Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you...

Roald Dahl

What is the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS?)
 

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework sets out the learning and development stages for children as they grow from birth to five years. Children develop more rapidly during the first five years of their lives than any other time. For those working in the Early Years, the framework outline what practitioners need to do in order to support the learning of the children in their care. The EYFS has its own stand-alone curriculum, with a new, revised version starting in September 2021 for all settings in England.
 

Our Early Years Curriculum (Reception at Christ Church)

At Christ Church C of E Primary School, we believe that the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is where the magic and passion for learning is nurtured and inspired. Our EYFS curriculum has been created to embrace and encourage our children’s natural curiosity and sense of wonder.  We plan and prepare our environment so that our children feel safe and secure in their learning and explore, design, make, question and create as they as they continue to develop the foundations required to become successful learners and live life to the full.

Exploring the Early Years Curriculum a little closer.
 

The EYFS curriculum is split into Prime and Specific areas. The prime areas are important because they lay the foundations for children's success in all other areas of learning and of life. The specific areas provide a range of experiences and opportunities for children to broaden their knowledge and skills.
The PRIME AREAS of learning are:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)
• Communication and Language (CL)
• Physical Development (PD)

The SPECIFIC AREAS of learning are:

• Literacy (L)
• Mathematics (M)
• Understanding the World (UW)
• Expressive Arts and Design (EAD)

These 7 areas and the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning are used to plan learning activities that are exciting, engaging and suited to the children's unique needs and own interests. The children will learn by playing and exploring, being active and being creative and critical thinkers both indoors and outdoors. 

The power of great stories

Our Early Years curriculum is delivered primarily through great stories and storytelling. We recognise that the more children hear, tell and ultimately read stories, the more their imagination is ignited and the more they learn to construct and use meaningful language.

We also aim to help every child develop a love of numbers and problem solving. We plan to bring Maths alive using stories and real life contexts. This aids our children’s learning to be grounded in the basics and then they can develop their understanding and knowledge to solve real problems.

How you can find out how your child is getting on

It is important that we work together and share information regarding your child. We use Tapesty to show photos of the learning that is going on in school and communicate messages using e-mail, letters and text. There is also a weekly newsletter sent out via e-mail. During the year there are several opportunities for you to speak to the teachers at parents meetings, to discuss how your child is getting on and how you can support their learning at home.  At the end of the Reception year, pupils are benchmarked against the Early Learning Goals for each area. Attainment is described as either:

• emerging/not on track (working below the expected level)
  or
• expected/on track (working at the expected level)

These are reported to parents/carers in the end of year report (N.B. the level of 'exceeding' has been removed).

Link to Reception Class page below

EYFS Framework (in detail)