EYFS

EYFS

EYFS curriculum Intent
(What we do)

Our Curriculum

Our Early Years curriculum is unique to Carlton Primary School, planned and developed around the specific needs of our children and our community and covers all aspects of the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage Framework 2021.  It is underpinned by first-hand experience. Through this we develop speech and language, independence and self-regulated learning. These are our drivers for excellence. We focus on developing identified core knowledge and skills for our children so that they are creative and adventurous learners fully prepared for Year One, with all the tools needed to achieve and exceed in life. In order to do this, we work closely with our KS1 colleagues and main feeder settings. We make sure that our curriculum evolves and develops alongside our children.  We ensure that flexibility is built into our curriculum so that our children can follow their own interests and that their individual talents, interests and needs are always nurtured.

The EYFS Framework 2021:

·         Sets the standards that all early year’s providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well

·         Ensures children are kept healthy and safe

·         Ensures that children have the knowledge and skills they need to start school

Link: EYFS Framework 2021  Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Characteristics of Effective Learning

The three characteristics of effective learning describe the behaviours children use in order to learn.

Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and build the resilience to ‘have a go’

Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achieving 

Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links

between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

The Areas of Learning and Development

The three prime areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships, and thriving, underpinning the specific areas of learning.

The Prime areas:
Communication and Language
Personal, social and Emotional Development
Physical Development

There are four specific areas through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied. 

The specific areas:
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design

Learning to Read and Write at Carlton Primary School In EYFS, developing a love of books is our priority, with high quality stories and non-fiction books being the starting point for much of our learning. High quality texts including those taken from the Pie Corbett reading spine are read on a daily basis. These books are continually repeated to ensure children internalise the structure, allowing them to become familiar with the building blocks of stories and of reading in general. Phonics is taught in Reception and KS1 through the Read Write Inc programme which is a systematic and highly effective approach used for the teaching of early reading and writing.  On entry we focus on developing children’s speaking and listening skills through their ability to respond to sounds, play with sounds, songs and rhymes. These are all important skills for listening to others, understanding questions and developing concepts of things, and lays the foundations for the phonic work. This early stage of phonics, supports children in getting attuned to sounds, preparing them for hearing sounds in words (segmenting). It also prepares children with putting these sounds together (oral blending.)  Phonically, children get off to a quick start using the programme delivered by highly trained staff. Alongside this, books are well matched to the phonics they have learnt. All this enables the children to quickly build up the fluency and confidence of their reading. Any child who is not progressing is identified early and extra reading provision is provided for them.                         

Link to our reading curriculum Reading – Carlton Primary (setschools.uk)

At Carlton writing is taught using Drawing club. This follows a three weekly cycle using high quality texts. Week one is “the adventure of books” this would be a story with a baddy/monster eg Not now Bernard. Week two “an adventure of tales” which would be a traditional tale such as the three little pigs and week three “an adventure of the past” an animation/cartoon of the past such as Roadrunner or Bagpuss. For each text the children learn their “Get up, stand up vocabulary” where they will discuss eight high level words related to the text eg oblivious and discombobulated, before then sharing the story while putting these words in context. Each day involves a different drawing adventure, where they are asked to draw the character, setting and then go on three adventure days where they will change elements of the story. The teacher will model how to draw and then the children will draw their own versions before creating “secret codes” beginning with single letters and numbers, progressing to words, captions and sentences. It is a wonderful daily adventure where the children develop their imagination and creativity as well as their love of drawing, stories and writing. In Summer writing begins to be taught more formally through the Talk4Writing programme.

Link to Carlton writing curriculum Writing – Carlton Primary (setschools.uk)

At Carlton we use the Mastering number and White Rose Maths schemes. As a school we believe that maths is an important subject because of the many practical skills that are used within it. Children will have daily maths lessons following the Mastering number programme which helps the children to develop a deep understanding of numbers and their facts. Learning to subitise is a vital skill we teach, before introducing 5 and 10 frames as part of our daily routines, as well as rekenreks. An essential part of our maths teaching is the use of BBC Numberblocks. We plan carefully to match episodes to concepts we are learning and use these to engage the children and teach them new concepts. Shape and measure is taught through the White Rose scheme. In Early Years  we often introduce new concepts through stories such as weight and shape, and follow this up using practical activities, using a variety of equipment.

Link to Maths at Carlton primary Maths – Carlton Primary (setschools.uk)

Implementation
(How we do what we do)

We have one pure Reception class at Carlton with children mainly coming from our Village playgroup, and a smaller number coming from 4 local nurseries.

Our Learning Environment

Our meticulously planned learning environment promotes calmness, is purposeful and develops children’s natural curiosity, offering progression as they grow.

We offer a learning environment at Carlton that is calm, communication-rich and promotes a feeling of homeliness. This ensures our children feel safe and secure.  Carefully planned progression of routines and behavioural expectations, combined with the use of our Carlton skill-set and three school rules, ensures that our children develop high levels of respect and care. Our outdoor area enables our children to explore, be curious and develop important gross motor skills. Our wide range of learning activities engage and inspire and provide challenge, both mentally and physically. We believe in offering our children first-hand experiences and opportunities to broaden their knowledge and understanding of the world through visits within our local community initially, as well as inviting visitors into school.

Our Adults

At Carlton we have a skilled and dedicated team of staff in Early Years who have an absolute commitment to excellence and to ensuring our children exceed expectations, and feel a genuine sense of belonging. 

Our Partnerships

We communicate with our parents in a variety of ways, first and foremost in person. Our Early Years staff are on the door to greet children each morning and to say goodbye each afternoon. Our staff are committed to developing and sustaining positive relationships with our families. We use an online tool called Tapestry through which we share photographs and information about children with parents who can also contribute through the app, as well as our whole school reward system, Marvellous me.  We Tweet (X) regularly to share the learning and experiences that are happening during the week and our school website shares information about the knowledge and skills the children will be learning each term. Our class has a floor book that showcases the ‘beyond the curriculum’ experiences that happen, these are shared with both parents and children. We hold a variety of meetings and workshops for and with our parents about starting school, as well as teaching and learning phonics.

Impact
(The result of what we do)

The impact of our vibrant curriculum and language-rich environment combined with skilful, dedicated practitioners will be the successful development of our children as unique learners. By embedding our Carlton skillset our children will feel valued for their uniqueness and will in turn value and respect differences in others.  Our children will understand the importance of kindness and will know that this begins with themselves and extends to friends, family, community and our world. They will be creative thinkers, able to reflect on their own learning, as well as growing to become resilient learners with a positive growth mindset. Strong personal, social and emotional skills will enable them to collaborate,valuing contributions of others. They will be confident to talk to a range of people due to the strength of their language and vocabulary skills.  Our children leave Early Years fully prepared for their transition to Key Stage One, able to remember and apply vital knowledge and skills with the motivation to succeed.

Link to Carlton skillset Carlton Skill set, School rules and Celebration – Carlton Primary

Our Outcomes 

We strive to ensure that all of our children make good progress in all areas, with the ability to self-regulate and self-motivate. At Carlton, we have high expectations of children and our curriculum and provision are matched to our children’s starting points and developmental needs. Our children are set personalised and meaningful next step targets based on individual needs. These next steps ensure that we are providing differentiated learning outcomes that are holistic, culturally and experientially relevant for all children.

Check out our amazing EYFS activities!