EYFS
Intent
At St Wilfrid’s, our broad and balanced curriculum is ambitious and carefully designed to give all pupils, with a particular emphasis on those who are disadvantaged or with SEND, the knowledge and skills that they need to take advantage of opportunities, responsibilities and experiences in later life. It is deliberately planned and sequenced so that the end points that it is building towards are clear and that pupils develop knowledge and skills, directly linking to what has been taught before, to be able to reach those end points. The end points are evidenced through carefully tracked outcomes, product evaluations and assessments. Pupils learn the knowledge that they need to answer subject-specific questions and are able to practically demonstrate and apply the cyclical skills that they acquire, supported by deliberate exposure to cultural capital opportunities. Pupils make good progress due to the expert knowledge of subject leaders and teachers, ensuring that they know and remember more.
Our Vision for EYFS
At St Wilfrid’s we set high expectations for all of our children and recognise that they all have different starting points, experiences and interests. We want them to be confident, happy, independent children who are eager to learn and have a desire to explore the world around us. It is important that our children feel safe, secure and develop positive relationships with adults and peers that allow them to achieve their very best.
‘Working together as one; with God, all things are possible’
Our Rational for EYFS
Our I can curriculum has been designed with the starting points of our pupils and the Early Learning Goals in mind and provides clear end points for both Nursery and Reception to ensure progress. Skills and knowledge are taught progressive throughout their EYFS journey and link directly to child development.
We apply the teach, practice and apply method to our learning with a balance of child and adult led activities. A balance of teacher led and child-initiated learning is in place to allow children to learn new skills, then practice and deepen knowledge and understanding within the classroom’s continuous provision.
The continuous provision and environment are enhanced to support the current topic, the children’s interests and to meet the needs of the cohort. Emphasis is placed on developing children’s vocabulary and this forms part of the Weekly and Medium Term Plans where key vocabulary and knowledge is explicitly taught.
Topics, wow moments, trips and Forest School sessions enable children to have the opportunity to gain first-hand experiences linked to their learning. These experiences motivate and stimulate learning, along with developing imagination and a thirst for learning which builds on the eagerness our children display.
All seven areas of learning are planned for and again reflect the interests and sequence of learning needed to ensure skills and knowledge are embedded and committed to children’s long term memory.
During the autumn term the curriculum focuses heavily on developing children’s Communication and Language and Personal, Social and Emotional Development skills and activities are planned to help develop these. Alongside this all Nursery and Reception children complete a Speech and Language screening to ensure precision teaching is in place for individual children. This is monitored and reviewed each half term by a speech therapist.
Topics are selected to meet the needs of the children and build on their prior knowledge and the progress they make moving from their own experiences to the wider community and then the wider world. These termly topics allow children to deepen and practice skills taught and ensure language and new vocabulary is embedded and built upon.
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