Grazeley Parochial CE (Aided) Primary School

'Be courageous; Be strong; Do everything in love'

EYFS

In the Foundation Stage at Grazeley Parochial Primary School, we are passionate about children being happy, confident, well-rounded individuals with a love for learning.

EYFS

Vision Statement

‘Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.’

Benjamin Franklin

In the Foundation Stage at Grazeley Parochial Primary School, we are passionate about children being happy, confident, well-rounded individuals with a love for learning.

We believe that all children can develop resilience, learn to manage their own risks, deepen their imagination and develop their sense of curiosity within a stimulating and safe environment. They become courageous learners with a secure foundation that enables them to flourish throughout their school life and into their future.

We strive to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, built around the children’s needs, wants and interests that encourages communication, thinking, exploration, investigation, cultural awareness, creativity, imagination and a thirst for knowledge.

We believe that children flourish within a loving community. In Foundation stage, children and their families are welcomed to Grazeley Parochial Primary school as unique individuals whose contribution is valued and celebrated.

How the EYFS Curriculum is taught at Grazeley

Curriculum Intent:

Our school vision and values are integrated throughout the curriculum in the foundation year, where children are shown how they belong in our community, encouraged to develop courage in their learning and build resilience for future learning.

Within our Foundation Stage classroom, the curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior learning from previous settings and their experiences at home. We respect that children have different starting points and the curriculum is carefully sequenced enabling children to build on their learning over time. We believe that the ability to learn is underpinned by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values, and that all children can develop resilience, learn to manage their own risks, deepen their imagination and develop their sense of curiosity. As such we provide many first hand experiences to underpin the children’s knowledge, with the aim of broadening their understanding of the world around them.

Children’s first experiences of school should be happy and positive. Every child is recognised as a unique individual and we celebrate and welcome the increasing range of cultures within our community. We use positive language to build a positive sense of self and provide a high quality environment that enables children to take part in high quality play. Through this, children become courageous learners with a love for the people around them and hope for their future.

In Foundation stage, children and their families are welcomed to Grazeley Parochial Primary school as unique individuals whose contribution is valued and celebrated. Community involvement and parental engagement form essential parts of our curriculum and children leave Foundation Stage with a sense of belonging to a loving community. They have the confidence and skills to make decisions and self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong learners.

Curriculum Implementation:

Our Curriculum:
We follow the Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (September 2023 revision) Link Here and the Revised Development Matters: Non Statutory Curriculum Guidance (July 2021 revision) Link Here. This Framework and Guidance specifies the requirement for learning and development in the Early Years and provides prime and specific areas of learning to be covered in our curriculum.

Prime Areas: Communication and Language, Physical Development and Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Specific Areas: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design

Children learn through a balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities.  At Grazeley Parochial Primary School, we ensure that all children experience the seven areas of learning set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework through a balance of adult lead teaching and child initiated play. We place a great emphasis on learning through play and direct practical experiences led by the interests of our children. Learning is organised so that the curriculum is delivered through a combination of adult led activities and continuous provision opportunities, encouraging children to develop their learning independently through discovery, exploration, curiosity and challenge. Children learn through a mixture of high quality play activities, by adults modelling, by observing each other and through guided learning and direct teaching.

Community involvement and parental engagement are essential parts of our curriculum. Children are encouraged to follow their personal interests and explore the world around them. We recognise that children have a thirst for new experiences and knowledge, and ensure that we provide all pupils with a broad range of experiences and opportunities through a variety of themed topics, broadening their experience of the world and to engaging them with the community.

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum.  Our curriculum is structured around multiple high-quality texts, stories, rhymes and poetry creating an integrated approach to learning from which pupils can experience the full curriculum. Each half-term the children explore a different theme through play and guided learning groups by trying to answer a question.  These themes are based on the EYFS curriculum and interwoven with our school vision and values. Children follow the Read, Write Inc. phonics program starting in their first week at school which is taught rigorously, giving the children the skills they need to become readers.

We focus on depth of understanding in our mathematics teaching. We follow the Maths Mastery approach usingt he White Rose Maths scheme, with an emphasis on studying key skills of number, calculation and shape so that pupils develop deep understanding and the acquisition of mathematical language.  Pupils learn through games and tasks using concrete manipulatives which are then rehearsed and applied to their own learning during exploration.  These early mathematical experiences are carefully designed to help pupils remember the content they have been taught and to support them with integrating their new knowledge across the breadth of their experiences and into larger concepts. 

Where children need support and additional scaffolding to access the curriculum, or are engaging with the curriculum at a level below that of their peers we use the document Birth to Five Matters (2021) Link Here as a guide to ensure we meet their individual learning needs. We use ‘Pinny Time’ interventions to support all children to ‘keep up not catch up’ in phonics and have a Teaching Assistant who is trained to deliver individual Speech and Language (SALT) programmes to those who need support in this area.

The Seven Key Features of Effective Practice:

To ensure that we are providing all children with high quality early education, we focus on the Seven Key Features of Effective Practice. (Julian Grenier 2021) These are outlined in detail below:

  • The best for every child
  • High quality care
  • The curriculum: What we want the children to learn
  • Pedagogy: Helping children to learn
  • Assessment: Checking what children have learnt
  • Self-regulation and executive function
  • Partnership with Parents 
The seven features of effective practice 2021, Julian Grenier

Vision and Values

‘Be Courageous, Be Strong, Do everything in Love’ 1 Corinthians 16 v13-14’

‘We are a loving community of courageous learners, building resilience and hope for the future based on our caring Christian foundation’

Love, Hope, Peace, Courage

Educating for wisdom, knowledge and skills: We strive to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, built around the children’s needs, wants and interests that encourages communication, thinking, exploration, investigation, cultural awareness, creativity, imagination and a thirst for knowledge.

Educating for hope and aspiration: In the Foundation Stage at Grazeley Parochial Primary School, we are passionate about children being happy, confident, well-rounded individuals with a love for learning.

Educating for community and living well together: In Foundation stage, children and their families are welcomed to Grazeley Parochial Primary school as unique individuals whose contribution is valued and celebrated. Community involvement and parental engagement form essential parts of our curriculum and children leave Foundation Stage with a sense of belonging to a loving community. They have the confidence and skills to make decisions and self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong learners.

Educating for dignity and respect:

We believe that children flourish within a loving community. In Foundation stage, children and their families are welcomed to Grazeley Parochial Primary school as unique individuals whose contribution is valued and celebrated.

Love

Let all that you do be in love 1

Corinthians 16:14

Hope

Hope anchors the soul

Hebrews 6:19

Peace

Do all you can do to live in peace with everyone

Romans 12:18

Courage

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged

Joshua 1 v9

Observation, Planning and Assessment

Within their first six weeks at school, a baseline assessment of the children’s starting points is made using a combination of the statutory Reception Baseline Assessment alongside classroom observations against the Local School’s Learning Alliance Baseline Assessment based on the work of Julian Grenier (2021 creative commons licence)

Throughout the year adults make judgements on children’s learning to inform their planning and teaching. Those children who are not working at the levels expected for their age then receive focussed teaching or interventions to ensure they keep up with their peers.

Records of the children’s progress are made termly and their progress is tracked.

Children’s phonic knowledge acquisition is checked individually every half term using the Read Write Inc assessment and tracking materials. This information is used to group children accurately against their attainment and ensures teaching closely matches their phonics attainment

At the end of the Foundation year, children are assessed against the Early Learning Goals.

Information is shared with parents at parents’ meetings in the Autumn and Spring Term, and their child’s report in the Summer term. The opportunity for parents to meet with teachers is also given if they would like one.

Ongoing information about learning in class is shared with parents through the online platform ‘Google Classroom’, informal conversations at the beginning and end of the school day, and when appropriate through telephone conversations.