EYFS
Intent
Be the best we can be now and in our futures: ensure children develop the Personal, Social and Emotional skills to be positive members of society
Ambition for all: ensuring that no child’s circumstances define their outcomes: we celebrate diversity and believe every child thrive in a safe and secure environment to fulfil their potential
Nurture a healthy mind, body and soul: Fostering a love of learning through curiosity and exploration
Develop a crew mentality for our school, the Rock Ferry community and our world: we value teamwork whilst learning to express our views and value those of others
At Rock Ferry Primary School, we understand that children learn best when they are engaged, interested and active. We understand that active learning involves other children, adults, objects, ideas, stimuli and events that aim to engage and involve children for sustained periods. We believe that Early Years education, through Continuous Provision, both indoors and outdoors, should be as practical and hands on as possible. Play is essential for children’s development across all areas.
Play builds on children’s confidence and independence as they learn to explore the world around them. Children learn to build relationships with others and develop friendships, becoming a valuable member of the Rock Ferry Crew. They build their resilience and begin to set their own goals and solve problems. Children learn to initiate their own play with guidance from adults, as well as planned adult directed learning experiences . We recognise that the Foundation Stage is the beginning of a child’s school journey. Therefore, it is essential that strong foundations: academically, socially, physically and emotionally are instilled and curiosity, resilience and the love of learning are fostered.
We intend for our children to develop inquiring minds as an essential skill for successful learning and the development of the unique child. We aim to foster children’s curiosity by establishing enabling, safe and supportive environments. Developing positive relationships by responding to children’s individual interests and needs. Helping children build their knowledge and skills in imaginative and creative ways .
At Rock Ferry Primary School, we celebrate the diversity of our school community and always strive to make every child feel safe and welcome to be able to achieve their milestones and goals. We recognise children’s prior learning and various starting points and create a holistic curriculum that maximises cross-curricular links, building strong foundations for their future. Our EYFS curriculum is designed and evolves to provide children with important foundational skills and knowledge that will later be enhanced and embedded throughout KS1 by developing strong characteristics of effective learning.
We strive to work in close partnership with parents and carers throughout the year to support their learning and to encourage children to reach their full potential. We also aim to promote a smooth transition starting in Foundation One through to KS1 for parents and children.
Implementation
In our EYFS classrooms, children learn through a careful balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities and challenges. Weekly timetables are carefully structured so
that children have focussed teaching inputs in Literacy, Mathematics and Phonics but also ensure children experience a balance of C&L, UTW, PD, EAD and PSED sessions. Children are provided with daily opportunities to engage in play through Continuous Provision, both indoors and outdoors. A range of carefully planned experiences engage children and challenge them to lead their own learning.
Each day, children engage with all areas of learning in Continuous Provision, developing their curiosity and their characteristics of effective learning; playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically.
Adult directed play opportunities carefully link to direct teaching to allow children the opportunity to reinforce, practice and apply new knowledge and skills as well as embedding their basic knowledge and foundational skills . Children have daily opportunities to access outdoor provision as we provide purposeful learning to develop specific areas alongside the development of gross motor skills.
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and story led planning using carefully selected high quality texts creates an integrated holistic approach to learning.
Children follow the synthetic systematic phonics programme ‘Little Wandle.’ The children enjoy reading a variety of books in a print rich environment, through quality guided reading sessions, independent reading with adults, shared reading and story times. Children are sent home with a fully decodable phonics reading book that is tailored and suited to their individual phonics level as well as a story book, chosen by the child, developing their love of reading. Throughout the delivery of the ‘Little Wandle’ phonics programme, children’s reading attainment is assessed and gaps are addressed quickly and effectively.
At Rock Ferry Primary School in Foundation One, Maths is taught through the use of ‘Master the Curriculum’ as a sequential scheme that develops children’s basic knowledge in all areas of Maths. This is built upon in Foundation Two where ‘Number of the week’ (developed with Maths Hub) is used to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children, transitioning to White Rose Maths in preparation for Key Stage one during the Summer term. The aim over time is that children will develop a mastery of number, fluency in calculation and a confidence in problem solving. Pupils learn through games and activities and in real
life problems, using concrete materials in adult supported activities which are then embedded during continuous provision and applied to their daily life. These collaborative and practical mathematical experiences are carefully designed to help pupils remember the content they have been taught and to support them with integrating new knowledge across the breadth of their experiences and into larger concepts.
Teaching Maths in a practical way supports our children to become logical problem solvers that can demonstrate resilience and reasoning skills when learning. This approach to teaching Maths ensures children gain progressive mathematical knowledge and skills as they continue their journey through KS1.
At Rock Ferry Primary we use a range of assessment opportunities including; visual observations, conversations with the child, small group work and class discussions. In our EYFS classrooms we ensure planning and Continuous provision is tailored to pupil needs to provide every opportunity to move learning forward. These observations are used to support teachers to make formative assessments and inform next steps for each child. This includes careful consideration of children with additional SEND needs and individual contextual needs.
Our inclusive approach means that at Rock Ferry Primary School, all children learn together, however we also use a range of additional interventions to support, enhance and scaffold children who may not be reaching their potential. This ensures all children have the opportunity to make rapid progress from their starting points.
Class teachers record children’s learning, play, inquiries and interests in whole class Learning Journals. Maths and Literacy books are used to record individual progress.
Formal assessments are recorded using our Whole school tracking system ‘Insight’ linking to the EYFS curriculum ‘Development Matters’. These summative assessments are completed termly to judge each child’s progress in the 7 areas of learning. This allows us to assess the impact of our teaching and adjust the learning environments and planning to support growth in all areas. This is reported to members of the SLT during pupil progress meetings.
Impact
Children are Rock Ferry Primary School are confident, resilient and inquisitive learners. Their love of learning is evident through their relationships with one another, their independence in the purposeful approaches to learning they adopt in both indoor and outdoor learning environments. The children make valuable contributions to our whole school crew. Transitioning in Year 1, pupils are curious learners with high aspirations and continue to develop our school core values: be kind, be safe, work hard and never give up. They leave foundation stage being the best we can be!
We check that children are achieving this through regular formative assessments of their skills and knowledge using Development Matters. We use this to check children are making progress and to adapt our provision to help children make their next steps in learning.