The Early Years Foundation Stage at Kentisbeare School
/web/schoollogo.png?width=1920&height=1080&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "School Logo")
Vision Statement: Early Years Foundation Stage
At Kentisbeare Primary School our intention is to provide the children with the best possible start to their education, teaching them valuable skills and providing rich learning opportunities which can be used as the building blocks for the children’s futures.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage at Kentisbeare Primary School we want our children to be confident, happy, unique individuals with a love for their learning. We believe in providing a safe and stimulating environment where all children can thrive and succeed which then allows them to believe in themselves and achieve their full potential. Children should have the opportunity to learn through their play. These learning experiences need to be fun, engaging and challenge the abilities of each individual child. Through high quality adult interactions and questioning, children view the adults as great role models for their learning. We value outdoor learning and are often seen outside the classroom in our beautiful school grounds. Here we inspire the children’s curiosity and develop their sense of awe and wonder of the world around them.
The Early Years Team at Kentisbeare
| Reception | Miss Lunn |
Early Years Lead & Reception Class Teacher |
| Mr Joyce | Reception Class Teaching Assistant | |
| Mrs Thompson | Reception Class Teaching Assistant | |
| Mrs Whitfield | Reception Class Teaching Assistant | |
| Miss Barnes | Reception Class Teaching Assistant | |
| Pre-School | Mrs Ireland | Pre-School Lead |
| Mrs Hicks | Pre-School Practioner | |
| Mrs E Joyce | Pre-School Practioner |
Our Early Years Topics
We have created an exciting rich curriculum with a range of topics for our Pre-school and Reception children. Through each topic, children will access all areas of learning and will be exposed to some rich learning opportunities and exciting experiences. Although we have the same topics for our Pre-school and Reception children we ensure the classes have a slightly different focus on the topics to ensure progression.
/web/ashtopics.jpg?width=640&height=480&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE)
We ensure the curriculum that we provide is based on the themes that underpin the Early Years Foundation Stage Development Matters. We recognise the importance of these themes and how they contribute to good learning and development in the Early Years Foundation Stage.
/web/eyfs2(1).jpg?width=1920&height=1080&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "EYFS2(1)")
The Early Years Curriculum: Development Matters
At Kentisbeare Primary School, we understand and recognise the importance of the Characteristics of Effective learning and how these can engage children, motivate them and develop critical thinking at a young age through any learning experience.
The Characteristics of effective learning:
- Playing and exploring – engagement
- Active learning – motivation
- Creating and thinking critically – thinking
We use the development matters Early Years Foundation Stage which is a curriculum which runs from birth until the children leave Reception at the age of 5. There are seven areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage. These are then split up further into different aspects within them. There are three prime areas and four specific areas.
The Prime Areas of Learning:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development
- Communication and Language
The Specific Areas of Learning:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive Arts and Design
At the end of the Reception school year there are early learning goals that children are aiming to achieve. We assess the children based on these and give them a score against the learning outcome. We hope that most children achieve a good level of development by the end of their time in Reception with us. We also realise that children learn at their own pace and if they do not achieve a good level of development, they will continue to have the support that they need as they transition into Year 1 at Kentisbeare School.
Parental Engagement: Working in Partnership with Parents
Here at Kentisbeare, we recognise the importance of working alongside parents and in partnership with them. Together, we can build a ‘bigger picture’ of the children and enjoy celebrating their success and achievements from both in school and at home. As well as planned parent consultation meetings and school reports, we also use Evidence Me online learning journey, collect wow moments and provide parent workshops throughout the year. We have also started using 'Class Dojo' in both Pre-school and Reception where children can gain points for good behaviours (which they love) and the parents can get an app to keep them linked in with and up-to-date about what is going on during the school day. All parents can send us pictures of things they have been doing at home via and Dojo so that we have strong two way communications and can celebrate all the children's achievements and experiences together.
We recently held a very successful 'Stay and Play' session for our pre-school parents to attend and learn alongside their children in the classrooms and outside areas during the school day. We hope to run some more sessions like these soon. This is what some parents had to say:
"It's just so lovely to have some insight into our little peoples day to day activities. I love to be as involved as I can."
"It was fantastic to spend time with my child and watch/take part in what she is engaging with at school."
"I enjoyed hearing about what my child does in class and learning/playing with school equipment."
"I enjoyed seeing his enthusiam towards showing us all his activities."
"I could feel that my child was so proud of school and very excited for me to be there and to see what they do. I could see how happy and settled my child was and is at school."