How we teach in EYFS
We strive to develop positive and meaningful relationships between our children, parents and carers. Open and honest communication with parents and carers is key to building trust and respect. Positive relationships will boost the academic achievement, social capability, and emotional well-being of our children. All children are assigned a key person who will ensure that every child’s care is tailored to meet their individual needs.
We create a highly stimulating environment with child-accessible resources to provide rich, challenging learning opportunities through play and imaginative teaching, both indoors and outdoors. We constantly reflect on our practise and adapt it to promote excitement, independence, and challenge. As well as our classroom learning environment, we aim to expose children to real-life experiences which help enrich our curriculum. We enjoy exploring and caring for our local area, meeting people, and visiting places of interest.
We provide a balance of adult led, child supported and child-initiated experiences to develop knowledge, skills and the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning. We value the importance of how children learn, as well as what they learn. We provide opportunities to embed positive learning habits for children to develop the ability to approach activities with curiosity, energy and enthusiasm. They are encouraged to develop the skill of applying what they have learned to new situations.
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and is integrated through all areas of learning. High quality books and story-telling experiences encourage a love of books and inspire children to want to learn to read. Planning is flexible to meet the needs and interests of our children. In Reception, consistency is key, and our timetable is carefully structured to ensure there is rigorous directed teaching of phonics, reading, writing and maths every day. Circle time sessions throughout the week focus on PSED, communication and language and any other area. We use questioning to encourage our children to query the world around them and through their own exploration they develop their independence, communication, creativity, and problem-solving skills.
Our Foundation Stage practitioners are passionate and have a wealth of experience, knowledge, skills and interests. Staff work alongside professionals such as speech & language specialists, health visitors, dental team and children and families services.
