Whole-class learning is delivered through 15–20 minutes high-quality teaching sessions, allowing practitioners to maximise interaction time with children during their ‘Discovery Time’. During this time, practitioners further develop pupils’ communication and language skills, spark curiosity, move self-selected learning forward, and enhance provision to complement children’s interests while building on prior knowledge and skills. Pupils also access further curriculum opportunities through phonics, reading, print and mark-making guided activities, mastery maths sessions, RE, and PE.

We use the revised phonics programme Read Write Inc. from Nursery onwards and are already seeing its positive impact on children’s communication and language and early literacy skills. Pupils are supported to keep up with their peers and progress together.

We use Pathways to Write texts to drive children’s Communication and Language, Reading, and Writing development. These sessions are exciting, stimulating, and fully multisensory, and pupils’ enthusiasm and eagerness to read and write is evident.

For mathematics, we follow the NCETM Mastering Number curriculum for core number teaching and supplement this with White Rose Maths for Shape, Spatial Reasoning, and Numerical Patterns. Both schemes maintain high expectations for all pupils and adopt a whole-class approach. By the time pupils leave the EYFS, they are confident with numbers within and up to at least 10 and can recall key related facts.

We provide our children with a wide range of experiential learning opportunities and stimulating, thought-provoking activities, allowing them to explore ideas and concepts they may not have previously been exposed to. These include school trips and participation in workshops such as Love Clay, Sound Pots, the Unconventional Menagerie and the Halle Musical Orchestra. We also arrange visits from members of our local community, including paramedics, PCSOs, and librarians.

In addition, we hold special events linked to our school charity: The Dougie Mac. Each class also has their own chosen charity which we raise awareness of throughout the year. We also celebrate key calendar moments such as Macmillan Coffee Morning, Hello Yellow, Remembrance, Children in Need, our Christmas Nativities, and Black History Month.

We actively welcome parents and carers into school to share and talk about their careers, and we provide further enrichment through assemblies and performances linked to our learning, including Harvest Festival celebrations and class assemblies. Children also take part in a very special Reception Welcome Service led by our school Reverend, Dave Street.

Our pupils work alongside our site supervisor on a daily basis to risk-assess the learning environment and to plant, grow, and care for their own garden herbs and vegetables. High-quality PE sessions, delivered through Get Set for PE, further support the development of children’s gross motor skills, balance, turn-taking, and listening skills. Together, these experiences provide our children with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to support their future learning.

Pupils with additional needs are invited to an initial visit, followed by transition visits, where our SENDCo is present to answer any questions, discuss your child’s needs in depth or address any concerns prior to starting school. Our SENDCo specialises in Early Years and will prioritise your little ones needs and progress. We work closely with local nurseries and with families whose children are at home, and we always carry out home or setting visits before pupils’ start dates. We work in partnership with all relevant agencies to ensure the right support is in place for our pupils, with referrals made in a timely manner to best support learning outcomes from the outset. This ensures that our environment is carefully planned to be fully inclusive for every child.

Reception learning is formally baseline assessed within the first few weeks of children starting in our setting using the statutory Reception Baseline Assessment, and then again at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage against the Early Learning Goals. We use the results from the baseline, alongside teacher observations and interactions, to assess what children know, understand and can do. We also take account of children’s interests and dispositions to learn (Characteristics of Effective Learning) in order to plan next steps and monitor progress.

Our staff are highly experienced in identifying developmental delays. We plan swiftly for and provide high-quality intervention through evidence-based programmes such as Stoke Speaks Out: Early Talk Boost, Time to Talk, Time to Listen, Spirals, and Intensive Interactions to support the development of early language and literacy. We have staff trained in using Makaton as another means of communication.

Pupils leave the Early Years with a strong foundational set of skills and are fully equipped to be inquisitive about the world around them, passionate about their learning, and inspired to learn more.

We strive for all children to leave the Early Years ready for the Year 1 curriculum, while also being holistically nurtured to develop strong morals and values towards themselves and others, and to live ‘Like the Good Samaritan’. The impact of our EYFS curriculum and environment is evident through the clear progress children make across all areas of the curriculum.

As our pupils spend time outdoors exploring, investigating, climbing and self-selecting their resources, we enable them to:

• Become independent, resilient learners who are not afraid to take calculated risks.
• Become problem solvers, team workers, and deep thinkers.
• Leave the Early Years Department fully prepared for their transition into Year One.
• Develop fine and gross motor skills that help aid them in their everyday life skills.
• Make excellent progress with their physical development and personal, social and emotional skills ensuring that most children reach the expected level of development at the end of the foundation stage.
• Have a love of nature and be curious and inquisitive about the natural world.
• Know how to work with their peers in a positive way and how to deal with conflict positively.
• Be happy, healthy and understand the importance and benefits of being outdoors.