The EYFS was revised in September 2020 and was legally effective from 1st September 2021 for all providers of early years education and care. 

The Government’s two key aims for the changes to the EYFS;

• To improve outcomes at age five, particularly in early language and literacy
• Reduce workload so that practitioners can spend more time interacting with children in their care.

Please click on the link below.

The Development Matters offers a top-level view of how children develop and learn for all early years practitioners, including:

• childminders
• staff in nurseries
• nursery schools
• school nursery and reception classes in school

The guidance can help meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework.

Please click on the link below to find out more.

Planning Our Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum

Our Nursery School considers the all round development of your child. We provide opportunities which enable your child to; exercise options and express ideas, reflect on experience and information, share thoughts, make decisions, make discoveries and explore and engage in first hand experiences. Our curriculum is designed to be accessible for all children, regardless of any special educational need or disability. 

Our allocation of time, space and equipment will provide opportunities for your child to develop to their potential, physically, linguistically, intellectually, emotionally, socially and morally. Through carefully planned activities we support and enhance your child's learning ensuring they make at least good progress over time. We plan themes on an annual basis (long term plans) but these are not 'set in stone' and are fluid to address the ever growing and changing needs of all our children. We seem them as more of a 'working document'!

Plans for the medium term (monthly or half term) and short term (bi-weekly) are displayed in school. If you would like a hard copy to take home, please just ask.

Our curriculum is designed around the needs of our young children and is organised into seven areas of Learning and Development.

These are:

• Communication and Language

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development

• Physical Development

• Literacy

• Mathematics

• Understanding the World

• Expressive Arts & Design

Here are the main components of each of the seven areas.
 

Communication and Language experiences are about:

• Listening, attention and Understanding

• Speaking

Personal, Social and Emotional experiences are about:

• Self Regulation

• Managing Self

• Building Relationships

Physical Development experiences are about:

• Gross Motor Skills

• Fine Motor Skills

Literacy experiences are about:

• Comprehension
• Word Reading
• Writing

Mathematics experiences are about:

• Number

• Numerical Patterns

   

Understanding the World experiences are about:

• Past and Present

• People, Cultures and Communities

Expressive Arts & Design experiences are about:

• Creating with Materials

• Being Imaginative and Expressive

We plan through a topic based approach. To keep you well informed about the children’s activities our plans are displayed:-

• On the Notice Board in our cloakroom (long, medium and short term planning)

• Here on our school website 

• Home Learning Plans are also shared via Tapestry

Throughout the year we organise several exciting activities, outings and visits/visitors to enhance the children’s learning.

If you would like to find out more about our school curriculum please either speak to Miss Murphy or to Mrs Shears who will be happy to help. 

Letters and Sounds

In Nursery School we use the Letters and Sounds Phase 1 materials to promote, encourage and enhance children's early phonics skills. There are a series of games and activities included in the document which can be used 1-1 or in small groups.  It is very important that children are able to discriminate between different sounds before being able to sound them out verbally.  There are seven aspects to Phase 1 which we plan to cover during your child's time with us.  Please see the PDF just below for more information.  

Throughout Phase 1 of Letters and Sounds children will:

•  develop their language structures;
•  increase their vocabulary;
•  begin to distinguish between sounds in words;
•  speak clearly and audibly;
•  become familiar with rhyme, rhythm and alliteration;
•  listen attentively;
•  explore and experiment with sounds and words;

Activities to support learning in Phase 1 include:

•  storytelling;
•  singing songs;
•  listening to rhymes and repeating patterns and refrains;
•  playing alliterative games;
•  using creative language in role play, drama and dance;
•  identifying sounds in names, words in the environment etc.

We also explore Phase 2 of Letters and Sounds, and this is where we use 'Jolly Phonics'. Jolly Phonics is a programme for children that builds a thorough foundation for reading and writing. It’s method of teaching the letter sounds in a fun way. In Jolly Phonics the 42 main sounds of English are taught, not just the alphabet. Phoneme pronunciation is key to accurate blending. It is ‘ssssss’ not ‘suh’. We want a pure sound, without the ‘uh’ at the end.

Jolly Phonics

As part of our phonics teaching we also use the 'Jolly Phonics' programme to complement the 'Letters and Sounds' materials. Our 'Letters and Sounds' display in the creative room shows you which sounds we are focusing on, and the work that children do in school as a result.