Early Years Foundation Stage

EYFS includes pre-school or nursery and the first year of ‘Reception’

Our EYFS lead is Mrs Suzanna Neate

Areas of the Early Years Foundation Curriculum

Prime Areas of Learning	Specific Areas of Learning
– Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) – Communication and Language (C&L) – Physical Development (PD)	– Literacy (L) – Mathematics – Understanding the World – Expressive Arts and Design

How We Learn

Characteristics of Effective Learning

Engagement: Playing and Exploring	Motivation: Active Learning	Thinking: Creative and Critical Thinking
Finding out and exploring • Showing curiosity about objects, events and people • Using senses to explore the world around them • Engaging in open-ended activity • Showing particular interests Playing with what they know • Pretending objects are things from their experience • Representing their experiences in play • Taking on a role in their play • Acting out experiences with other people Being willing to “have a go” • Initiating activities • Seeking challenge • Showing a “can do” attitude • Taking a risk, engaging in new experiences, and learning by trial and error	Being involved and concentrating • Showing a deep drive to know more about people and their world • Maintaining focus on their activity for a period of time • Showing high levels of involvement, energy, fascination • Not easily distracted • Paying attention to details Keeping on trying • Persisting with an activity or toward their goal when challenges occur • Showing a belief that more effort or a different approach will pay off, and that their skills can grow and develop (growth mindset) • Bouncing back after difficulties Enjoying achieving what they set out to do • Showing satisfaction in meeting their own goals (I can!) • Being proud of how they accomplished something – not just the end result • Enjoying meeting challenges for their own sake rather than external rewards or praise (intrinsic motivation)	Having their own ideas (creative thinking) • Thinking of ideas that are new and meaningful to the child • Playing with possibilities (what if? what else?) • Visualising and imagining options • Finding new ways to do things Making links (building theories) • Making links and noticing patterns in their experience • Making predictions • Testing their ideas • Developing ideas of grouping, sequences, cause and effect Working with ideas (critical thinking) • Planning, making decisions about how to approach a task, solve a problem and reach a goal • Checking how well their activities are going • Flexibly changing strategy as needed • Reviewing how well the approach worked

At Wixams Tree Primary Academy we believe that high quality early years’ experience in school is of vital importance and can have a lasting effect on a child’s attitude to education, personal and social skills and attainments. We provide an excellent learning environment, both indoor and outdoor, that provides our children with access to a broad range of resources and engaging opportunities to support their development across all areas of learning.

We value the importance of play and make sure children have plenty of opportunities to develop their creativity and follow their interests within their self-initiated learning, which we call ‘Choosing Time’. During this time, children have ‘free-flow’ access between classrooms and the outdoor area. We encourage the children to explore the opportunities for outdoor learning in all weathers, as being outside is so important for contributing to a healthy life-style and developing confidence, self-esteem, vocabulary and the characteristics of effective learning through collaborative work, problem-solving or risk-taking.

Rainbow Challenge

We would like all our children to be fully embrace all areas of the curriculum, so we offer the children weekly Rainbow Challenges. These Rainbow challenges link to the specific 7 areas of learning. Children have the week to independently complete these challenges to achieve a reward.

Parental Involvement

Across EYFS, it is vital that parental partnerships are secure. We use Evidence Me to share information between both Academy and parents. We offer a ‘Home Challenge’ each week , linked to a curriculum area, to assist the parents to support learning. We also many other opportunities for parents/carers to be fully involved in Early Years life such as, Christmas performances, Parent showcases, Stay and play sessions, Sports Day, weekly PE bag, Parent reading sessions, parent occupation talks, parent consultations, newsletters, home visits, and awards.

Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development is embedded within the Early Years Curriculum

This is embedded through a variety of learning opportunities such as exploring different celebrations, Star of the Week awards, Rainbow awards, Proud cloud, the children sharing their own experiences, displaying children’s work, working independently or in small groups, sharing stories from other cultures, using resources from other cultures, cooking and tasting food from around the world, exploring similarities and differences between ourselves and others, Nativity performances, visitors , learning how to take care of the world and each other and exploring music from around the world.

First Days

First days at Pre-school and Reception for young children are a mixture of all kinds of emotions. The Academy day and its demands can be quite daunting and, at first, very tiring. Children and their parents/carers are invited to spend some time with us in an informal way before admission. We invite our new parents and children to stay and play sessions in June, where the children can see the classrooms and get used to their new setting alongside their parents and, of course, the parents can meet the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) stage teachers and support staff.

If you have any questions, contact Mrs Neate, the Assistant Headteacher /EYFS Lead Teacher, who will be happy to help.