Intent
At Heathcote Primary School, our aim is to create a learning environment which supports, enhances and invites your child’s curiosity, confidence and individuality to flourish regardless of backgrounds, circumstances or needs. Positive relationships will be built to support children's confidence and well-being. We aim to work collaboratively with parents and carers to encourage independent, enthusiastic learners who thrive and reach their full potential. It is our intent that children who enter our EYFS begin their lifelong learning journey by developing their sense of self whilst also embedding a positive attitude to school and a love of learning.
To ensure children make the best progress they can at Heathcote, it is our intent to take into consideration the individual starting points and needs of our pupils as they begin their learning journey. Every child has access to a broad, balanced and adapted curriculum which prepares them for now and for the future in terms of opportunities and experiences. Following personal interests and individual needs, allows us to plan and provide opportunities throughout our EYFS curriculum to support learning and development and achieve their next steps.
Our EYFS curriculum aims to enable our children to be:
- Confident and creative learners; who show curiosity and want to find out about the world around them.
- Secure and resilient individuals; who enjoy coming to school and learning new skills and knowledge, applying these with growing independence.
- Skilful communicators; who connect with others through language and play, ensuring that they engage with a vocabulary rich environment.
At Heathcote, we ensure that all children will receive the very best start to their reading journey through the teaching of phonics through our systematic, synthetic phonics programme 'Read Write Inc'. This enables children to progress quickly to learn to read and write words and simple sentences accurately by the end of Reception.
Early Maths is an important start to building that strong foundation in understanding number. We use the NCETM 'Mastering Number' approach to ensure children have a solid start in their mathematical knowledge.
Building positive relationships and communicating well with parents is a priority and we use ‘Tapestry’ to help us to do this effectively. In Early Years we share with parents detail regarding what is being taught in school, observations of children’s learning and achievements and reminders for key dates and activities.
Implementation
The Characteristics of Effective Learning underpin our curriculum to ensure we are supporting the development of the whole child.
- Playing and Exploring: Children investigate and experience things, and "have a go" at new activities. This includes exploring their environment, engaging in imaginative play, and trying out new things.
- Active Learning: Children concentrate and persevere when facing challenges, enjoying their achievements. This involves engaging with tasks, staying focused, and not giving up when things get difficult.
- Creating and Thinking Critically: Children develop their own ideas, make connections, and find strategies for doing things. This includes using creative thinking, problem-solving, and developing critical thinking skills.
These characteristics describe the behaviours children use to learn and are broken down into three key areas: Playing and Exploring, Active Learning, and Creating and Thinking Critically. These CoEL are not just about what children do, but also about how they do it, emphasising their learning dispositions and engagement.
At Heathcote Primary, we use the EYFS framework to ensure our children learn and develop well, are healthy and safe, and have the knowledge and skills needed to successfully begin their learning journey in school.
The EYFS framework includes 7 key areas. Communication and Language, Physical Development, Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED), Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, and Expressive Arts and Design. These areas are grouped into prime areas (Communication and Language, Physical Development, PSED) and specific areas (Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, Expressive Arts and Design).
Prime Areas: These areas are considered foundational for a child's overall development and lay the groundwork for future learning.
- Communication and Language: Focuses on developing children's ability to express themselves and understand others, including speaking, listening, and early literacy skills.
- Physical Development: Centers on promoting children's physical health, coordination, and self-care skills, as well as their understanding of their own bodies.
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED): Supports children's self-awareness, emotional regulation, building positive relationships, and understanding social situations.
Specific Areas: These areas build upon the prime areas and provide children with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in society.
- Literacy: Focuses on developing early reading and writing skills, including phonics, word recognition, and comprehension.
- Mathematics: Builds children's understanding of numbers, shapes, measures, and spatial reasoning.
- Understanding the World: Helps children make sense of their physical world and community, exploring different cultures and environments.
- Expressive Arts and Design: Encourages children's creativity and self-expression through various mediums like art, music, dance, and drama.
We use 'Cornerstones' to help create an overview for our termly foci which allow us to explore key concepts and to scaffold and develop children's knowledge and skills. Within these topics the children engage with finding out about the changing seasons, natural phenomena, the past, our community, language and vocabulary, culture, music, art, movement, wildlife, nature and our world.
Developing a love of reading for our children is incredibly important and we spend the first term prioritising sharing quality texts and learning rhymes and poems. The children's learning of phonics begins and using our phonics programme 'Read, Write, Inc', the children are introduced to letter sounds and learn to blend sounds to read words and segment sounds in words to write. They are taught rhymes to help them to form each letter correctly and quickly learn how to put these sounds together to make words.
In number, our initial focus is on the five principles of counting. These principles are crucial for children to develop a solid understanding of counting and its connection to number.
1. One-to-one correspondence: This principle states that each object in a group should be counted once, and only once, with a corresponding number name. For example, when counting a set of 5 apples, each apple should be associated with one number name (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), and no apple should be counted twice.
2. Stable order: This principle emphasizes the consistent and unchanging order of number names when counting. Children need to know the sequence of numbers and understand that this order will always remain the same (1, 2, 3, 4, ...).
3. Cardinal principle: This principle highlights that the last number said when counting a set of objects represents the total number of objects in that set. In the example of the 5 apples, the last number said (5) indicates the total quantity of apples.
4. Abstraction principle: This principle expands the concept of counting beyond tangible objects. It allows counting anything, including things that cannot be touched or seen, such as sounds, movements, or even imaginary objects.
5. Order irrelevance principle: This principle emphasizes that the order in which objects are counted within a group is not important, as long as each object is counted once and only once. The total quantity will remain the same regardless of whether the counting starts from the left, right, or any other order.
We spend a lot of time practising the skill of 'subitising' (the ability to instantly recognise the number of objects in a small group without counting them one by one) and look closely at the composition of numbers to 5 which we then build upon to 10. Children explore the concepts of 'more', 'fewer' and 'equal' to compare numbers, and then finding more or less to understand addition and subtraction. Odd and even numbers and doubles are explored, all using a range of concrete manipulatives and visual representations to support understanding.
Impact
Children at Heathcote leave EYFS with a strong sense of community, knowing that they are a part of and that they belong in our school. They have confidence in their learning and competence in their developing skills across the seven areas. Children move into Year 1, starting the National Curriculum with a solid foundation which they have consolidated throughout the Reception Year.
Assessment for learning takes place continuously throughout the children’s time in Reception, where staff observations support the learning opportunities that are offered to ensure challenge whilst also addressing misconceptions. Summative assessment points take place at three key points throughout the year to ensure effective progress tracking. This enables us to identify children needing support and swiftly put this in place. Moderation takes place both within school and within our local cluster.
After completing the EYFS, our children continue their learning journey as happy, confident learners who can communicate with fluency, show respect as a listener and show pride in themselves as they challenge themselves to be the best they can be.
