What is the Early Years Foundation Stage?
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is how the government and Early Years professionals describe the time in a child’s life between birth and 5 years old. The framework sets out the legal requirements which we follow to keep your child safe and promote their welfare and education. The framework also sets out the 7 areas of learning which defines examples of how to teach knowledge and skills to children. We use the guidance along with our own professional judgement to assess the progress your child is making.
What does this look like at Stuart Road?
Intent
At Stuart Road Primary Academy, the Early Years Team believe that all children deserve an education rich in wonder and memorable experiences that allows children's natural creativity and curiosity to flourish, alongside the purposeful acquisition of skills and knowledge. Our ethos is to support children’s personal, social, and emotional development so that they feel safe and secure.
Implementation
Through the seven areas of learning we provide open-ended themes that excite and engage children, building on their own interests and developing their experiences of the world around them and encouraging independence.
We recognise that all children come into our setting with varied experiences and all staff work hard to ensure that the learning opportunities provided widen their knowledge and understanding of the world, setting ambitious expectations for all children.
Impact
We believe at Stuart Road that Community involvement and parental engagement form another essential part of our curriculum and a child’s school life. We provide the children an environment with a sense of belonging to a tightly knit community. This enables them to succeed both academically and socially in the future.
How will my child be learning at Stuart Road?
The Prime Areas of Learning
The Prime Areas of Learning are Communication and Language, Physical Development and Personal, Social and Emotional Development. These areas of learning underpin everything we do at Stuart Road. Children need to master these areas to enable them to progress with their learning and development. With this in mind, we have developed our provision to encourage the development of skills in these areas. We carefully plan our resources and provision so that children can practice taking turns, talking to each other and their fine and gross motor skills. We promote the development of managing feelings and behaviour using our understanding of brain development and research in young children.
The Specific Areas of Learning
The Specific Areas of Learning are Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. We use broad themes to develop the children's knowledge and skills within these areas - Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. We develop the children's understanding of reading and writing through the Read Write Inc phonics programme and small group adult led writing activities. The children are also encouraged to engage in reading and writing activities independently through play and the resources that we leave out for the children to access independently. Mathematics is also taught using open-ended resources through our child centred provision. We also teach new concepts through our Number Time sessions.
Understanding of the World and Expressive Arts and Design are also equally important to us. The children can explore the world around them, both inside and outside, taking ownership of their own learning and exploratory play. We encourage the children to share with their friends that they notice at home or when they are out with their families.