EYFS

Intent
(What we do)

Our Curriculum

Skelton Primary School sits at the heart of a caring community and our bespoke Early Years curriculum is planned to meet the specific needs of every child within our community, whilst covering all aspects of the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage Framework 2021 (see link below). 

Our drive for excellence is underpinned by a continual development of speech and language, understanding of diversity and growth of independence. These three themes thread through our curriculum which is planned to be responsive to the needs of our unique children each year.

Our curriculum Identifies the key knowledge, vocabulary and experiences our children need to take them on a journey from our youngest pre-schoolers to Reception and ensures preparedness for Key Stage One and beyond. Alongside this, we ensure that our children’s interests play a key role within the bespoke curriculum offering, which ensures individual talents, needs and interests are nurtured.  We are passionate about extending and challenging our children through a play based approach combining pre-planned opportunities and ‘in the moment planning’ and we have high expectations and aspirations for all. 

Early Years at Skelton Primary School is a place of creativity, curiosity and challenge where children feel safe and happy and are at the heart of everything we do.

Link: This is underpinned by the Trust vision for Excellence in the Early Years.

The EYFS Framework 2021:

• Sets the standards that all early year’s providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well
• Ensures children are kept healthy and safe
• Ensures that children have the knowledge and skills they need to start school

Link: EYFS Framework 2021

The Characteristics of Effective Learning

The three characteristics of effective learning describe the behaviours children use to learn.

Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and build the resilience to ‘have a go’

Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achieving 

Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

The Areas of Learning and Development

The prime areas form the building blocks of a child’s development, enabling them to progress and build strength in the specific areas underpinning the specific areas of learning.

The Prime areas:
Communication and Language
Personal, social and Emotional Development
Physical Development

There are four specific areas through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied. 

The specific areas:
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design

Learning to Read and Write at Skelton Primary School

Phonics is taught in Reception and KS1 through the Read Write Inc programme which is a systematic and highly effective approach used for the teaching of early reading and writing. Nursery phonics concentrates on developing children’s speaking and listening skills through their ability to respond to sounds, play with sounds, songs and rhymes. These are all important skills for listening to others, understanding questions and developing concepts of things, laying the foundations for the phonic work which starts at the beginning of Reception. This early stage of phonics, supports children in getting attuned to sounds, preparing them for hearing sounds in words (segmenting). It also prepares children with putting these sounds together (oral blending). 

Please visit the Phonics pages of our website for more information.

Implementation
(How we do what we do)

Our Learning Environment

Our learning environment is planned with care to ensure calm and purpose to support and develop children’s self-initiated interests and curiosities and reflect current learning. Children are provided with opportunities to explore, practise, and strengthen skills and knowledge. 

Our Early years spaces exude homeliness and comfort, we ensure that they are spaces of safety, care, and supportive challenge. Our free-flow outdoor area develops children’s sense of well-being and helps to develop positive attitudes such as perseverance and self-confidence. Our carefully chosen resources and activities allow opportunities for collaborative play, gross and fine motor skills development and are crucial in underpinning children’s ability to problem-solve and self-regulate.

Our Adults

Our Early Years staff have a breadth of knowledge and skills with an absolute commitment to ensure the care, nurture, and success of all. We invest in our relationships with children ensuring they feel safe, secure, and accepted. Our staff take time to get to know our children and understand what their individual needs are and how best these needs can be met, barriers overcome and aspirational goals met.

Our Partnerships

Skelton sits at the heart of a supportive and caring community. We strive for excellent relationships with all parents and staff are highly regarded and trusted by our parents and carers. Our staff are always available at the start and end of the day and make time for in-person communication.  There are numerous opportunities for us to welcome parents into our classroom and enjoy reading, baking, and gardening with the children. Ducklings and Robins have twitter accounts that are used to share regular updates about what has been happening. Focus child letters are sent home to further develop the collaboration between home and school and ensure the best outcomes for our children. The children’s learning journeys with us are recorded on Tapestry (an online learning journal) which allows parents to access pictures and narratives about a child/children’s learning. We have strong supportive relationships with outside agencies to ensure the right support can be put in place to allow all children to flourish and thrive within our caring and inclusive environment.