Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) at Orchard Meadow
Our Intent
At Orchard Meadow we want to ensure we focus on the development of children as individuals as well as ensuring we are providing them with the skills and knowledge to prepare them for school. Our aim in EYFS is to build strong foundations personally, morally, and academically so that the children of Orchard Meadow go on to be curious life-long learners.
Our curriculum provides children with the cultural capital they need to achieve their full potential.
Learning is planned around topics that support the prime areas:
- Personal, social and emotional development
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
As well as the specific areas:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
We want our children to be able to communicate effectively, regulate their emotions and be successful academically. This is carried out through focused carpet sessions, adult focus activities and independent choosing activities.
Implementing our vision:
In Early Years, children follow the Orchard Meadow Curriculum and the the Development Matters (2020) framework. This has been designed to foster subject-specific skills, which can be tracked progressively forward from Early Years to KS1 and KS2. Our curriculum is focused on embedding core skills as a way of enabling children to engage with the world around them in a curious, rich way.
We follow the Power Maths Curriculum and Read Write Inc. phonics programme. These schemes are robust and research-driven to maximise pupil attainment and integrate into our wider curriculum and ethos. The emphasis on a secure foundation in core academic skills ensures that children make rapid progress from entry and leave the phase well-equipped for the challenges of KS1 and beyond.
Please click here for a link to our EYFS newsletters, which detail what your child is learning every week, including phonics sounds and maths focuses, so you can support their learning at home.
What does learning look like?
Teaching and Learning in Early Years is guided by children's interests and their needs as identified through our curriculum framework. You can see how this is structured through focused 'table top' activities and a mixture of free-flow learning, whole class teaching and guided activities.
See an example of our planning and timetable to see how it all fits together:
Class Families
In line with the rest of the school pupils also take part in daily Brain Smart Start Activities, which promote well-being and a class family ethos.
You may like to browse Nursery and Reception class family SWAYs with an introduction to class family teams and some more useful links to learning.