Intent

At Woodthorpe Infant School, our intent is to provide a learning environment which fosters supportive relationships that enhance and invite a child’s curiosity, confidence and individual competency; allowing them to flourish as individuals regardless of background, circumstance or need.  We aim to work collaboratively with parents and carers to encourage independent, enthusiastic learners who thrive and reach their full potential.  It is our intent that children who enter our EYFS begin their learning journey by developing physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally whilst also embedding a positive attitude to school and a lifelong love of learning.

Our EYFS curriculum is based on our school curriculum driver: ‘Be Brave’.  This encompasses the ability to be resilient, take risks, be independent and show determination, all of which are fundamental to learning at Woodthorpe Infant School.  Our curriculum driver underpins all activities and experiences provided in our EYFS and children understand and can explain how they are ‘being brave’.  To support our curriculum driver, we have five values at Woodthorpe Infant School that are known as our ‘learning powers’.  These learning powers are about showing resilience, respect, reflectiveness, reciprocity and resourcefulness and are explicitly modelled, taught, and encouraged by staff.  Through promoting our learning powers, it is our intention to equip children with strategies that will support them to become confident, resilient and resourceful learners.

Following personal interests and individual needs in the EYFS, allows us to plan and provide opportunities throughout our curriculum that support learning and development and facilitate all children to achieve their next steps.

Our EYFS curriculum aims to enable our children to be:

• Reflective and creative learners, who are curious about the world around them 
• Secure and confident, who enjoy coming to school and learning new skills and knowledge, building on their existing knowledge 
• Skilful communicators, who connect with others through language and play, ensuring that they play in a vocabulary rich environment. 

Implementation

The Early Years at Woodthorpe is based strongly around the needs of our community, whilst following the principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework.  Our curriculum is designed around a language rich environment and aims to develop the foundations for excellent communication skills.  Staff prioritise spending time playing and interacting with children; modelling and embedding key skills, knowledge and vocabulary.  We provide a varied and engaging programme of teaching and learning, and our continuous and enhanced provision enables the children to develop and demonstrate the characteristics of effective learning.  Our curriculum provides the children with both a range of familiar topics, linked to their experiences, as well as unfamiliar topics, to spark their interest and exploration of the wider world.  We focus on providing skills-based learning experiences, which are revisited frequently throughout the year in line with the children’s needs.  Input may be through whole class teaching, small group work, work with individuals, adult interactions in play or enhancements made to the continuous provision.

We teach phonics and early reading using the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ early reading scheme.  Each child on the Little Wandle scheme receives a daily phonics lesson as well as three reading practice sessions per week.  Children take home a ‘Collins Big Cat’ reading practice book which is closely matched to their phonic stage and reading ability.

Ongoing assessment is an integral part of the learning and development process in EYFS at Woodthorpe Infant School; staff reflect upon children’s interests and what they know and can do, and then use this information to shape teaching and learning experiences for each individual child.  Where barriers to learning remain, we will adapt our curriculum to ensure all children succeed, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Impact

The impact of our curriculum is that children are exposed to high-quality teaching and learning, changes are made to their long-term memory and all children have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the world around them.  Our children will be respectful through learning about diversity and equality, and will display this in their behaviour, interactions, attitudes and work.  Children will understand and be able to use a range of ambitious vocabulary to explain their ideas and understanding of key concepts. They will ‘be brave’ and have a go at new activities and experiences, understand how to overcome challenges and enjoy working alongside others.

We use four data collection points during each academic year to assess each child within the seven EYFS areas of learning and development: one on entry (baseline assessment) and then at the end of each term. Phonics is assessed every 6 weeks.  Ongoing assessment and knowledge of the children in our classes ensures we are fully aware of the children’s progress and is used to plan for the next steps in each individual child’s learning journey.