Aims
Aims
At West End we aim to:
* provide children with a curriculum that offers children a wide range of opportunities and experiences. We work on broadening their experiences and providing opportunities to try new things and talk risks in their play.
At West End we aim to:
* provide children with a curriculum that offers children a wide range of opportunities and experiences. We work on broadening their experiences and providing opportunities to try new things and talk risks in their play.
* provide high expectations encouraging children to develop a ‘Yes I Can’ attitude. Developing resilience, perseverance and to be proud of their own achievements. We encourage children to explore, have a go, solve problems and achieve more than they thought they could.* provide an indoor and outdoor learning environment that helps and motivates children to achieve their potential and follow their interests.
* provide children with the opportunity to develop their sense of well-being and ability to self-regulate so that they feel confident in our school community and are equipped with the skills they need to be lifelong learners.
Implementation
Our Early Years Foundation Stage offers a curriculum that is progressive, challenging, language rich, flexible, engaging and exciting. Our curriculum reflects of the unique needs, passions and interests of our children. The curriculum meets the welfare requirements laid down in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and we actively safeguard and promote the welfare of all of our children with safeguarding systems and practices are underpinned by a culture of vigilance. We recognise that children will learn most effectively when they are healthy, safe and secure, when their individual needs are met and when they have positive relationships with the adults who care for them.
Our Foundation Stage provision offers the necessary balance of ‘teacher-led’, ‘child-initiated’ learning and the staff are highly skilled in knowing when to scaffold the children’s play and when to provide uninterrupted play opportunities. We create a supportive, calm and meaningful indoor and outdoor learning environment for children to play and engage in enquiry, discovery and reflection.
We value the importance of outdoor and physical learning and therefore the children
have daily opportunities to work within the indoor and outdoor provision. We want our children to have strong oracy skills and be confident in expressing their ideas, happy to make independent choices, and keen to explore the world around them. It is here in EYFS that we set down the roots of our curriculum approach at West End Primary.
Implementation
Our Early Years Foundation Stage offers a curriculum that is progressive, challenging, language rich, flexible, engaging and exciting. Our curriculum reflects of the unique needs, passions and interests of our children. The curriculum meets the welfare requirements laid down in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and we actively safeguard and promote the welfare of all of our children with safeguarding systems and practices are underpinned by a culture of vigilance. We recognise that children will learn most effectively when they are healthy, safe and secure, when their individual needs are met and when they have positive relationships with the adults who care for them.
Our Foundation Stage provision offers the necessary balance of ‘teacher-led’, ‘child-initiated’ learning and the staff are highly skilled in knowing when to scaffold the children’s play and when to provide uninterrupted play opportunities. We create a supportive, calm and meaningful indoor and outdoor learning environment for children to play and engage in enquiry, discovery and reflection.
We value the importance of outdoor and physical learning and therefore the children
have daily opportunities to work within the indoor and outdoor provision. We want our children to have strong oracy skills and be confident in expressing their ideas, happy to make independent choices, and keen to explore the world around them. It is here in EYFS that we set down the roots of our curriculum approach at West End Primary.
The ‘Prime Areas’
* Personal, Social and Emotional Development
* Physical Development
* Communication and Language
Are at the heart of our Nursery and Reception curriculum and provision and are what our staff concern themselves with every moment of each day to ensure the environment and the relationships are right for each child to flourish as a unique individual.
Recognising the importance of the Prime Areas, the EYFS team carefully utilise their skills when delivering quality interactions to support the children with their listening, attention, speaking and social development.
The ‘Specific Areas’ (builds upon Prime Areas)
* Literacy
* Mathematics
* Understanding the World
* Expressive Arts and Design
We encourage a love for reading through our daily ‘Favourite Five’ core books, the children are encouraged to take part in a ‘story vote’ from topic based stories and stories are read throughout the day during play activities. Our children experience every opportunity to develop excellent literacy and communication skills through access to a wide range of writing activities. Songs and rhymes are carefully planned for and visual materials are used to stimulate their early reading and listening skills.
Little Wandle Phonics
We follow the ‘Little Wandle’ phonics programme. Nursery work on ‘Foundations for phonics and focus on listen for sounds and hearing the initial sound. In Reception, the children work on recognition of key sounds, letters and spellings, making an early start on learning new technical vocabulary essential later on in school.
Opportunities for reading and writing for different purposes are given during adult-initiated sessions, as well as being rooted in all areas of our classroom provision, encouraging independent application of new knowledge and skills.
White Rose Maths
Early mathematical knowledge is an essential foundation of every child’s educational journey. Mathematics is taught through stories, songs, games, imaginative and practical activities. Children learn to count, recite and recognise numbers to ten and beyond. They learn to make comparisons of quantities with language such as ‘more’ and ‘less’. Children begin to represent numbers using fingers, marks and pictures before they learn to write each numeral independently. Simple calculations are set in the context of number problems or challenges to introduce addition and subtraction. We follow White Rose Maths scheme in Reception and we have carefully planned the foundations for maths in Nursery, ensuring the children are ready to begin White Rose Maths in Reception.