EYFS

Early Years Foundation Stage

Intent

At Westcott Primary School, we offer a holistic approach to our early years curriculum that places the individual child at the heart of their own learning journey in line with the EYFS Statutory Framework 2023. Our golden threads within our curriculum is to promote good levels of Communication and Language, whilst building the foundations for the children’s Personal Social and Emotional Development. We want our children to feel valued, safe and a sense of belonging that encourages them to learn through play, curiosity and deeper thinking. We enable the children to begin to build their own personal toolkits of resilience, determination, success and empathy. We offer a bespoke curriculum that continually evolves through ongoing assessments. This approach ensures our planning and environment are always aligned to support each child’s growth, addressing their unique needs and fostering a rich, adaptive learning experience. Our vision of fostering a love for learning through curiosity, exploration, and interaction is a powerful approach to early childhood education. We encourage our children to be ‘ready to learn’ by nurturing their natural curiosity whilst helping lay the foundation for their lifelong learning.

Implementation

We follow the Early Years Statutory Framework, Development Matters and research reports to guide our EYFS learning journey. Our learning environment aims to widen children’s experiences through independent and inquisitive learning. Through well-planned and resourced spaces, our children are given the opportunities to develop high quality communication and language skills by incorporating their interests that enables them to become successful learners. We encourage both child-led play and adult led play using stimulating and purposeful open-ended learning opportunities so that the children are not limited with their learning. Children are championed to become independent thinkers, expressive learners and have a sense of belonging as part of our wider school community. Highly skilled practitioner’s regularly review and refine learning experiences in order to build on pupil’s interests that enables a smooth and continuous learning journey. Our curriculum is planned across the seven areas of development interweaving the key strands throughout their everyday opportunities. Personal, Social and Emotional Development is at the heart of everything we do by teaching the children self-regulation strategies that enables them to build their cognitive flexibility and helps to create successful learners.

Impact

Through the delivery of a carefully designed, bespoke curriculum, we aim that children leave our Early Years Foundation Stage as independent thinkers who are ready, and able to learn. We measure throughout the year the individual progress of the child and formally assess at the end of reception if the children have achieved a good level of development. The formal assessment at the end of the reception year provides an important benchmark, ensuring that any child who needs additional assistance is already supported by a plan to allow them to be successful learners. Our curriculum ensures that we develop well-rounded citizens with a clear understanding of the values for modern life in society whilst being an active member of our school community, demonstrating our Westcott STARR Values. Embedding values such as the Westcott STARR Values cultivates a sense of citizenship, kindness, and responsibility, helping our children to understand and engage positively within society. The emphasis on a values-driven education, enriches our learning environment, guiding the children to not only succeed academically, but also to develop into well-rounded, community-minded individuals.

EYFS

Early Years Foundation Stage

Intent

Implementation

Impact

Supporting Documents