EYFS Curriculum

EYFS Lead - Miss K.Lyon

In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) we understand that a child’s early experiences have a major impact on their future life chances. Therefore, we aim to ensure the children are kept safe and healthy, whilst giving each individual child the support, knowledge and skills to provide the right foundations and attitudes for good future progress, throughout school and life.

We know each child develops in different ways and development is not a linear or automatic process; it depends on each unique child having opportunities to interact in positive relationships and enabling environments that encourage their engagement and recognise their strengths. This is reflected in the EYFS over-arching principles (Statutory Framework 2021):

• A Unique Child
• Positive Relationships
• Enabling Environments
• Learning and Development

The children in the EYFS learn skills, acquire new knowledge and demonstrate their understanding through seven areas of learning and development. All of which are interconnected.

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

· Communication and Language

· Physical Development

· Personal, Social and Emotional Development

These Prime Areas are strengthened and applied through four Specific Areas:

· Literacy

· Mathematics

· Understanding the World

· Expressive Arts

Communication and Language

Through reading frequently to the children, and actively engaging them in quality back-and-forth conversations in our language-rich environment, the foundations for language and cognitive development is formed. New vocabulary is introduced and extensive opportunities, such as story-telling and role-play, are used to embed these words in a range of contexts giving the children the opportunity to thrive. Children are encouraged to share and elaborate on their ideas, making them feel comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Through strong, warm and supportive relationships our children learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others. They learn how to make good friendships, co-operate and resolve conflicts peaceably. They are supported to manage emotions, develop a positive sense of self, set themselves simple goals, have confidence in their own abilities, to persist and wait for what they want and direct their attention as necessary. Through modelling and guidance, the children learn how to look after their bodies, including healthy eating, and managing personal needs independently, including teeth brushing. This is crucial for them to lead healthy and happy lives.

Physical Development

By providing opportunities for play and games, both indoors and out, the adults support the children to develop their core strength, stability, balance, spatial awareness, co-ordination and agility. Gross motor skills provide the foundation for developing healthy bodies and social and emotional well-being, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives. Repeated and varied opportunities to explore and play allow children to develop their fine motor control, hand-eye coordination, proficiency, control and confidence.

Literacy

Children are given access to a wide range of quality reading materials (books- both stories and non-fiction, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest and develop a life-long love of reading. Language comprehension is developed through talking with the children about the world around them and the books that have been read, rhymes, poems and songs sang together. Literacy development involves teaching children to link sounds and letters to decode unfamiliar printed words and read them aloud accurately. We also practise speedy recognition of common irregular words. This is taught through a synthetic phonics programme called Read, Write Inc. (See separate section). Daily writing involves articulating ideas and structuring speech to compose sentences to write based on the stories that have been read. Handwriting also supports the children’s ability to write. 

Mathematics

Through teaching a deep understanding of numbers, the relationship between them and the patterns within those numbers children develop positive attitudes and interests in mathematics, supporting them to excel.  Frequent and varied opportunities to apply their understanding allows them to ‘have a go’, develop their vocabulary and ability to talk about numbers, from which mastery of mathematics is built. In addition to this, children are given rich and purposeful opportunities to develop their spacial reasoning skills across all areas of mathematics including shape, space and measures.

Understanding the World

Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to experience, explore, observe and find out about people, times, places, technology and the environment. Through discussions and a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems the children will foster an understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world.

Expressive Arts and Design

Expressive arts and design enables children to develop their imagination and creativity through exploring and playing with a wide range of media and materials. Through engaging in art, music, movement, dance, role-play and design and technology children develop their understanding, self-expression, appreciation, vocabulary and ability to communicate through the arts.

For a more detailed look at what your child has learnt this week - please see the 'Learning Log' in their Home/School Diary!

Early Learning Goals

By the end of the Reception year the children are expected to have attained a certain level of development.

These are defined as the following Early Learning Goals:

Communication and Language

ELG: Listening, Attention and Understanding

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Listen attentively and respond to what they hear with relevant questions, comments and actions when being read to and during whole class discussions and small group interactions;

 - Make comments about what they have heard and ask questions to clarify their understanding;

- Hold conversation when engaged in back-and-forth exchanges with their teacher and peers.

ELG: Speaking

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Participate in small group, class and one-to-one discussions, offering their own ideas, using recently introduced vocabulary;

- Offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems when appropriate;

- Express their ideas and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past, present and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

ELG: Self-Regulation

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Show an understanding of their own feelings and those of others, and begin to regulate their behaviour accordingly;

- Set and work towards simple goals, being able to wait for what they want and control their immediate impulses when appropriate;

- Give focused attention to what the teacher says, responding appropriately even when engaged in activity, and show an ability to follow instructions involving several ideas or actions.

ELG: Managing Self

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Be confident to try new activities and show independence, resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge;

- Explain the reasons for rules, know right from wrong and try to behave accordingly;

- Manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs, including dressing, going to the toilet and understanding the importance of healthy food choices.

ELG: Building Relationships

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Work and play cooperatively and take turns with others;

- Form positive attachments to adults and friendships with peers;

- Show sensitivity to their own and to others’ needs.

Physical Development

ELG: Gross Motor Skills

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Negotiate space and obstacles safely, with consideration for themselves and others;

- Demonstrate strength, balance and coordination when playing;

- Move energetically, such as running, jumping, dancing, hopping, skipping and climbing.

ELG: Fine Motor Skills

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Hold a pencil effectively in preparation for fluent writing – using the tripod grip in almost all cases;

- Use a range of small tools, including scissors, paint brushes and cutlery;

- Begin to show accuracy and care when drawing.

Literacy

ELG: Comprehension

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary;

- Anticipate – where appropriate – key events in stories;

- Use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems and during role-play.

ELG: Word Reading

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs;

- Read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending;

- Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.

ELG: Writing

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed;

- Spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a letter or letters;

- Write simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others.

Mathematics

ELG: Number

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Have a deep understanding of number to 10, including the composition of each number;

 - Subitise (recognise quantities without counting) up to 5;

- Automatically recall (without reference to rhymes, counting or other aids) number bonds up to 5 (including subtraction facts) and some number bonds to 10, including double facts.

ELG: Numerical Patterns

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Verbally count beyond 20, recognising the pattern of the counting system;

- Compare quantities up to 10 in different contexts, recognising when one quantity is greater than, less than or the same as the other quantity;

- Explore and represent patterns within numbers up to 10, including evens and odds, double facts and how quantities can be distributed equally.

Understanding the World

ELG: Past and Present

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society;

- Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class;

- Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling.

ELG: People, Culture and Communities

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps;

- Know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class;

- Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and – when appropriate – maps.

ELG: The Natural World

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants;

- Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class;

- Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter.

Expressive Arts and Design

ELG: Creating with Materials

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function;

- Share their creations, explaining the process they have used;

- Make use of props and materials when role playing characters in narratives and stories.

ELG: Being Imaginative and Expressive

Children at the expected level of development will:

- Invent, adapt and recount narratives and stories with peers and their teacher;

- Sing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs;

- Perform songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others, and – when appropriate – try to move in time with music.

Our recommended reads...

Useful links...

For more information about the Early Years Foundation Stage, please follow the link below:

http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2015/01/EYFS_Parents_Guide-amended1.pdf

For more information about Read, Write Inc. please follow the link below:

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/programmes/phonics/

For more information on Imagination Library, please follow the link below:

https://imaginationlibrary.com/uk/

For more information about how to support your child at home with mathematics, please follow the link below:

https://whiterosemaths.com/advice-and-guidance

If you have concerns about your child’s learning or development, please see the North Lincs Local Offer Website:

https://www.northlincslocaloffer.com/