EYFS

The Reception Class is your child’s final year of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

This is a very important stage as it helps your child get ready for Year One as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes.

Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.

Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first. These are:

• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.

The prime areas will help children to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding of the World
• Expressive arts and design

Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside.

EYFS Intent

At St Joseph’s, we offer a curriculum rich in wonder, that gives memorable experiences and that ensures children have the opportunities to build fluency in foundational knowledge and skills ready as they continue their journey into Key Stage 1.

We work hard to provide a stimulating environment that provides exciting opportunities, promotes challenge, exploration, adventure and a real love of learning.
It is our intent that all children develop physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally in an environment which values all cultures, communities and people. We aim for our children to be confident and independent, to believe in themselves and interact positively with others.
We understand that play is an integral part of learning and this is at the heart of our Early Years curriculum. We believe that the correct mix of adult directed and uninterrupted child-initiated play ensures the best outcomes for pupils. Warm and positive relationships between staff and children, consistent routines and strong relationships with parents are key. We recognise the crucial role that Early Years education has to play in providing firm foundations upon which the rest of a child’s education is successfully based.

EYFS Implementation

At St Joseph’s, we meet the welfare requirements laid down in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and actively safeguard and promote the welfare of all of our children. We prioritise creating a ‘language rich’ environment through the use of songs, nursery rhymes, stories and providing time for quality interactions between adults and between peers. Trained and experienced staff ensure that interactions are positive and progressive, allowing children to flourish and gather words at pace in order to become confident communicators. Our curriculum is also built on oral rehearsal to support our children to become confident and capable writers. Children are encouraged to become early readers through enjoyment of books and the systematic teaching of phonics through the Little Wandle programme. The children learn nursery rhymes and develop their mathematical thinking through direct teaching and exploration. We want our children to become confident mathematicians who can apply what they have learnt to real life experiences. We have built our school environment to enable our children to strengthen their core muscles through physical play, children spend time outdoors in all weathers. They develop through wonderful, exploratory, sensory experiences in our mud kitchen, and garden. Our learning environment is adaptable in order to reflect children’s interests and progression. The children are supported to learn to work together, manage their feelings and ask questions through skilled adult facilitated play. The curriculum is taught through topics which are enriched with classroom enhancements, trips and visitors. Topics are supported by quality key texts. These are chosen carefully to encourage children’s speech, language and communication development. All planning however, is flexible and responsive to children’s needs so plans can be changed and adapted depending on children’s interests.
We understand the importance of parental engagement and believe that our parents have a crucial role to play in their children’s education. We work hard to create strong partnerships between home and school.  Parents have access to Tapestry which informs them of what their child is learning and to explain how they can support this at home. Parents enjoy using Tapestry to engage in their child’s learning and share experiences from home. As part of the learning and teaching process, children are assessed in relation to their progress towards the Early Learning Goals (ELGs). These judgements are made on the basis of accumulative observations and in-depth knowledge of the children acquired through ongoing assessments. These ongoing assessments are used to inform planning and next steps in teaching and learning for all children throughout the year.

EYFS Impact

Our curriculum and its delivery ensure that children, from their own starting points make at least good progress. During their time with us children make progress towards the national expectation for a Good Level of Development (GLD) at the end of the year. Pupils also make at least good progress toward their age-related expectations both academically and socially, developing a sense of themselves before transitioning into Year One. 
Children develop their characteristics of learning and are able to apply their knowledge to a range of situations making links and explaining their ideas and understanding. Children are confident to take risks and discuss their successes and failures with peers and adults drawing on their experiences to improve or adjust what they are doing. We believe our high standards are due to our carefully planned environment, enriched play-based curriculum, quality first teaching and the rigour of assessment.