Our EYFS Curriculum

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory framework, which sets standards for the learning, development and care of your child from birth to 5 years old.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2

Your child’s Early Years’ experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure and support their development, care and learning needs.

At Dedworth Green First School, our aim is to provide high quality Early Years education for all our children.

Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 AREAS OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT.

Children should initially develop the 3 prime areas.          

These are:

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

These prime areas are the most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.

As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop in 4 specific areas.

These are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, active learning, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside.

Exploring the World

Our themes are planned to use a wealth of information and resources to enable us to deliver a curriculum that is meaningful, engaging and exciting. Children learn about the world around us as we explore themes such as:

• friendships
• seasonal changes to the natural world
• fairy tales
• minibeasts and maxibeasts
• where does our food come from?

Our EYFS curriculum is planned on a two-year cycle. We plan and deliver the same age-appropriate content but through different themes, resources and range of books.

We use key, classic children’s stories that link to these themes to enrich language experience and to create a context for engaging effective teaching and learning.

Role play areas are fun but focussed, offering opportunities for imaginative role play and for purposeful writing, counting and exploring. 

Phonics

Children in the EYFS are introduced to the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make using the 'Little Wandle' phonics programme, as we look at the shapes of letters and begin developing awareness of how to recognise and then write them. We also use some simple 'cued articulation' signs to support their multisensory learning of new speech sounds.

These inputs are taught directly and then supported with many activities in and around the learning spaces.

In Nursery, we develop our listening and speaking skills and the ability to differentiate between, describe and identify sounds.

In Reception, we focus on specific letters, oral blending and segmentation and then on to blending and segmenting with letters. Those who are ready to move on will be introduced to reading two syllable words and simple captions.

Maths

We continue to develop thinking about numbers and shapes as we explore activities and experiences linked to counting, matching, recognising numbers, sorting, early addition, pattern, and language linked to size, weight and measuring.

Maths is included in various forms in all our role play areas and also as children explore other resources such as construction toys. We use the NCETM Maths Mastery to support our teaching and learning of number and numerical patterns as this provides an innovative approach and clear, accessible resources. This structure, combined with a range of practical, creative and play-based activities provides a strong mathematical foundation for future learning.

Observations and Assessments

We observe and assess your child’s progress & attainment using the EYFS Statutory Framework and the Development Matters Curriculum Guidance.

Assessment is about noticing what your child can do and what they know as they explore the environment and a range of independent and teacher led focus tasks. This sometimes involves taking a photo of your child and adding comments to explain their activity.

Our staff are experienced and talk with the class teacher about how best to meet your child’s needs by understanding where they are and how to support them in their ‘next steps’ of learning as they progress and develop.

Each child has their own ‘Learning Journal’ where we keep examples of mark making, creative projects such as paintings and some photos of your child as they engage in their learning. We often share these folders with the children and their comments are added by staff so we have a record of their thinking and ideas.

We aim to send home regular topic information and reminders about important dates via school newsletters and emails.

Learning Through Play

Your child may tell you that they just ‘play’ at school. We believe that children learn best, and concentrate for much longer periods, when they are doing an activity they enjoy.

Through ‘play’ children learn to count, recognise colour, use a pencil, work co-operatively with others, talk, listen, solve problems and most of all they learn a love of learning…

‘How do I do this?’

‘How does this work?’

‘I’ve only got three left…’

‘I need to write a shopping list…’

All of these comments and questions can be heard while children are thinking about their own learning – what they may tell you is that they are ‘…just playing’.

The Learning Environment

Children in our Early Years classes are able to play indoors and outdoors throughout the day in all different types of weather. We work to ensure that our learning environments are bright, vibrant, stimulating and interactive.

We have a range of equipment & resources and have created different areas for investigating ideas and developing thinking for the curriculum. Our outdoor areas include a mud kitchen, musical house, bike park with tricycles and balance bikes, areas to dig and to use for growing, climbing equipment and lots of opportunities for imaginative role play.

Research suggests that children play differently outdoors and learn with their whole bodies. They can make a mess, run and jump, hunt for things in the natural environment and develop their understanding and thinking through talking about these shared experiences.

Snacks and Lunchtimes

Children are offered a piece of fruit daily. If you would like your child to have a carton of milk at school, please order this through ‘Cool Milk’ (details in your Welcome Pack).

Please note that you will need to order your child’s milk even if they are entitled to free milk.

If your child is staying at school for lunch they have a choice of hot meals every day (sample menu enclosed) or can bring a packed lunch to school. All school lunch choices should be pre-ordered via the Arbor App.

If you have children at school in Reception, year 1 or year 2 they are entitled to free school meals regardless of your household income.

Nursery children need to pay a small cost for school meals. Please inform us immediately if your child develops any food allergies /intolerances.

Inclusion

Here at DGFS we pride ourselves on providing an inclusive setting for all our children.  We acknowledge that every child is their own unique individual and we always take the time to get to know them and familiarise ourselves with their interests and needs. 

The school is fortunate to have a dedicated full-time SENDCo who works very closely with the teaching team to ensure all additional needs are identified as early as possible and provision is put in place to endeavour to meet those needs.  Where necessary, we will reach out to external professionals and outside agencies for advice on other strategies and steps that can be put in place to support the child.  The pastoral approach of the school ensures we work as closely with the families as we do with the children. 

Please take the opportunity to share as much information with us about your child, their likes and dislikes and any specific needs they might have, so we can work together to help your child to have a positive transition/introduction to Dedworth Green First School.

School Visits

We hope this information has been useful to you and your child. If you would like to come in and have a look around our learning environment and see our bright and beautiful setting, please contact the school office.

If you would like some further information, or a chat with our Early Years Lead, Mrs Awan, please call/email the school office to make an appointment.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Mrs. Awan

Nursery Teacher

Early Years Lead