 
3. Structured Story Time: core texts that will introduce key language, ideas and themes that pupils will need to access the foundational knowledge, built into a framework that uses all that we know about effective literacy instruction. 

In addition to this we also:

• Teach aspects of PSHE using Jigsaw.

• Teach aspects of PE using Get Set 4 PE.

• Teach phonics using the RWI programme.

• Teach mathematics using the NCETM and WRM programmes.

• Teach aspects of RE using the Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus for RE.

A range of activities will continuously be provided within the EYFS setting, so that children are given constant opportunities to develop their independent learning across all areas of the EYFS curriculum.  This will be achieved through Personal Education and Growth Time (PEG Time), where children will be able to select and apply their own learning within the classroom.

Impact

When a child starts school every child completes the Reception Baseline Assessment, which provides an on entry assessment of pupil attainment to be used as a starting point from which progress can be measured to the end of Key Stage 2.   Staff use this assessment alongside observations to gain an understanding of each individual child’s learning styles and needs.

The impact of our curriculum is for pupils’ long-term memory to have changed. We want them to know more, remember more and to be able to do more, as a result of their learning at Greatfield Park.

In order to identify the impact our curriculum is having on our pupils, we check the extent to which learning has become permanently embedded in children’s long-term memory in addition to looking for excellence in their outcomes. We use three main tools to quality assure the implementation and impact of our curriculum:

1.  Learning Walks - we use these to help to evaluate subject knowledge, explanations, expectations, opportunities to learn, pupil responses, participation and relationships.

2.  Assessment - we use the outcomes from observations, learning tasks and tests, to identify how well the content is understood and what the strengths and limitations are to inform us what to do next.

3.  Pupil voice and online learning journal/book studies - we do this after content has been taught, to see the extent to which pupils are ‘knowing more, remembering more and able to do more’.

At the end of the Reception year, the Early Years Lead completes the EYFSP, to indicate whether a child has met each of the 17 ELG’s. Each child will be assessed as either ‘emerging’ or ‘expected.’

Impact is also evident through our successful transitions into Year 1. EYFS staff have a good understanding of how ELG’s link to the National Curriculum, and through our robust planning and delivery across the spectrum of subjects – both core and foundation - children leave the EYFS stage with the skills, knowledge and confidence to continue their journey as scientists, historians, artists and geographers.

Please see the Overall Curriculum Statements for more on our Intent, Implementation and Impact.

EYFS Implementation

The EYFS statutory framework is organised across seven areas of learning.

The prime areas of learning and development are important because they lay the foundations for children's success in all other areas of learning and of life.  Children will be given opportunities to learn skills within: Communication and Language, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Physical Development.

Children will learn their phonics through the Read Write Inc (RWI) programme.  RWI is a proven synthetic phonics programme that ensures early success in reading, writing and spelling.  Children will also be given as many opportunities as possible to develop their Literacy skills through project-based learning.

Children will follow the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) to learn Mathematics.  NCETM is a framework to support the planning and teaching of Mathematics.  White Rose Maths resources will also be used to complement the NCETM resources, especially when teaching numerical patterns.

Children will follow a creative project-based approach to learning.  Cornerstones Curriculum 22 will be used as a tool for providing coverage within the areas of Understanding the World and Expressive Art and Design.

Following the Characteristics of Effective Learning, children will be:

Playing and Exploring

• Provide engaging learning environments that suit the individual child’s interests and sensory play experiences that stimulate their curiosity, leading them to deep and meaningful playing and exploring.
• Help to develop children’s confidence and willingness to try.
• Offer children activities and toys of interest to them. Using familiar resources to develop children’s skills will help children to feel more comfortable and at ease. This will enable them to build their sense of self and, in time, increase their confidence to try more.
• Model that things go wrong or could go wrong, but it is ok for things to go wrong, and by getting things wrong, we learn.
• Model and show the children how to play, discover and use the resources provided.

Active Learning

• Provide learning opportunities in an exciting and enabling environment.
• Provide opportunities for new or unusual play; a range of open-ended, problem-solving resources that challenge and evoke questions.
• Make learning enjoyable and engaging, instilling a sense of the unknown and wonder.
• Plan opportunities for collaborative play and learning, encouraging talk and sharing ideas.
• Model, support and scaffold motivation, in order to develop self-motivation, concentration and perseverance.
• Identify and achieve goals and celebrate them, no matter how big or small.
• Allow children to leave their creations for others to see rather than tidying them away as this will motivate them to keep on trying the next time too.

Creating and Thinking Critically

• Make careful observations of children to provide us with opportunities to guide individuals to the next step in their learning.
• Support children with their ideas to make links and connections and to help their understanding of new concepts. 
• Provide an environment with many opportunities for different ways to express themselves, such as role-play, construction and art.
• Provide children with positive opportunities to play with adults and to have access to open-ended activities and begin to seek alternative possibilities to play situations. 
• Support a child over time, using and modelling language skills effectively to show a child thought processes and how theirs may look.
• Give children time to experiment, think and talk, to ask questions, leading to a deeper and different understanding of the world

Our EYFS long-term curriculum overview is on our main curriculum overview document, alongside our Year 1-Year 6 curriculum,  on our curriculum page. It can also be found below, on its own.

EYFS Impact

The impact for our EYFS curriculum will be evidenced through pupil voice, pupil engagement and quality of work produced.  Further evidence will come from:

• Progression of Skills Document
• Progression of Vocabulary Document
• National Baseline Assessment
• Tapestry (photographic evidence, online learning journal)
• Phonics, Literacy and Mathematic Books
• RWI Assessments
• EYFS Profile (a statutory assessment carried out at the end of the Reception year, to assess the children’s development in accordance with the seven early learning goals and how children demonstrate the three characteristics of effective learning).