The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early year’s providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

 

The EYFS seeks to provide: 

• quality and consistency in all early year’s settings, so that every child makes good progress, and no child gets left behind. 

• a secure foundation through learning and development opportunities which are planned around the needs and interests of each individual child and are assessed and reviewed regularly. 

• partnership working between practitioners and with parents and/or carers.  

• equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported.

 

There are four guiding principles should shape practice in early years settings. 

• every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident, and self-assured. 

• children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships. 

• children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers; and 

• children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.

 

Learning and Development

 

Aim

 

For all children to reach their potential, learning and developing at their own rate.

 

Principles into practice

 

• We use the EYFS daily.  Focusing on the PRIME areas (for under 3’s) and PRIME and SPECIFIC areas (for over 3’s) to provide a balanced curriculum, using play as a vehicle for learning.

• We consider the learning intentions for each activity, so our objective is clear.

• We differentiate our planning to meet the needs of all children.

• We promote equality of opportunity / inclusion.

• We provide early intervention for children who require additional support.

• We work in partnership with parents/carers.

• We, based on observations, evaluations, tracking and assessments, plan challenging activities to help children progress and meet their next steps.

• We provide both child led and adult led activities for the children to engage with

• We have a key person approach to develop close supportive relationships and bonds between adults and children.

• We plan for British Values through our routine, circle times, activities and within our day to day practice. 

• We provide a safe learning environment.

• The children go outside each morning and afternoon.

• We ensure team are regularly observed and give feedback to ensure continuous learning and improvement in their practice.  We also train the team at monthly team meetings, to ensure their continuous learning.

• All team are responsible for being part of planning for the children.

 

Prime Areas

Personal, social, and emotional development

Physical development

Communication and language development

 

Specific Areas

Literacy

Mathematics

Understanding the world

Expressive arts and design

 

Our Planning Cycle

 

Short Term Planning

 

Each room plans weekly, this is completed throughout the week at the point of evaluation. The planning focuses on the learning intentions for the week, the activities and opportunities provided to support the children to meet the intentions, focus children for key activities, adult and child led opportunities, planning for outside learning and daily circle times. 

 

We use Connect to monitor and record the children’s learning and development. Using tablets in the rooms the team can take photos, observe, and link findings to Development Matters. Each day the manager will review the observations, which are then published for the parents to see and will form part of the child’s learning journey profile. Observations that do not meet the standards or expectations of Curious will be sent back to team members to edit. This quality control ensures high quality and continuity amongst the team.

 

Each child has a Profile detailing their learning journey. Profiles link to the stages of learning in Development Matters and each exceeding observation is included in the profile along with all assessments, tracking and baselines. Profiles are ordered chronologically to diarise each child’s development. The Key Worker is responsible to ensure that their key children’s profiles are kept up to date and provide a helpful tool in the planning of next steps for each child. 

 

From the medium term planning each room has in place a Next Steps Board, which details the identified areas of learning and development for each child by their key worker. This ensures that all team are aware of each child’s next steps and in the absence of their key worker can still be supported.

 

Each team have a Weekly Room Meeting, led by the room leader. During this meeting matters arising, children’s news and planning focuses are shared. This ensured good communication amongst the team and meets the needs of all children. 

 

 

Medium Term Planning

 

Baseline Assessment

When a child starts the nursery, a baseline is created to give an insight into the child’s starting point when they joined the nursery. From which MM is able measure the impact of planning and delivery of learning opportunities against. Every child has a baseline assessment completed 6 weeks after starting at the nursery. This will be followed by termly reviews and assessments to ensure that we are meeting the needs of every child and recording the impact of our work.

 

Tracking

To monitor the progress of each child their development is tracked on a termly basis, during January, April, and September. This enables team to assess the progress made and supports the assessment where next steps are created to support further learning. 

 

Assessments of Children’s Progress

Each term we assess the children’s development to identify the progress made and assess effectiveness of planning. Assessments take place in February, June, and November. The assessment includes a detailed overview of progress across the prime and specific areas and the Characteristics of Effective Learning. Which are shared with parents during parents evening during March, July, and December.

 

Two-Year-Old Checks take place in either February, June, or November, whichever comes first after the child’s 2nd Birthday. This report is then shared with parents during our parents evening. We ask that parents share with us the check completed by their Health Visitor and we request permission to share our report with the child’s Health Visitor, to ensure partnership working in the best interests of the child. 

 

Next Steps: from the assessment or two-year-old check three or four next steps are identified which are shared on the Next Step Board in each room to ensure all team are aware of them and they can be incorporated into the weekly planning. 

 

The nursery manager analyses the assessments each quarter; looking at how groups of children are progressing, e.g. boys/girls, key groups, vulnerable children etc.  A written report is then given detailing the analysis findings for each room and each team member, which will link to the team CPD. This also feeds into NIP and SEF. 

 

 

Long Term Planning

 

The NIP and SEF identify priorities and areas of improvement for the year ahead linked to the outcomes identified through the planning and assessment process. 

 

This is supported further by an annual team training plan.

 

Our celebration calendar details the special occasions and events, religious and cultural, that we will focus on for the coming year. This calendar has input from the PNA, team and had consideration for the different cultures of the children attending. 

 

Through our long-term planning we ensure that British Values are interwoven into our provision throughout the year. Our Behaviour Policy refers to respect and valuing each other, children are taught manners and etiquette through daily tasks such as mealtimes. Through charity events such as Children in Need and Comic Relief we can talk about those less fortunate and the importance of looking out for each other and caring for your neighbour.  

 

Meeting the needs of all children, PP, SEN&D, EAL Gifted and Talented

 

Curious is an inclusive setting supporting children from a diverse community, we value our diverse community and believe in equal opportunities for all. We are dedicated to meeting the needs of all children and our evaluation and monitoring of assessments ensures that all children, especially our most vulnerable are well supported. We have in place a Vulnerable Children register, which is updated termly, this includes details of children with SEN&D, children eligible for Pupil Premium, children supported by Early Help or Social Care, Looked After Children and Children who have EAL and the languages they speak. Through our assessment process we can identify children who may be gifted and talented. Through differentiation and where appropriate PLPs we can meet the need of all children.