Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement
INTENT
In EYFS, we recognise children’s interests and prior learning before planning learning opportunities. Parents are asked to complete a questionnaire which provides us with valuable information about their children. We endeavour to provide first-hand experiences which make our curriculum purposeful and relevant. Every child is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome differences within our school community. The ability to learn is underpinned by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values. We aim to work collaboratively with parents and carers to encourage independent, enthusiastic learners who thrive and reach their full potential, with adults facilitating as required.
Our EYFS curriculum aims to enable our children to be:
Competent and creative learners; who are curious about the world around them.
Secure and confident; who enjoy coming to school and learning new skills and knowledge building on their existing learning.
Skilful communicators; who connect with others through language and play, ensuring that they play in a vocab rich environment.
Our curriculum is therefore the cultural capital* we know our pupils need so that they can gain the knowledge, skills and understanding they require for success. They can only do that if we embed the right habits for learning through the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning – Play and Exploration, Active Learning and Creative and Critical Thinking.
Our detailed Baseline assessments, alongside the NFER Baseline, identify many of our pupils arrive in line with national expectations. Our initial priorities are to teach the children how to listen, speak and meet the high expectations for behaviour by working together and being kind. We use the observation checkpoints for the Prime Areas (from the Development Matters document) to assess which age band children are working at. Once our Baseline assessments are complete, we set achievable but challenging targets and discuss these with parents and how they can support their children at home.
Our enabling environment and warm, skilful adult interactions support the children as they begin to link learning to their play and exploration. We are committed to developing a love of reading, writing and number. We deliver discrete phonics, reading, writing and maths lessons throughout the week. These lessons are delivered through a topic-based curriculum which maximises opportunities for meaningful cross-curricular links and learning experiences as well as promoting the unique child by offering extended periods of play which is well planned for, giving the children time to consolidate and practise prior teaching through a vibrant continuous provision. We also follow the children’s interests and ideas, by providing enhancements and provocations. We value imagination and creativity and seek to create a sense of enjoyment and fascination in their learning.
IMPLEMENTATION
In Reception, we follow the Early Years Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, published in 2021 by the DfES. We also use the Development Matters programme (September 2020) to support our planning.
There are 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 into Year 1. The learning experiences within our Early Years are linked to the seven areas of learning and development within the EYFS. These areas are split into three Prime Areas and four Specific Areas. The three prime areas are those which the children should develop first and are considered most essential for the healthy development and future learning of our children. These include:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
As children grow and make progress in the prime areas, this will help them to naturally develop skills within the four specific areas. These are:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
Children learn through a balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities, which we have carefully timetabled throughout the week so the children have a balance of both of these.
We regularly assess where the children are, using ‘Development Matters’ and then ensure our planning, adult interaction and learning environment; including continuous provision, support children to reach their next steps. We will include interventions for groups or individuals if and when necessary.
Phonics – We follow Monster Phonics as our Phonics scheme with guided reading books linked to their phonic knowledge. This is built upon as they move into Year 1.
Reading – The teacher reads carefully chosen class books linked to the topic, these books can be fiction, non-fiction or poems. Comprehension is fundamental to our teaching of reading. During these sessions children are taught new vocabulary and are encouraged to use this within the provision. Guided Reading books closely match the children’s phonics ability. The children also read 1:1 at least once a week with an adult.
Writing – From the start of Reception, the teacher models writing. We use Dough Disco which develops fine muscle control, dexterity and hand-eye coordination, ultimately improving handwriting skills. The children have access to a well-equipped writing area that they can access throughout the day. We start off by learning single letter sounds and practise correct letter formation. We then move onto blending and segmenting and, when the children are ready, simple sentence writing. By the end of Reception, children are expected write simple words, phrases and sentences using the phonics they have been taught.
Maths – We provide opportunities for children to develop a strong grounding in number. It is essential that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers. By providing frequent and varied opportunities to build and apply this understanding - such as using manipulatives, including small pebbles and tens frames for organising counting - children will develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built. We use the White Rose Maths Scheme to support our planning.
We have a dedicated time focusing on health and self-care. We have one P.E. lesson per week as well as one forest school session. We share a range of healthy snacks and learn about the importance of a healthy balanced lifestyle to maintain our own wellbeing. All of our children perform in a Nativity, and take part in whole school topics such as Anti bullying week, Online Safety week, Creative topic and health and well-being topic. They are visited by a vast range of People Who Help Us, such community members including the fire service, dentist and paramedics and even visit the head teacher’s office.
We meet and communicate regularly with parents. This includes transition days, stay and play sessions, parent workshops, reports and parent consultations as well as more frequent informal communication to suit individual families. We also support the transition into Key Stage 1 for both child and parents. We prepare children for Year 1 with visits to their new class, meeting the teacher and ensuring the environments are similar at the end of EYFS and the start of Year 1. Parents have the opportunity to meet with new teachers and visit their child’s new learning environment. They also complete ‘moving on’ activities with their child throughout the summer term. These aim to support the transition for all.
IMPACT
The impact of our curriculum is measured by assessment procedures which allow us to measure outcomes against all schools nationally. We measure the percentage of pupils achieving a “Good Level of Development‟ (GLD) by the end of the Reception year.
The impact of our curriculum will also be measured by how effectively it helps our pupils develop into well rounded individuals who embody our values and carry with them the knowledge, skills and attitudes which will make them lifelong learners and valuable future citizens. When children leave Reception, not only are they Year One ready, but well-rounded individuals with positive attitudes towards learning.
We use Individual profiles on ClassDojo supplemented with exercise books, which evidence to the children and their families the successes of the children throughout their time in Early Years. We use this information on a weekly basis to plan learning experiences and next steps so that knowledge and skills are built cumulatively. During each assessment window, four times a year, teachers update the progress children have made and make a professional judgement whether the children are ‘on track’ or ‘not on track’ to meet ELG. This allows us to assess the impact of teaching and provide extra support to those children not making expected progress. We scrutinise our data including vulnerable groups such as those with SEND, disadvantaged or summer born children.
We provide regular opportunities for children to talk about their learning by the use of photos, displays.
As a team, we carry out regular internal moderation sessions and also ensure that staff attend external meetings and training to ensure that we feel confident with our judgements and that these judgements are consistent with a range of other settings. Assessment starts with careful observations which are then used to inform planning.
Outcomes within our Early Years are good. Our small reception cohorts mean that data can fluctuate depending on the needs of the pupils within the year groups but all pupils make good or outstanding progress given their starting points.