Key Information

EYFS

EYFS Leader: Mrs Zoe Bodman 

What do we want to achieve?

At Old Mill Primary School, we create a happy, safe and nurturing environment where our EYFS children develop their independence as learners through an exciting and engaging curriculum which inspires children to love learning.  We promote a language-rich curriculum, due to understanding how essential this is, for your child’s development.  Our curriculum is well planned to ensure progression from the first day of school through to the last and we always build upon current knowledge.  We acknowledge how crucial the EYFS provision is in developing firm foundations for the children’s journey throughout school and beyond.

On our school grounds – both indoors and outdoors – a stimulating environment is provided to ensure your child develops resilience, friendships and positive relationships, that further aid academic growth. Children safely explore risks and challenge their own learning to prepare them for the next stage in their school life.  Within the day we create a play-based approach with a mixture of teacher-directed and child-led learning.  This allows our children to develop physically, verbally, creatively, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually whilst immersed in the positive ethos of the school.  We aim to ensure all children develop well, and maintain a healthy and safe lifestyle.

We work closely and collaboratively with parents in order to ensure we value home experiences and develop a true reflection of the whole child.

How do we teach to achieve excellence?

Across our EYFS, we follow the Early Years Statutory Framework. This Framework specifies the requirement for learning and development in the Early Years and provides prime and specific areas of learning we must cover in our curriculum:

Prime Areas:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Physical Development
• Communication and Language development

Specific Areas:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

The children are taught the skills required in the EYFS through weekly topics which are coherently planned to build upon the children’s current knowledge and understanding by a cumulative sequence of lessons. The pupils are encouraged to wonder and ask questions about what they are learning and this information is used to plan subsequent lessons.  Provision and resources are changed frequently around the child’s led play and interests and enhanced to ensure our children progress and are challenged in order to reach their full potential.  Throughout the year we have two parents’ evenings where children’s progress is reported and next steps for learning are discussed. Written reports are provided at the end of the year to inform parents of their child’s progress and to give them the next steps of learning.

How are our pupils successful?

Through the delivery of a well-planned, child-led and challenging curriculum we aim that the pupils will leave the Early Years Foundation Stage as independent learners, with transferrable skills needed to start Key Stage One.  This will be measured at the end of Reception as to whether the pupils have achieved a Good Level of Development.

Pupils at Old Mill always achieve above the National Average in their end of year outcomes.