EYFS
EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage)
EYFS is the Early Years Foundation Stage of education; a set of standards for the learning, development and care of your child from birth to 5 years old. As your child will celebrate their 5th birthday while they are in Reception at Oatlands, they will complete their EYFS years journey with us.
Recently, the framework within which we develop our EYFS curriculum has changed dramatically. You can read more about the new framework in the documents linked below.
The head of our Early Years Foundation Stage is Emily Lawford. She is responsible for designing, managing and evaluating the delivery of high-quality teaching and learning across the EYFS learning and development areas.
Please use the links at the bottom of this page to access more information about EYFS.
Please also look at our Online Learning pages for websites which support learning in the early years.
Oatlands School Early Years Statement of Intent
Aims/ ethos of our setting in helping children to develop and learn;
At Oatlands School we follow our ethos of “living our values, learning for life”. Values are at the heart of everything we do. In the Early Years Foundation Stage, our broad and balanced curriculum provides all children with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to be confident, resilient and independent learners. We believe that by providing an education that does all of this, we will give our children the best chance to become well rounded, lifelong learners, ready to succeed in an ever- changing world.
The Characteristics of Effective Learning underpin our curriculum. We use our ‘Learning Animals’ so the children can identify what makes a good learner. We aim to foster a growth mindset attitude by encouraging them to have a go and persist when challenges occur. If they find something tricky we say; ‘I can’t do it yet……but I’ll keep on trying’.
We aim to make a positive difference to every child’s life by providing a happy, safe and inclusive environment which supports all children to thrive. We plan for exciting, immersive learning experiences within and beyond the classroom. Every child in our setting is valued as a unique individual and teaching and learning is based on the understanding that every child develops at a different rate.
Children at Oatlands School will experience the seven areas of learning as outlined in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and we believe these areas are of equal importance and are inter-connected. Children learn best when they are engaged in practical, first hand experiences and we aim to provide our children with an education that is rich in awe and wonder.
Implementation
At Oatlands, the aim of our curriculum is to develop lifelong learners by:
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Providing a well-resourced, stimulating and clearly organised learning environment that enables children to independently access all areas of learning inside and outside.
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Carefully planning purposeful and sequential learning activities that build on prior learning and provide opportunities to learn new skills and knowledge across all 7 areas; CL, PSED, PD as well as Literacy, Maths, Understanding the world and Expressive Arts and Design.
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We deliver this through high quality continuous provision which includes a balance of purposeful play, adult- led and child- initiated activities, topics, themed texts and following the children’s interests.
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Direct instruction where appropriate through structured literacy/phonics, maths and topic-based carpet sessions. We follow ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ phonics programme and ‘White Rose’ maths framework.
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Having high expectations of all children so they are able to reach their full potential.
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Ensuring children who may have special educational needs or a disability (SEND) have access to high quality differentiated teaching within the classroom environment and are supported to access the curriculum and achieve their own individual learning goals.
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Providing opportunities for our children to develop a positive sense of themselves and their emotions through our values-based activities and zones of regulation.
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High quality adult interactions and sensitive questioning to develop children’s speaking and listening skills, as well as checking understanding and scaffolding learning.
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Assessment for a purpose through careful observations which are recorded on ‘Tapestry’ and reported to parents. These are used to inform children’s next steps.
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Building strong relationships with our families by suggesting home learning opportunities and running parent workshops, informing them of ways they can support their child’s learning at home.
Impact
We will measure the impact of our broad and balanced curriculum by understanding how well the children have developed the key knowledge and skills they can remember and use across the 7 different areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage.
This will be measured by:
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End of year outcomes (Good Level of Development)
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Subject leader monitoring
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In school tracking
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Pupil voice across the 7 different areas of learning
Links:
DfE Development Matters Report & Illustrations