Mayfield-Primary-School

Early Years Foundation Stage 

Principles of the EYFS

The four principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) underpin all teaching and learning in the Mayfield EYFS:

A Unique Child, Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments, and Learning and Development

All children develop in different ways and development is not a linear or automatic process. It depends on each unique child having opportunities to interact in positive relationships and enabling environments that encourage their engagement and recognise their strengths. All children begin school with a variety of experiences and learning. It is the privilege of the Early Years practitioners to build upon that prior learning and experience.

Intent: 

At Mayfield, we believe that all children need to feel secure and happy in school before they are ready to learn.

Mayfield aims to:

  • Create a welcoming, secure and stimulating environment in which the children have the opportunity to become independent and autonomous learners.
  • Consider various aspects of the child’s development and provide opportunities for their social, emotional, physical and intellectual growth in a safe, enjoyable and non-threatening environment. 
  • Promote emotional well-being.
  • To offer a rich and varied curriculum that offers opportunities for children to learn through planned, purposeful play, resulting in excellent outcomes for all.
  • Develop children's understanding of their own world and the wider world through a variety of enrichment opportunities.
  • Build positive relationships and work in partnership with families (recognising that parents are their child’s first and foremost educator), carers and professionals to support every child to develop and learn.
  • Enrich the overall development of each child encouraging them to be confident, independent and to initiate their own learning.
  • Focus on the development of every child as an individual, valuing and building on their previous experiences and responding to their individual needs.
  • Promote and celebrate achievement across all areas of the EYFS curriculum.
  • Teach children to be confident and clear communicators; who are confident to question, explain their thinking and share their knowledge.
  • Provide children with the knowledge and skills they need for future success in the rest of their school journey.

 

Implementation

Characteristics of Effective Learning

The characteristics of effective learning are at the heart of our curriculum and explore the different ways in which children can learn:

  • 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.

We prioritise purposeful play with high quality interactions with adults and other children in a carefully set up environment.

We provide each child with the opportunity to investigate and consolidate learning at their own pace, enabling them to revisit skills and concepts in context. Adults encourage, challenge and reassure each child, taking into account the child’s personality, preferred way of learning and academic level.

We use a combination of objective-led planning and following children’s interests teaching. There is a mixture of adult-led, adult-directed and child-initiated play in our setting. This ensures all children experience a sequenced and balance curriculum. This approach develops pupils’ knowledge, skills and ability to apply what they know and can do with increasing fluency and independence.

Learning Environment

Children’s learning is best supported when they have opportunities, which allow for movement and action, creativity and imagination, independence and collaboration. Inclusive spaces are nurturing and supportive of all children, and within an enabling environment, knowledgeable practitioners optimise the development and learning potential of every child.

Our EYFS learning environment is organised to allow children to explore and learn securely and safely. The environment is set up in learning areas, where children are able to easily find and locate clearly labelled equipment and resources they need. These areas are carefully arranged to encourage quiet areas and more active areas within the learning environment. Children are encouraged to become independent learners and to take some responsibility for initiating their own lines of enquiry and investigation.

Enhanced provision is planned for both the inside and outside areas, with children having the freedom to move between the indoor and outdoor classroom throughout the school day.

Reception and Nursery have an outdoor space called the learning garden. This has a positive effect on the children’s development. Time outdoors benefits children by offering unique, large scale opportunities.  It offers the children the opportunity to explore, use their senses and be physically active.

Curriculum

We believe that all children deserve to be valued as an individual and we are passionate in allowing all children to achieve their full, unique potential. With all of this in mind, we begin each new year by looking at the individual needs of our children, taking into account their different starting points.

Our curriculum provides children with a careful balance of both adult led and child initiated learning experiences, which stimulate interest and curiosity in all 7 areas of learning.

 EYFS features on subject overviews to ensure clear progression of knowledge and skills.

 We follow our Curriculum Maps for EYFS, which are based on the development matters guidance, and use this to create medium term plans which are based around a topic. Weekly plans then detail the direct teaching carpet times and focus activities, alongside planned activities for enhanced provision.

 Enrichment opportunities, such as local trips, visitors and practical experiences, are carefully planned into the curriculum to give children a variety of opportunities and experiences.

 The EYFS curriculum consists of 7 areas; 3 prime areas and 4 specific areas.

 The prime areas are:

  • Communication and Language
  • Personal, Social and Emotional Development
  • Physical Development

The specific areas are:

  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Understanding the world
  • Expressive arts and design

 

Prime Areas

As the children start Nursery, the practitioners will focus initially on the three prime areas of learning, ensuring the children are secure in these skills. This will then shift to a more equal focus on all areas of learning as the children grow in confidence and ability within the three prime areas. The prime areas are strengthened and applied in the specific areas.

Communication and Language:

Communication and language lay a foundation for learning and development, guiding and supporting children’s thinking while underpinning their emerging literacy.

Across our EYFS we promote the development of Communication and Language through our ‘Oracy at Mayfield’ programme, the explicit teaching and modelling of new vocabulary, age-appropriate sharing high quality texts, nursery rhymes/rhyme of the week, extending and developing children’s speech through play and opportunities for collaborative talk.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development:

At Mayfield we follow the Ealing PSHE scheme. In addition to this, children are taught to co/self-regulate, staff model conflict resolution and guide children in this process, the Mayfield values of kindness, respect and responsibility are promoted and social communication skills are taught and modelled. Each classroom has a calming space that children can access freely.

Physical Development:

Physical development is a foundational area that enables children to engage with the world around them. Physical activity is promoted, physical skills are explicitly taught, fine motor skills are practised and the skills needed for mark marking and letter formation are taught. A mixture of adult-led and independent fine and gross motor activities are provided daily. Children have access to climbing equipment in our learning garden and scooters and bikes in the school playground. They are guided and supported in risk taking and navigating physical activities. P.E lessons are taught in Reception from Spring Term using the ‘Get Set for PE’ scheme.

Early Writing

At Mayfield, Literacy is taught through a combination of objective-led planning, focused on carefully chosen books based on the current topic, and also through bespoke in-the-moment experiences following children’s interests where previous learning is reinforced and embedded, promoting reading and writing for a purpose and in context.

Our environments are literacy rich enabling children to develop their understanding of language and build their vocabulary.

Our curriculum topics and texts are chosen that enrich children’s vocabulary, cultural capital, broaden their knowledge and are age appropriate for the time of the year. Many of our topics relate to the ‘Understanding of the World’ area of the development matters guidance. They are chosen to inspire the children’s imagination, capture their engagement, match the phonics progession and skill and provide a variety of communication and language opportunities.

In Nursery we:

  • share high-quality stories and poems
  • learn a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes
  • provide activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending
  • ensure staff are providing high quality interactions
  • provide a range of fine motor activities to suit different interests
  • encourage mark making and writing for a purpose
  • begin to learn to write our name

In Reception we build upon the core foundation skills Nursery has provided. We continue to consolidate the above, whilst:

  • Choosing high quality, engaging texts for our writing focus
  • Providing opportunities for independent mark marking and writing in a variety of contexts
  • Use Talk for Writing strategies to internalise language and develop sentence structure
  • Modelling early writing skills linked to our chosen texts/ topics
  • Providing many opportunities for our children to write for a purpose
  • Providing daily fine motor and letter formation opportunities
  • Running fine motor and phonics interventions for children who need additional support

Early Reading

At Mayfield Primary School, we value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time children leave our EYFS, they are enthusiastic about reading, have the core skills needed to progress in Year 1 and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. For all of our children to become fluent readers and writers, phonics must be taught through a systematic and structured phonics programme. Therefore, we have implemented the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Scheme to plan and provide daily engaging phonics lessons.

We follow Little Wandle’s Foundation for Phonics programme in our Nursery. This ensures children have the key skills and knowledge they need to succeed when they enter Reception.

In Reception, Foundation for phonics games are revised during the first week of term. After this, phase 2 phonics teaching begins. Phonics is taught for 25 minutes a day. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress.

Any child, who needs additional practice has daily ‘keep-up’ support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.

Reading practise sessions take place three times a week. Books will be matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge.

Home reading

At Mayfield Primary School, we encourage all children to read daily at home with a parent/carer.

Children in our EYFS are sent home with two books:

  • decodable reading practice book is taken home to ensure success is shared with the family.
  • Sharing books are sent home to promote a ‘reading for pleasure’ attitude in all readers. Parents are encouraged to share and read these with their child.

Early Mathematics

At Mayfield, we aim to produce lifelong learners of mathematics, who are curious about the mathematical world and so have a deep understanding of mathematical concepts and procedures. We follow the White Rose scheme of work and progression documents to plan weekly our Maths learning. All mathematical activities are of a practical nature using concrete resources and encouraging mathematical talk and exploration. Children are encouraged to discuss what they know and how they know it.

We provide a variety of different opportunities for children to practise the taught mathematical skill and teaching staff are skilled in bringing these skills into children’s play to imbed and consolidate them.

All children will complete a weekly focus activity that explicitly teaches and applies our learning objective for the week. Any child who needs extra support is identified and intervention takes place the same week. ‘Maths Meetings’ take place three times a week to embed core mathematical skills and concepts.

Our maths learning for the week and children’s independent application of their mathematical skills are recorded in our floor book which the children freely access and discuss with their peers.

Understanding of the World and Expressive Arts and Design

Understanding of the World and Expressive Arts and Design are explicitly taught fortnightly in Reception classes. However, knowledge and skills in these areas are taught and reinforced through our half-termly topics and shared texts. The children will experience many opportunities to learn about these areas on daily basis through exploration, focus texts and enhanced provision. In addition to this, local trips are planned, visitors come into class and practical experiences are a priority to enhance children’s cultural capital.

Children have access to musical instruments and creative resources in our learning environments. Our creation station encourages independent creative expression. Children are taught how to use the resources in our creation station, specific artistic skills and techniques for cutting, joining and manipulating materials. Daily nursery rhymes are sung in Nursery and Reception. In Reception, music is taught once a half term.

Inclusive Practise and Early Intervention

We focus on the child at the centre and understand that equalities and inclusion apply to all children and families, and that equity requires more than treating everyone the same. We ensure that we provide sharing books that promote the protected characteristics.

We ensure children can see themselves and their families reflected in the environment, building awareness through first-hand experiences as they have a lasting impact.

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

The early identification of children with special educational needs (SEN) is important and procedures listed in the SEN and disability code of practice are followed throughout the school. The Early Years staff liaise with parents/carers, the SEN coordinator (SENCO), health teams (such as Health Visitors and Speech Therapists), Social Care and the Educational Psychology Service in order to meet the needs of individuals. We have two sensory spaces set up within the school to support children with additional needs.

Parents and Carers as Partners

Parents make a crucial difference to children’s outcomes. They are children’s first and most enduring educators.

Home visits in Nursery help us develop trust, good communication and a strong relationship between families and practitioners. Home visits also help our team to gain knowledge regarding different family cultures, practices and history as we recognise and value that all families are different.

Our main focus is to get to know the new child, tell parents more about the school setup and give them an opportunity to speak confidentially about their child's needs and development.

In Reception all new starters are offered a Nursery visit. This helps us to develop strong relationships with the local nurseries and to gain knowledge regarding the children’s development and preferred learning style.

Parents and carers are welcomed into our Reception classes in July and September for a ‘Stay and Play’ session. This allows us to gain essential information from parents, gives them the opportunity to share information about their child’s needs and development and supports us in building a positive partnership.

We invite parents to a reading workshops with our Reading Lead, and to six ‘Learn Together Mornings’ throughout the year. In these sessions we focus on key areas of learning, teach parents about teaching strategies used in school and give them time to complete an activity with their child.

Parents are informed weekly, via the school newsletter, of what the children are learning in class. They are also given a letter half termly that details the dates the children will be learning each grapheme and tricky word. We provide them with a support sheet that details how to pronounce each phoneme and the formation phrase.

Parents are encouraged to talk to the child’s teacher if they have any questions or concerns. There is a formal meeting for parents in the Autumn and Spring term at which information is shared regarding the child’s progress and achievements.  Ideas are also given on how parents and carers can support the next stages of learning.  Parents receive a written report on their child’s attainment and progress at the end of each school year.

Parents/carers of children add wow cards, work and photographs relating to their child’s achievements outside of school to their Learning Journal.

 Transition to Year 1

The transition from Reception to Year 1 is a big step for children and requires careful planning. We know that children settle better into Year 1 when the transition between the classes is gradual. In Reception, we gradually introduce some more formal learning methods towards the end of the summer term, and children start to attend assemblies regularly so they can get used to the new expectations. We liaise with the Year 1 teachers so they can begin the new school year by continuing to allow some play-based learning opportunities, particularly for those children identified as needing this.

At Mayfield we hold transition sessions in the summer term, where children get the opportunity to spend some time in their new classroom with their new teacher, getting to know the new systems and expectations. Parents also have the opportunity to meet the new teacher so they can find out about the next stage in their child's school life.

 

Impact:

The impact of the EYFS curriculum is reflected in having well rounded, happy and confident children transitioning into Year 1. We measure progress and children’s learning across the year through formative and summative assessment which are based on the teacher’s knowledge of the child. Weekly meetings take place with the teachers where planning and provision is reviewed as well as identifying next steps for the children. Teaching assistants and class teachers discuss the next steps for children on a daily basis.

The Early Years provision features in the School Development Plan and has a specific area for development each year. This is monitored and evaluated by the EYFS lead and SLT.

We track children’s progress and attainment through an online tracking system called Insight. Data is entered every term and is then analysed.

The DfE Reception Baseline is undertaken at the beginning of the year and next steps for the cohort and individual children are identified. You can find more information about this here. 

In Reception children are tested half termly on their phonic knowledge, data is inputted into the ‘Little Wandle Assessment Tracker’ and heat maps are analysed.

In Nursery and Reception feedback books are used to track children’s understanding of the maths and literacy learning objectives for the week.

Gaps are identified and interventions are planned and carried out accordingly.