Ilchester Community Primary School

Rationale:  

The Early Year’s landscape nationally is in a period of change with the introduction of the new Early Learning Goals, Birth to Five non-statutory guidance and the Baseline assessment in September 2021. Previous publications such as Bold Beginnings have also had an impact on the national picture. Schools and providers are highlighting a noticeable societal shift both pre and post pandemic in terms of children’s school readiness, speech and language as well as social, emotional and mental health needs and the access that their parents and carers have to early intervention. Early Years providers are being encouraged by the government to offer 30 hours’ free childcare as well as two-year-old funded spaces. Locally our circumstances have changed too with our school taking on the local Pre-School and the introduction of our revised vision and values which captures our school ethos. With this in mind our practice must reflect an appropriate approach to both meet the needs of our Early Year’s children but to also narrow the gap for those who need additional support or have lost learning during National Lockdowns. 

Aims 

• To give each child a positive, calm and cared for start to their life at Ilchester Community Primary School’s Early Years Department in which they can establish solid foundations on which to build a love of play and learning. 

• To offer continuous provision where each child has a wide range of new and exciting experiences that gives them the opportunity to consolidate and explore as individuals.  

• To believe that and enable each child to achieve their full potential in all areas of learning through encouragement and high expectations.  

• To offer an approach to learning that has a range of starting points in mind and offers unlimited opportunities for challenge and development.  

• To encourage children to develop independence within a loving, caring, secure and friendly atmosphere.  

• To support children in building positive relationships through the development of social skills such as cooperation and sharing.  

• To help each child to recognise how they learn best using the Characteristics of Effective Learning and the Knights of Success. 

• To help each child to recognise their own strengths and achievements. 

The Curriculum  

The Early Years Department follow ‘Birth to Five Matters’ which is the non-statutory guidance used to support the statutory document as their curriculum driver. Birth to Five Matters is available to download at: 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/971620/Development_Matters.pdf  
This clearly defines what is taught.  

Our curriculum is also supplemented with Somerset CC’s ELiM provision map (Appendix A) in order to teach technology, in particular e-safety as we recognise that this is something that our children continue to need. Mathematics teaching will be supplemented with White Rose and National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics (NCETM) documents as per our mathematics overview (Appendix B). Literacy texts are in line with the English policy and will be drawn from the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) and our phonics sessions will be based on the Little Wandle scheme, all of which can be detailed further in the subject specific policies. See Appendix C. For our Personal, Social and Emotional teaching is supplemented by Jigsaw www.jigsawpshe.com and our Religious Education https://www.amvsomerset.org.uk/ from Awareness, Mystery and Values. 

The EYFS framework includes seven areas of learning and development, all of which are seen as important and interconnected. The first three areas are known as the prime areas and are described as the ‘universal core aspects of early child development’ (DfE, 2021, Birth To Five Matters).  

The prime areas are; 

• Communication and Language  
  Listening, Attention and Understanding 
  Speaking 

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development  
  Self-Regulation  
  Managing Self 

• Physical Development 
  Gross Motor Skills  

Fine Motor Skills 

The specific areas of learning help children to ‘strengthen and apply the prime areas’ (Julian Grenier, 2021, Working with the revised Early Years Foundation Stage: Principles into Practice). The specific areas are; 

• Literacy  
  Comprehension 
  Word Reading  
  Writing 

• Mathematics 
  Number  
  Numerical Patterns  

• Understanding the World 
  Past and Present  
  People, Culture and Communities  
  The Natural World  

• Expressive Arts and Design 

Creating with Materials  
Being Imaginative and Expressive 

Characteristics of Effective Learning 

The EYFS also includes the Characteristics of Effective Learning which weave throughout all of the areas of learning. The teachers and Early Year’s practitioners plan activities with these in mind.  

The three characteristics are; 

• Playing and Exploring - Engagement 
  Finding out and exploring 
  Playing with what they know 
  Being willing to ‘have a go’ 

• Active Learning – Motivation   
  Being involved and concentrating 
  Keeping trying  
  Enjoying achieving what they set out to do  

• Creating and Thinking Critically – Thinking  

Having their own ideas 
Making links 
Working with ideas