EYFS Page 24

Implementation:

Our Westfield Curriculum follows the requirements from the statutory framework for EYFS and is based on this and our beliefs and values as a school. It ensures all our children learn, develop well whilst achieving their full potential and are kept healthy and safe.

Our curriculum is implemented through the four overarching principles which shape the practice of early years’ settings. These are:

• Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
• Children learn to be strong and independent through positive
• Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioner and parents/carers.
• Children develop and learn in different ways. The framework and our curriculum cover the education and care of all children in early years’ provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Our curriculum is based around the seven areas of learning and development alongside the Characteristics of Effective Learning. All these areas are important and inter- connected. The seven areas are as follows:

Three prime areas which ignite curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relations and thriving are:

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

Four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied are:

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

The Characteristics of effective teaching and learning, which underpin our curriculum design and teaching pedagogy, are:

• Playing and exploring – through investigation, exploration and problem solving, 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.

Our EYFS curriculum is coherently planned and displays progressive and sequenced steps to success for all children in our care. It is designed to build upon what children know and can do, towards providing understanding and skills for their future learning and is designed to give all children the self-belief, confidence, knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.

The implementation of our curriculum involves a purposeful balance of child-led play-based learning and adult-led focused teaching.

It is taught through a broad range of topics which are all supported by a diverse collection of high quality texts, also allowing us to follow children’s interests within these.

The teaching of early reading is an integral part of our curriculum and is implemented through the systematic synthetic phonics scheme ‘Bug Club Phonics’. The teaching of early mathematics skills is an integral part of our curriculum and is implemented through ‘Master the Curriculum’ which links closely to the ‘White Rose’ mathematics scheme.

We create strong links between home and school by celebrating the children and their achievements through sharing photographs and anecdotes using Seesaw.

Assessment is continuous within EYFS. We judge and assess the children’s progress towards our Westfield Curriculum and the Early Learning Goals. We use observations and practitioners knowledge of the children alongside one-to-one specific assessments to track progress across the year in all learning areas and with a particular focus on phonics, reading, writing and mathematics. The information gained from our assessments enables us to ensure that children are ready for their next stage of learning and allows us to make adaptions where necessary to ensure all children are and feel successful.