‘Growing together in a journey of love and faith’
Welcome to Early Years!
Our Early Years Vision …
At St Benet’s, we aim to be exceptional in all we do so every child will flourish in their own unique way. Based on our whole school ethos ‘growing together in a journey of love and faith’, we support and nurture children in their learning, where we celebrate mistakes and praise resilience. We aim to create an inclusive, supportive atmosphere in which children can be independent and challenged in their development; where families are welcomed as partners and relationships are firmly based on mutual respect and trust. Our commitment to the child’s voice is embedded throughout our Early Years provision and used to form the basis of our curriculum. Children and staff work in partnership to explore, create and discover how exciting learning can be.
At St Benet’s Primary School, our Early Years curriculum ensures the children gain knowledge and skills in the seven areas of learning (in line with the reformed Statutory Early Years Framework 2021) through a balance of adult lead teaching and child initiated play. Our Early Years practitioners make effective use of Development Matters to support and scaffold children’s personalised learning towards the end of year expectations for our Reception. Alongside this, Leaders have created a subject based curriculum that is coherently sequenced and shows progression , ensuring that opportunities are still provided to ensure that pupils are ready to start the curriculum in Key Stage 1.
‘The EYFS is about how children learn, as well as what they learn. Children need opportunities to develop their own play and independent exploration. This is enjoyable and motivating. They also need adults to ‘scaffold’ their learning by giving them just enough help to achieve something they could not do independently.’ Development Matters 2023
Our Early Years Curriculum:
Our bespoke curriculum is unique to each cohort and flexible as children’s interests can change. Although we have overarching themes, these are not rigid and we will follow children’s interests as and when they arise, making learning fluid and having connections wherever possible. Our curriculum begins with detailed observations of the children. Staff gain an understanding of the children’s level of understanding and interests; they build the environment and learning experiences around these.
Nursery and Reception children are part of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which is how the Government and Early Years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and aged 5. This is very important stage in your child’s development, as it helps them to get ready for school and to develop across the seven key areas of learning:
These are split into Prime and Specific Areas
The Prime areas are…
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Communication and Language Development
- Physical Development
The Specific Areas of learning are…
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding of the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
The Characteristics of Effective Learning
When planning and guiding what children learn, staff at St Benet’s reflect on the different rates at which children are developing and adjust their practice appropriately. The three characteristics of effective teaching and learning are list below:
Playing and exploring– Children are finding out and exploring, playing with what they know and are willing to have a go at new things.
Active learning – Children are involved in what they are doing and concentrating; they keep trying and enjoy achieving what they set out to do.
Creating and thinking critically – Children have their own ideas, make links and choose ways to do things.
‘Effective pedagogy is a mix of different approaches. Children learn through play, by adults modelling, by observing each other, and through guided learning and direct teaching.’ Development Matters 2023
