In our Reception Class, Parlick, pupils follow the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which was updated in March 2021 and introduced from September 2021. These are the standards that our school must meet for the learning, development and care of children under 5.

The latest 2021 framework is available by clicking on this link

Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

Characteristics of Effective Learning

In planning and guiding what children learn, practitioners must reflect on the different rates at which children are developing and adjust their practice appropriately, referring to the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning. These are:

playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;

active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy their achievements for their own sake;

creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

Our Principles

Four guiding principles shape our practice in early years. These are:

1. Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
2. Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
3. Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
4. The importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. The EYFS framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

The areas of learning and development  of the EYFS framework

There are seven areas of learning and development that must shape educational programmes in our settings. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected. Three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive.

These three areas, the prime areas, are:

• communication and language;
• physical development; and
• personal, social and emotional development.

This school year we are using the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) scheme to further develop the communication and language skills of identified children.

Children are also supported in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied.

The specific areas are:

• literacy;
• mathematics;
• understanding the world;

and

• expressive arts and design.

Our Early Years Curriculum is further detailed here in our Curriculum Map – Reception Class

In our Reception Class we follow a maths scheme originally developed in Germany called ‘Let’s visit Numberland’.

Further information on Numberland can be accessed by clicking on this link

This school year, 2022-23, we are also using the Maths Mastery ‘Mastering Number’ scheme in Reception to further boost our Numberland scheme and give our children the best possible start in developing their mathematics.