Intent
Slindon Church of England Primary School is led by four overarching principles which reflect those set out in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. These principles run through the ethos of our school and feed into our policy and pedagogy.
Within our Early Years Foundation Stage policy, we recognise that all children are unique and join our school with different life experiences, abilities and beliefs. We respect, value and celebrate each child’s uniqueness and recognise the positive contribution this has to our learning community.
The positive relationships that we are able to develop in our small community are supportive, nurturing and inclusive. This enables us to maintain an enabling environment in which children feel safe, confident and capable of taking risks and accepting challenges; supporting children to develop into strong and independent learners who thrive through challenge, personal enjoyment and achievement.
As a school, we recognise the importance of establishing positive relationships with the families and professionals involved in the care of the children who attend Slindon Church of England Primary School. We actively foster and maintain working partnerships with parents, outside agencies and other professionals, to ensure a collaborative working environment in which both pupils, their families and the staff feel happy, safe and supported.
We respect that everybody learns and develops in different ways and at different rates. Our Early Years Foundation Stage policy seeks to ensure the provision of a broad, balanced and creative curriculum with high quality care for all children within its Early Years Provision irrespective of gender, ethnic or social background, religion or disability or Special Educational Need.
We recognise the importance of maintaining an enabling environment which values the role of play and talk as intrinsic to the way in which young children learn and consolidate their learning. We maintain a learning environment that facilitates a variety of high quality, stimulating resources for children to experience and interact with both inside and outside, across all areas of learning with engaging and challenging learning outcomes.
Implementation
Our Early Years setting follows the curriculum as outlined in the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework, January 2024.
The EYFS framework is comprised of seven areas of learning and development that are equally important and inter-connected. However, three areas known as the prime areas are seen as particularly important for igniting curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building children’s capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive.
The prime areas are:
- Communication and language
- Physical development
- Personal, social and emotional development
The prime areas are strengthened and applied through 4 specific areas:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive arts and design
Each area of learning and development is implemented through planned, purposeful play, and through a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activities. Staff respond to each child’s emerging needs and interests, guiding their development through warm, positive and purposeful interaction. Our outdoor provision mirrors and extends the opportunities available to the children in the classroom environment and is further enhanced by weekly trips to the local forest to take part in learning outside of the classroom environment.
- Planned focused activities where adults work with small groups of children at a time. Teachers will differentiate the activity to meet the needs of every child participating.
- Small Group teaching of early reading and writing through a phonic based programme called Read Write Inc. Phonics.
- Whole Class teaching for short periods of time such as shared storytime, direct teaching (for example of maths), songs and rhymes, discussions and sharing work.
- Opportunities for teachers to work alongside children as they develop their own interests in particular areas of the curriculum.