St Mary's CE Primary School

St Mary's CE Primary School
Love Learning. Love Each Other.

EYFS

The Foundation Stage covers both Nursery and Reception age groups with a exciting and progressive curriculum that ensures our children flourish.

We have an experienced and able Early Years Team and they will ensure that each child has a happy and settled start to their education at St Mary's.

EYFS

Please contact the Office to book in for our Reception Open Days:

Tuesday 15th October at 1.15pm

Monday 11th November at 1.15pm

Wednesday 4th December at 1.15pm

 

The EYFS curriculum has seven areas of learning and development:

 

Communication and Language Development

The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. At St Mary's we recognise the importance of the number and quality of the conversations our children have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment. We recognise by commenting on what our children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added, builds our children's language effectively. We reading frequently to children, and engaging them actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems, and then providing them with extensive opportunities to use and embed new words in a range of contexts, to give our children the opportunity to thrive. Through conversation, storytelling and role play our children share their ideas with support and modelling from our staff. Precise and sensitive questioning invites our children to elaborate, so they become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures.

 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Children’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives, and is fundamental to their cognitive development. Underpinning their personal development are the important attachments that shape their social world. At St Mary's we pride ourselves on developing strong, warm and supportive relationships with our staff to enable our children to learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others. Children 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 attention as necessary. Our staff model and guide our children so they will learn how to look after their bodies, including how to eat healthy and manage personal needs independently. Through supported interaction with other children, they learn how to make good friendships, co-operate and resolve conflicts peaceably. These attributes will provide a secure foundation for our children to achieve at St Mary's and in later life.

 

Literacy

At St Mary's we love books and use them as a tool to engage our children in the magical world of literature. It is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading. Reading consists of two dimensions: language comprehension and word reading. Language comprehension (necessary for both reading and writing) starts from birth. It only develops when adults talk with children about the world around them and the books (stories and non-fiction) they read with them, and enjoy rhymes, poems and songs together. Through the teaching of phonics the children will begin to learn to read and write so that by the time they leave Reception they will have the skills to become an independent reader and writer. Skilled word reading, involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words. Writing involves transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech, before writing).

 

Mathematics

Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that our children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers by the time they leave Recaption. By providing frequent and varied opportunities to build and apply this understanding - such as using manipulatives, including small pebbles and tens frames for organising counting - children will develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built. In addition, it is important that the curriculum includes rich opportunities for children to develop their spatial reasoning skills across all areas of mathematics including shape, space and measures. It is important that children develop positive attitudes and interests in mathematics, look for patterns and relationships, spot connections, ‘have a go’, talk to adults and peers about what they notice and not be afraid to make mistakes.

 

Expressive Art and Design

The development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that our children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. The quality and variety of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing their understanding, self-expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate through the arts. The frequency, repetition and depth of their experiences are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.

 

Physical Development

Physical activity is vital in children’s all-round development, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives. Gross and fine motor experiences develop incrementally throughout early childhood, starting with sensory explorations and the development of a child’s strength, co-ordination and positional awareness through tummy time, crawling and play movement with both objects and adults. By creating games and providing opportunities for play both indoors and outdoors, adults can support 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. Fine motor control and precision helps with hand-eye co-ordination, which is later linked to early literacy. Repeated and varied opportunities to explore and play with small world activities, puzzles, arts and crafts and the practice of using small tools, with feedback and support from adults, allow children to develop proficiency, control and confidence.

 

Understanding the World

Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.