Learning and development

Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up. 

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

EYFS

The provision for children's development and learning is guided by The Early Years Foundation Stage DfE 2021. 

Our provision reflects the four guiding themes and principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners, parents and carers.

Learning and Development

Children develop and learn in different ways. the framework covers the education and care of all children in early years’ provision including children with special educational needs and disabilities.

 

The EYFS seeks to provide: 

  • Quality and consistency in all early years settings, so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind 
  • A secure foundation through planning for the learning and development of each individual child, and assessing and reviewing what they have learned regularly 
  • Partnership working between practitioners and with parents and/or carers 
  • Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported.

 

The 7 areas of The EYFS

Three areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving. 
These are the prime areas: 

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

 Providers must also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. 
The specific areas are: 

  • Literacy 
  • Mathematics 
  • Understanding the world 
  • Expressive arts and design

In planning and guiding what children learn, practitioners must reflect on the different rates at which children are developing and adjust their practice appropriately. 

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.

 

 

 

Learning through play

Play helps young children to learn and develop through doing and talking, which research has shown to be the means by which young children learn to think. Our setting uses the Early Years Foundation Stage ‘Development Matters guidance to plan and provide a range of play activities which help children to make progress in each of the areas of learning and development. In some of these activities children decide how they will use the activity and, in others, an adult takes the lead in helping the children to take part in the activity. In all activities information from the Development Matters guidance to the Early Years Foundation Stage has been used to decide what equipment to provide and how to provide it.

Our Curriculum

The aim of our curriculum is to equip children with the skills and knowledge they need to explore and understand the world around them. We believe that children grow and develop when they have access to a well thought out learning environment and engaged adults. The teaching and learning of new skills and knowledge is delivered through both adult and child led opportunities both indoors and outdoors. We focus on the importance of knowledge and skills that will support children in every way possible so that they can make the most of opportunities and fulfil their potential along with promoting their independence. 

Communication & Language

Our intent is for children to leave us confident in -

  • Using a wide variety of signing words
  • Wide and varied vocabulary
  • To hold an appropriate, reciprocal conversation (turn taking, waiting, responding)
  • Learning when it is appropriate to talk and when to remain quiet
  • To be able to communicate their wants, needs, likes and dislikes appropriately

 

Personal, social & emotional

Our intent is for children to leave us confident in -

  • Regulating emotions and behaviours
  • Talking about their thoughts and feelings
  • Knowing all about themselves and who they are
  • Talking to adults for help and guidance
  • Knowing when they need the toilet and managing this themselves
  • Having good hygiene habits

Physical
Our intent is for children to leave us confident in -

  • Feeding themselves effectively
  • Using their fine motor skills to operate scissors, pegs, tweezers and threading
  • Holding a pencil comfortably and effectively
  • Using their gross motor skills for coordination and balance
  • Having good spatial awareness
  • Pedalling a tricycle

Literacy

Our intent is for children to leave us confident in -

  • Drawing lines, circles and tracing their name
  • Recognising their written name
  • Recalling stories from memory and thinking about what might happen next or at the end
  • Being interested in books, the words and the pictures, retelling the story
  • Reciting songs and rhymes

Maths

  • Our intent is for children to leave us confident in -
  • Counting to 10
  • Recognising numbers to 10
  • Knowing one more or one less than a number up to 10
  • Counting objects up to 10
  • Grouping objects by colour, shape or type
  • Knowing simple shapes, square, circle, triangle, rectangle
  • Knowing simple colours
  • Recognising patterns
  • Using mathematical language (big, small, tall, short, more, less, heavy, light)Understanding prepositions

Understanding the world

Our intent is for children to leave us confident in -

  • Understanding themselves, their culture and their family
  • Exploring and understanding other cultures
  • Understanding simple lifecycles (frog, chicken, caterpillar)
  • Understanding caring for plants and creatures in the environment
  • Understanding safety (road, fire, house, stranger, water)

Expressive art & design

Our intent is for children to leave us confident in -

  • Exploring different medias, materials and textures
  • Expressing themselves through their play by taking on a role
  • Making and following rhythms
  • Moving their bodies to music
  • Using their imagination in play

Characteristics of effective learning

Our intent is for children to leave us confident in -

  • Persisting and keep on trying when things go wrong
  • Maintaining their focus on an activity
  • Being curious and interested in objects and the world around them
  • Making predictions and testing out their ideas
  • Using their own initiative and thinking of ideas
  • Finding ways to solve problems
  • Challenging themselves
  • Evaluating their own learning

Implementation - How we will support our children to learn and grow

  • Observe children at play and plan activities that follow their interests and introduce them to new ideas and concepts
  • Being specific with our praise, noting how well children solve problems, have ideas, and negotiate.
  • Use additional funding to support children as identified.
  • Share and discuss experiences
  • Role model positive language and positive behaviour
  • Provide supervised opportunities for turn taking.
  • Provide real life experiences
  • Use signing to support basic English language / for children to express their own wants and needs.
  • Well planned learning environments indoors and outdoors that promote the focus on learning.
  • Know and understand the areas of learning and development.
  • By building a good relationship with both key children and their immediate family.
  • Know how each child plays and learns.
  • Work with parents to ensure they are able to support their child's learning at home.

Special educational needs and disabilities

To make sure that our provision meets the needs of each individual child, we take account of any special needs a child may have. We work to the requirements of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (2015).

The term Special Educational Needs (SEN) has a legal definition. People with special educational needs have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age.

Special educational needs fall under four broad areas:

  • Communication and interaction
  • Cognition and learning
  • Social, mental and emotional health
  • Sensory and/or physical

Children with special educational needs may need extra help with:

  • Thinking and understanding
  • Physical or sensory difficulties
  • Emotional or social difficulties
  • Difficulties with speech and language
  • How they relate to and behave with other people

The Preschool SENDCo is Jennifer.

 

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