Our intent statement:

At Campton Academy we aim to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, which offers a variety of engaging, hands on, play based and real life experiences that help children make links with what they already know and build on their previous learning and experiences. We believe this approach will enable pupils to make progress in a holistic way. We hope to nurture curiosity, care and tolerance of others, independence and resilience and the start of a lifelong love of learning in the pupils who come to our school. We aim to build on the existing knowledge and skills children already have when they arrive at our school by taking the time to get to know the children and their families really well. We recognise that each of the children who learn with us are unique and celebrate and welcome their individuality and differences in class and in our wider school. Our curriculum is designed to be child centred and play based and follows the interests and developmental stage of the children in the current year group while developing their skills further so they feel confident in their learning.

 

We aim to:

  Provide a curriculum that offers children a wide range of opportunities to learn about new things but also explore what they are interested in individually, whilst developing the skills to help them meet the Early Learning Goals at the end of reception.

• To foster high expectations encouraging them to develop perseverance and self-belief so that they can problem solve and achieve their best, and are not afraid to make mistakes and try things out as this is part of learning and is seen as valuable.
• Give the children a learning environment and quality interactions with adults that help children achieve their potential and provide early, targeted support those who need additional help in order to maximise their chances of achieving the Early Learning Goals.
• Provide children opportunities to develop their sense of wellbeing and ability to regulate their feelings so that they feel confident in our community and are equipped with all the tools they need to transition to Year 1 effectively.
• Grow strong links with parents as we recognise that they are an expert on their child and that a strong working partnership with them enables the very best outcomes for our children.
• Keep developing skills and expertise of staff working in EYFS through regular and comprehensive professional development either run by the EYFS Lead or attending courses run by other providers so that we can offer our children the best outcomes.

 

Implementation:

We follow the updated Early Years Statutory Framework. This document specifies the requirements for learning and development in the EYFS and provides the prime and specific areas of learning we cover in our curriculum. By ensuring that we know each child really well and formative assessments our EYFS team plans meaningful and engaging activities that will move the children’s learning forward as they follow their next steps in their learning. This partly involves following a class theme where we take advantage of cross-curricular links in order to combine transferable skills and develop a wide-ranging vocabulary, which underpins the children’s learning. We also include following individual children’s interests and making the most of those focused moments where the teaching and learning can be maximised in a one to one way with teacher and child as appropriate. The learning done in the year will be a unique blend of whole class, guided, adult directed play and child-initiated play activities dependant on our children and what their needs and next steps are.

Our learners in EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active and thinking critically and creatively and this takes place both indoors and in our outdoor area using adult led tasks and continuous provision. Our continuous provision is designed to be used in an open-ended way to maximise creativity and give the children an opportunity to explore their interests. Our outdoor area is partly covered and open all year round and in all but the worst weather and children are encouraged to bring coats and wellies so they can go outside in comfort, whatever the weather.

There are opportunities for all areas of learning both inside and outside using continuous provision and enhancements that are carefully thought out. The environment, as well as the adults are seen as a facilitator for learning in our EYFS learning area.

Our school follows the Essential Letters and Sounds phonics programme, using a wide range of physical and online resources to support this. Every child has access to a phonics session every day with intervention opportunities for those who need extra time to develop their skills. Each child is heard weekly by an adult in class and focus children are heard 2-3 times a week and target children are heard daily where possible to make sure that all children make very good reading progress.

The books the children read are carefully matched to reflect sounds that they have already learnt.

We also use Mastering Number as a maths scheme for number and White Rose for the other areas we cover. We have an adult input for maths daily which is followed up by practical activities set up in continuous provision that are supported by an adult or there for the children to access in their play.

We review where the children on a half termly basis and provide effective and focused intervention for those children who are finding learning challenging and are not on track to meet expectations at the end of the year. This will be provided in an inclusive way and support from parents is also enlisted at an early stage to ensure that the children have every chance to achieve the Early Learning Goals.

 

We collect evidence of children’s learning through photographs and records for reading/phonics tracker for phonics (online tracking tool) and a checkpoint tracker system which is updated on a half termly basis. EYFS practitioners communicate regularly so that we know where our children are and how to support their learning. Every week parents are informed about what their child will be learning and regular photos allow them to see the learning in action-this is shared on the seesaw app. In addition, we have started to do wow moments, which are done weekly so parents know what we have been really impressed with that week. This means that parents can engage with children regularly about their learning and can contribute to the knowledge we have of the child in school. Parents are encouraged to let us know about milestone moments at home recording them on proud clouds or letting us know through seesaw. We add these to the children’s display and files and also share them with their friends on Seesaw in class which they really enjoy doing.

 

We endeavour to provide children with opportunities that they may not have experienced before or that enhance their learning in school. We go on visits to support this for example a walk near to school to observe seasonal changes, a visit to our local church at Christmas, and a visit to support our learning about living things and other countries in the world (Woburn Safari Park). We also have had visitors in to see us to provide enrichment activities such as Life Bus-Scarf, Cricket taster session, Science morning, Coronation ceremony.

 

Through the year, we provide opportunities for children to increase their independence in developing skills that will help their learning as they go up through the school. This will include self-care skills, organising their property (bags/coats/lunchboxes), asking if they are not sure and learning to share resources with their peers and take care of our classroom inside and out.

We work with Year 1 staff so the learning in Year 1 builds on the skills children have gained in their year with us in reception in all the areas of learning. We will do this through regular discussions and reflections on practice, evaluations and decisions about the best way to move forward to enhance children’s learning are discussed. A detailed handover and transition sessions help our children make a happy and  smooth transition to year 1.

 

As a team we aim to ensure that the children come to a caring and happy environment and work with adults who help nurture kindness, curiosity, independence, and resilience. This means that children will feel settled and safe and valued so that they can develop vital learning skills that will be used in their journey through school and later life. Our learning environment is a positive place to be where all children are celebrated for being themselves and feel they are a valued and respected class member. Each child has a gallery wall space where their work in celebrated. We also have a variety of certificates and two toy hedgehogs who the children take home as part of their reward which is much anticipated!

 

 

Impact:

The impact of our EYFS curriculum is having happy, well rounded and confident children who love learning.

Our children will be equipped with the skills needed to make a smooth transition into their learning in Year 1 and beyond.

We measure progress and children’s learning across the year through formative and summative assessments e.g. phonics tracker that are based on the teacher’s and teaching assistants knowledge of the child, their checkpoint trackers, photographs and videos and maths ready to progress documents are filled out. We also keep an ongoing writing folder for each child so we can closely monitor writing development.

We aim to exceed the National and Local Authority data for children achieving Good Level of Development.  We aim to ensure that all our children make expected or better than expected progress from their starting points.

The judgements made within our school are moderated with other schools both in our trust. This means our judgements are secure and consistent with government guidelines.

The teaching and pedagogy are reviewed and evaluated regularly through regular team meetings within our team and shared with year 1.

We ensure that the areas we discuss and develop are reflected in changes and developments in our classroom practice going forward to ensure the best outcomes for our children. This is supported by EYFS co-ordinator attending termly meetings with other EYFS professionals from the trust.

The Early Years provision at our school features in all areas of the School Development Plan and has a detailed plan for development each year. This is monitored and evaluated by the EYFS Lead and the Principal.