Early Years Curriculum
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
- Luke 18:16
EYFS Leader: Mrs Serban
At St. Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, we aim to open the children’s eyes to the world, through a wide range of experiences and through a language-rich environment. We aim to build on the wealth of knowledge and skills children already have when they arrive at the school, and we recognise parents as the first educator in their child’s life. We also recognise that all children are unique, so celebrate and welcome differences within our school community. Therefore, our curriculum is child-centred forming the core of our pedagogy.
At St. Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, we provide our children with a broad and balanced curriculum which is developed through the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. There are seven key areas of learning and development that shapes our educational programme.
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
We recognise the importance of giving our children the best possible start to their education by planning and implementing teaching and learning opportunities across all seven key areas in our indoor and outdoor environment. Our curriculum supports curiosity, wonder and awe through learning. We encompass and support the unique needs and interests of each child, enabling them to learn new skills and acquire new knowledge, recognising children’s prior learning and experiences which are built upon as they move through our school.
What to expect in Early Years?
https://foundationyears.org.uk/files/2021/09/What-to-expect-in-the-EYFS-complete-FINAL-16.09-compressed.pdf
Development Matters-Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64e6002a20ae890014f26cbc/DfE_Development_Matters_Report_Sep2023.pdf
Early Learning Goal (end of Reception year)
https://tbscaracas.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/EYFS-Early-Learning-Goals-2021.pdf
What you need to know about Early Years Foundation Stage
at St. Teresa's Catholic Primary School
Faith: Prayer and Liturgy are central to the life of this school. In EYFS we build the foundations of the children’s knowledge of their faith. Allowing them to consider the importance of belief and inspiring them to live like Jesus would like us to. We aim to promote God’s teachings and being part of a church family.
Community and Harmonious Relationships: In the EYFS, developing communication and language as well as personal, social and emotional skills are essential for children to be able to build solid and harmonious relationships with family and friends. At St. Teresa’s Catholic School, we model how to be a positive part of the community. As an EYFS team we actively encourage and work with parents to support the school with their child’s learning.
Memorable Experiences:
Our school believes that all children deserve an education rich in memorable experiences that allow for their creativity and curiosity to grow alongside their development of key skills and knowledge. We believe that offering our children a strong foundation and a love of learning gives them the best foundation to become well-rounded, happy individuals, ready to succeed in an ever-changing world.
Nurturing individuality: Here at St. Teresa’s Catholic Primary School we want children to grow and prosper. We aim to inspire children at an early age to express their individuality. We value respect and responsibility, individuality and inclusivity, confidence and kindness. We aim to nurture each unique child to value themselves and develop self-worth in order to thrive in life.
Ambitious Learning: As an Early Years team we recognise that the way children learn has huge potential to empower them to be confident, creative lifelong learners. In our provisions we follow their interests, encourage them to make independent choices about their learning, and support them to develop their thinking skills through skilful adult interactions.
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Problem-solving is an integral part of our everyday provision. We believe this is an expectation rather than an added extra, and rely on a 'have a go' ethos. We aim to create a safe environment to enable our children to feel confident and secure in their surroundings. We want them to feel free to make choices and be better equipped to solve problems, both on their own and collaboratively.
COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE
The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment is crucial. By commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added, practitioners will build children’s language effectively.
Reading frequently to children, and engaging them actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems, and then providing them with extensive opportunities to use and embed new words in a range of contexts, will give children the opportunity to thrive. Through conversation, story-telling and role play, where children share their ideas with support and modelling from their teacher, and sensitive questioning that invites them to elaborate, children become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures.
PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Children’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives and is fundamental to their cognitive development. Underpinning their personal development are the important attachments that shape their social world.
Strong, warm and supportive relationships with adults enable children to learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others. Children should be supported to manage emotions, develop a positive sense of self, set themselves simple goals, have confidence in their own abilities, to persist and wait for what they want and direct attention as necessary.
Through adult modelling and guidance, they will learn how to look after their bodies, including healthy eating, and manage personal needs independently. Through supported interaction with other children they learn how to make good friendships, co-operate and resolve conflicts peaceably. These attributes will provide a secure platform from which children can achieve at school and in later life.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Physical activity is vital in children’s all-round development, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives. Gross and fine motor experiences develop incrementally throughout early childhood, starting with sensory explorations and the development of a child’s strength, co-ordination and positional awareness through tummy time, crawling and play movement with both objects and adults. By creating games and providing opportunities for play both indoors and outdoors, adults can support children to develop their core strength, stability, balance, spatial awareness, co-ordination and agility. Gross motor skills provide the foundation for developing healthy bodies and social and emotional well-being. Fine motor control and precision helps with hand-eye co-ordination which is later linked to early literacy. Repeated and varied opportunities to explore and play with small world activities, puzzles, arts and crafts and the practise of using small tools, with feedback and support from adults, allow children to develop proficiency, control and confidence.
LITERACY
It is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading. Reading consists of two dimensions: language comprehension and word reading. Language comprehension (necessary for both reading and writing) starts from birth. It only develops when adults talk with children about the world around them and the books (stories and non-fiction) they read with them, and enjoy rhymes, poems and songs together.
Skilled word reading, taught later, involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words. Writing involves transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech, before writing).
MATHEMATICS
The Power Maths approach
Everyone can!
Founded on the conviction that every child can achieve, Power Maths enables children to build number fluency, confidence and understanding, step by step.
Child-centred learning
Children master concepts one step at a time in lessons that embrace a concrete-pictorial-abstract (C-P-A) approach, avoid overload, build on prior earning and help them see patterns and connections. Same-day intervention ensures sustained progress.
Whole-class teaching
An interactive, whole class teaching model encourages thinking and precise mathematical language and allows children to deepen their understanding as far as they can.
UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD
Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters.
Listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.
EXPRESSIVE ART AND DESIGN
The development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. It is important that children have regular opportunities to engage with the arts, enabling them to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. The quality and variety of what children see, hear and participate in is crucial for developing their understanding, self-expression, vocabulary and ability to communicate through the arts. The frequency, repetition and depth of their experiences are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.
Stay and Play & Stay and Learn
Reception Class 2023 - 2024
Summer 2024 Reception Class Trip
The children have been listening to a range of stories about sea creatures, pirates, people or animals living by the sea or ocean. They have been travelling around the world with the Snail and the Whale and wrote postcards from the Snail to his family and friends.
The children learned how to form sentences to describe a seaside scene. What can you hear on the beach?
Our last story was Clean up! We read about a girl who was visiting her grandparents in Jamaica.
There, she saves a baby crab tangled in plastic.
The girl realises how much rubbish people can leave on the beach.
So, we were thinking how to help her, too.
The Reception children have created posters to make people aware that we all need to work together to keep our planet’s waters clean.
…and because on the 4th July we visited Ruislip Lido Beach, we thought it is a good opportunity to display our posters.
It was a wonderful day!
