EYFS | St Mary's Catholic Primary Academy

EYFS Vision Statement

Early Years Foundation Stage Vision: ‘For all our pupils to make excellent progress; developing their knowledge and skills through carefully planned, language rich, play-based activities that reflect their needs and interests thus fully preparing them for the next phase in their education by removing all barriers to learning specific to our children’.

Curriculum Statement and Implementation

At St Marys Catholic Primary Academy, we understand that the Early Years Foundation Stage is crucial in securing solid foundations for our children and preparing them for the next stage of their education. The curriculum in Early Years is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all pupils. We base our teaching and learning on ‘Development Matters’ and use children’s prior knowledge and interests to plan fun, stimulating activities to support their development across the seven areas of learning:

Communication and Language
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Physical Development
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design

Throughout all of these areas of learning, and at the heart of our EYFS, are the “Characteristics of Effective Learning.”
We strive to develop these key characteristics of ‘Playing and Learning’, ‘Active Learning’ and ‘Thinking Critically’ in order to give the children the skills that they will continue to draw upon throughout their development.

All of the crucial skills, knowledge and vocabulary that we teach are presented gradually to the children throughout the year, building on prior skill, knowledge and understanding. Observations of and interactions with children ensure that children’s individual interests are captured and developed through challenging and engaging continuous and enhanced provision.

Our learning environment, both indoors and outdoors, is adapted, when needed, to meet the differing and developing needs of the children in our care. We aim to ensure that these areas are always stimulating and exciting and, importantly, are accessible to and challenge all children – regardless of where they are on their developmental journey. The environments are developed to promote independence within our children and allow them to access the curriculum independently and confidently with the necessary level of support and challenge.

By the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, the majority of children will have reached their personal best and achieved outstanding progress. Aiming for a good level of development measure (GLD) they will have achieved at least the expected level in the Early Learning Goals across the Prime Areas of: Communication and Language; Physical Development; Personal, Social and Emotional Development; and in the Specific Areas of Literacy; and Mathematics. All children will have made significant personal progress across all areas of learning.

All pupils, including those with additional needs, will be supported to provide them with full accessibility to all aspects of the EYFS provision.

SEND & Disadvantaged Pupils

Our ambition is for all of our pupils to access the full EYFS Curriculum. Disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND will be supported to provide them with full accessibility to all aspects of the EYFS provision. We have staff trained to deliver specific support strategies such as ‘Lego Therapy’, ‘Trauma Informed Practice’ and ‘Emotion Coaching’.

We are fortunate to have an additional SENCo at St Mary’s, Miss Morton – who had a specific responsibility for EYFS and Y1 SEND and works closely with Mrs Smith, our whole school SENCo.

Please view our EYFS Policy on our Policies page here.