EYFS
INTENT
Our intent for the Early Years Foundation Stage at Crackley Bank is to provide an education that enables and empowers all children to progress and achieve. We embrace the principles and commitments of the Early Years Foundation stage and build on this using a knowledge-based curriculum in which the children can then become equipped for the next stage in their learning. The school rules are established, reinforced and we provide a warm secure trusting environment, so children feel safe to learn.
When our Nursery children enter school, many come in with low social, emotional and physical skills. This can include toileting issues, speech and communication skills can be also be limited, therefore our children need support to follow instructions and make friends. We prioritise the three prime areas of learning in Nursery to include both indoor and outdoor provision, we teach children how to listen, speak clearly and meet the high expectations for behaviour promoting independence from the onset. As children become more independent and secure in their environment, we teach a curriculum that then considers all seven areas of learning encompassing crucial knowledge which provides a clear and sequenced curriculum that prepares the children for KS1.
Reading and writing are an essential part of a child’s life; as they are the key to unlocking learning, accessing instructions, information and knowledge. Therefore, we have made reading the heart of our curriculum design to capture children's interests and imagination. Our curriculum is based around carefully chosen stories giving us the opportunities to teach children about what is important in their world as well as the wider world around them both academically and emotionally. Teaching phonics daily ensures that children are given the tools that they need to read and write for themselves.
Counting and number is an integral part of the EYFS, and children are taught the counting principals from Nursery through everyday experiences as well as direct teaching. This underpins the value of number, focusing children's understanding throughout Reception to ensure that knowledge is embedded so children are ready for the KS1 curriculum.
At Crackley Bank our children’s learning journey starts in Nursery. The information and knowledge at this stage provides a solid foundation that will be built upon throughout their academic journey in our school, across the range of subjects. We provide children with real life experiences, this can be providing out of school visits, experiencing wildlife in class and seeing knowledge in action, for example the changing seasons of the year or the life cycle of a butterfly, inspiring awe and wonder. One such subject could be History for example, Nursery children talk about History in terms of time, what happened just, this morning and yesterday, Reception children are taught to have an awareness of the past by discovering how they have changed over time and begin to have an awareness that things happened before they were born, they look at pictures from the past and discover that things were different. This supports them in Year One, as they learn about times long before they were born, finding out about Potters and living in the 60’s.
The Nursery and Reception curriculum provides a holistic and person-centred approach to teaching and learning. Staff are knowledgeable to what children need to progress socially, emotionally and educationally and respond to children’s needs sensitively to develop independence and self-regulation. This in turn allows children to have the skills and knowledge required for a fluid, confident transition into Year 1 and fully embraces the school ethos of Care + Belief + Pride = Success.
