Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum Statement

Intent, implementation and impact of the Early Years Foundation Stage at St. Anne’s Catholic Primary School.  The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) applies to all children from birth to the end of the Reception year.

Our Mission statement ‘Each one of us is unique, each one of us is special because we are created by God’s Love. May God’s love shine on our lives as we care and share and learn together’ is at the heart of everything we do. We place a strong emphasis on the religious, spiritual, moral and cultural development of all our pupils.

EYFS INTENT

We recognise the crucial role that early year’s education has in providing firm foundations upon which the rest of a child’s education is successfully based. It is our intent that all children have a secure foundation to develop physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally. Our values, virtues, and Catholic Social teachings inform our daily lives and make us the best version of ourselves. As part of the Catholic faith, we recognise, respect and value all people, cultures, communities and the belief of others.  We aim for our children to be confident and independent, to believe in themselves and interact positively with others. 

We work in close partnership with parents and carers to nurture happy, independent children who strive to do their very best and reach their God-given potential. 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 right from the start.

Speech, language and communication is at the heart of learning. We create a ‘language rich’ environment through songs, nursery rhymes, stories and quality interactions between adults and between peers. Staff ensure that interactions are positive and progressive, allowing children to flourish and gather words at pace in order to become confident communicators.

We recognise children’s prior learning and know each child is a unique and precious creation of God, with their own gifts and experiences. We provide a stimulating environment that provides exciting opportunities, promotes challenge, exploration, adventure and a real love of learning. We offer a curriculum rich in wonder and memorable experiences.

We value play as a way through which young children make sense of the world around them and come to know themselves and others. We offer a balance of adult-led and child-initiated learning through whole class, small group and continuous play based activities.  We know that young children learn best when they are active and that active learning involves other people, objects, ideas and events that engage and involve children.

Our curriculum is designed to develop ‘The Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning’, which is threaded throughout the seven areas of learning; they show the different ways that children learn. 

The three characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:

• Playing and Exploring-Children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;
• Active Learning-Children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements;
• Creating and thinking critically- Children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things. 

EYFS IMPLEMENTATION

The implementation of the EYFS curriculum adheres to the learning and development, assessment, safeguarding and welfare requirements of the EYFS Statutory Framework.

We follow the four overarching principles, which shape practice in our early years setting. 

• A Unique Child- every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
• Positive Relationships- children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
• Enabling Environments- children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
• Learning and Development– importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates.

The Early Years Foundation Stage is a curriculum from birth to five years old. There are seven areas of learning (3 Prime and 4 Specific). The three Prime areas of learning are those which the children should develop first and are considered most essential for the healthy development and future learning of our children. As children grow and make progress in the prime areas, this will help them to naturally develop skills within the four specific areas: 

PRIME AREAS

Communication and language

Physical development

Personal, social and emotional development

SPECIFIC AREAS

Literacy

Mathematics

Understanding the world

Expressive arts and design

The teaching of Religious Education follows the Archdiocese of Birmingham’s strategy: “Learning and Growing as the People of God”. We provide an engaging and nurturing curriculum that reflects the dignity and uniqueness of each child as a child of God. Through a thematic approach enriched with classroom enhancements, educational visits, and visitors from the wider community, children are invited to explore the wonder of God's world. Topics are supported by carefully chosen, high-quality key texts to support the development of children’s speech, language, and communication, fostering a love of words and stories — including those that speak of faith, kindness, and hope.

Speech, language and communication is at the heart of learning. We create a ‘language rich’ environment through the use of songs, nursery rhymes, stories and quality interactions between adults and between peers. 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 play based and full of hands on activities. We promote a genuine love of learning, inspired by the joy of God's creation. Our long term and medium term planning provides experiences which build on children’s existing knowledge and understanding in order to challenge, stimulate and extend their learning and development. Planning can be flexible and responsive to children’s ideas, interests and needs.

Our learning environment — both indoors and outdoors — is carefully prepared to be a place of peace, purpose, and exploration. It reflects our Catholic ethos of care, respect, and reverence for creation. The adults act as compassionate play partners who support, guide, and question in ways that promote deeper thinking and moral development. Through purposeful play, children are supported to work together, show empathy, manage their feelings, and ask meaningful questions about the world and their place within it as part of God’s family.

The timetable is carefully structured so that children have directed teaching during the day. The timetable changes throughout the year and this directed teaching is increased more in Reception to take into consideration the changing needs of the children. Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and our aim is to encourage a love of reading right from the start. The children in Nursery receive the teaching of pre-reading and early reading skills through the use of DfE ‘Letters and Sounds’ phase one phonics and ‘Talk for Reading’ strategies. During the summer term in Nursery and in the Reception year we use systematic, synthetic phonics which is the ‘Read Write Inc.’ scheme. Children learn to read words and simple sentences accurately and with increasing fluency by the end of Reception. 

We also place a strong emphasis on family partnership, encouraging reading at home and sharing stories together. Children are listened to regularly in school. They are given books that match their phonic knowledge in order for them to apply their learning with the aim of becoming successful, confident and fluent readers.  Chidlren are encouraged to become early readers through the love and enjoyment of books.  We develop their oracy, vocabulary and comprehension.  Children who need support receive additional intervention through additional reading with an adult in school, RWI 1:1 tution and the NELI programme. 

The children 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. In Reception we use the ‘White Rose’ maths scheme to support children’s maths development. Pupils complete tasks using concrete manipulatives, pictorial structures and representations. This is then rehearsed, applied and recorded.

Our school environment enables our children to strengthen their core muscles through physical play.  We develop children physical literacy through a range of gross and fine motor development. Children can climb, balance and move freely in the outdoor area. ‘Wake and shake’ dances and Yoga sessions are part of our daily timetable.  Children spend time outdoors in their natural environment in all weathers. They develop through wonderful, exploratory, sensory experiences in our mud kitchen, digging area and sandpit.

Staff plan and work together to ensure continuity and progression.  Links are made with subject leaders and Year One staff. Our long-term and medium-term planning reflects both the EYFS framework and our Catholic mission. The long term and medium term plans ensure progression and coverage across age and stage related expectations in all areas of learning and development to work towards achieving the Early Learning Goals and a Good Level of Development by the end of Reception.

We use the Observation, Assessment and Planning cycle as described in the EYFS guidance.  Children are observed and assessed during adult focused activities and child initiated play. Our ongoing observations and meaningful interactions help us to respond to the needs of each child with kindness and care, ensuring that planning and next steps support their individual potential to flourish. All staff communicate and share their observations of all children.

We ensure smooth transitions from home to Nursery, from Nursery to Reception and Reception to Year One. Parents are encouraged to actively engage in their child's learning through a variety of ways. We invite parents to a variety of events throughout the year. We operate an open door policy and practitioners are available to talk to parents at the start and end of each day. Parents receive curriculum overviews to inform them of what their child will be learning each term. Home learning activities, including 'Building the Kingdom' question invite parents to build on the learning taking place in school, supporting children as they grow in knowledge, skills, and faith.
 

Our themeatic approach to learning has been developed to provide children with a broad knowledge base for future learning. Children are taught through a talk aloud picture books and high quality texts chosen to develop their knowledge, understanding and vocabulary. 
The following topics are carefully planned with progressive outcomes.

EYFS IMPACT

Through our Gospel Values, Celebration of the Word, RE curriculum, Catholic Social Teaching and Building the Kingdom, we support children’s spiritual growth to become the best they can be and make a difference in our diverse, ever-changing society. Throughout their time in EYFS, we aim to foster a deep sense of belonging to our school family and wider community. We shape and develop their ability to be responsible and compassionate, whilst being fair and caring individuals. They leave the Foundation Stage not only as capable learners but also as kind-hearted and respectful members of our school community who live out our Gospel values in their daily lives.

Before children, begin their school journey, our staff engage in heartfelt conversations with parents and previous caregivers, recognising their unique gifts and gaining an understanding of the whole child.  We complete the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) a statutory 

assessment. This provides a snapshot of where pupils are when they arrive at school and provides a starting point to measure the progress schools make with their pupils between reception and the end of primary school.

During the first few weeks in Nursery and Reception, staff use ongoing assessments, observations and conversations with the child to develop a baseline. This identifies each individual’s starting points in all areas so we can plan experiences to ensure progress towards the national expectation for a good level of development at the end of the Reception year. 

Children grow in their characteristics of effective learning, guided by the gifts of curiosity and perseverance that God has given them. Children can take small risks, reflect and discuss on their successes and failures with both peers and adults. New vocabulary and concepts are repeated, reviewed and applied. The role of play partner enables staff to build trusting, compassionate relationships, getting to know each child as a unique child of God—aware of their interests and areas where they may need additional encouragement. Staff lovingly support children’s learning by scaffolding, modelling, and providing guidance when needed, creating moments of shared, sustained thinking that nurture both the mind and spirit.

Observations are used to inform planning and identify children’s next steps. This formative assessment does not involve prolonged periods of time away from the children or excessive paper work. Practitioners draw on their knowledge of the child and their own expert professional judgements. Practitioners are involved with internal, local authority and MAC moderation events.

Phonic assessments are carried out regularly to quickly identify pupils that are not making expected progress. These children have daily phonics intervention to help them catch up quickly. We actively seek parents input to their child’s learning and development and this is used to support practitioner’s judgements. 

As part of the learning and teaching process, children are assessed in relation to their progress towards the Early Learning Goals.  We use the non-statutory guidance ‘Development Matters’ to support practitioners with making a best fit judgement to judge if a child is on track or off track. These judgements are made on the basis of accumulative observations and in depth knowledge of the children acquired through ongoing observations, interactions and assessment.

In the summer term of Reception, the EYFSP is completed where teachers judge whether the child has met each of the 17 ELG’s. They report if the child has reached a Good Level of Development across the 12 areas of learning. The children will be assessed as either ‘on track’ or ‘off track.’ At the end of the academic year Reception staff provide a narrative for Year 1 teachers and parents are provided with an annual report which shows a summary of each child’s development in all 17 areas of learning.

Long term Plans