Welcome to Early Years at Pennyhill

“All children deserve the care and support they need to have the best start in life. Children learn and develop at a faster rate from birth to five years old than at any other time in their lives, so their experiences in early years have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe, and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high-quality early learning provide the foundation children need to fulfil their potential.

The EYFS sets the standards that all early years 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 right foundation for good future progress through school and life.”

Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage .

 

Intent

Pennyhill School believes that all children deserve an education rich in experiences that allows our children’s creativity, independence and curiosity to grow, alongside the development of key skills and knowledge. We believe that offering our children a strong foundation and a love of learning gives children the best chance to become well-rounded, happy individuals, ready to succeed in an ever-changing world.

We recognise the importance of giving our children the best possible start to their education by planning and implementing teaching and learning opportunities that support them in reaching their full potential.

It is our intention to provide a stimulating learning environment where all children can work with adults and peers in a climate of mutual respect to develop confidence in their ability to learn. We aim to provide children with a well-structured, safe and active learning environment. This will enable our young learners to develop the skills, attitudes and understanding that support our children to become lifelong learners and encourage them to become active members of our ever-changing society.

We aim:

• To provide a broad, balanced, relevant and creative curriculum that will set in place firm foundations for future learning and development in Key Stage 1 and beyond
• To enable choice and decision-making, fostering independence and self-confidence
• To provide opportunities for children to learn through planned, purposeful play in all areas of learning and development which includes taking risks and following their own lines of enquiry
• To take into account child interest when planning activities and experiences to encourage engagement and enthusiasm
• To ensure children make progress towards early learning goals by taking on different characteristics of effective learning.
• To work in partnership with parents/carers and value their contributions
• To ensure that all children, irrespective of ethnicity, culture, religion, home language, family background, learning difficulties, disabilities, gender or ability, have the opportunity to experience a challenging and enjoyable programme of learning and development

Parents as Partners

We recognise that parents are children’s first and most enduring educators and we value the contribution they make. We recognise the role that parents have played, and their future role, in educating the children.

• We talk to parents about their child before their child starts in our school
• Before children start Nursery or Reception a meeting will be held with the parents in school.
• We invite all parents to an induction meeting before their child starts school;
• Parents to talk to the child’s teacher if there are any concerns. There is a formal meeting for parents in the Autumn and Spring term at which the teacher and the parent discuss the child’s progress in private with the teacher. Parents receive a report on their child’s attainment and progress at the end of each school year.
• We offer a range of activities throughout the year that encourage collaboration between child, school and parents: parent workshops, parent and child stay and plays, curriculum meetings, Sports Day etc;
• Weekly information is shared through our Marvellous Me app so parents are knowledgeable about what their child has been learning

 EYFS Curriculum

The Curriculum – Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) applies to children from birth to the end of the reception year. In our school, children join our nursery, part time or full time, as soon as possible the term after they are three. They begin attending school full-time at the beginning of the school year in which they are five.

The EYFS is based upon four guiding principles:

• A Unique Child
• Positive Relationships
• Enabling Environments with Teaching and Support from Adults
• Learning and Development

Areas of Learning

The Educational Programmes are made up of seven areas of learning:

Three Prime areas

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

Four Specific areas

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

None of these areas can be delivered in isolation from the others. They are equally important and depend on each other (although we understand that the prime areas are important in order for children to be successful in the specific areas). All areas are delivered through a balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities with the thread of communication and language at the core of all decisions. In each area there are Early Learning Goals (ELG’s) that define the expectations for most children to reach by the end of the EYFS.

EYFS Long term text overview

Learning through Play

Learning through play is an integral part of learning in EYFS at Pennyhill. We believe children learn best from activities and experiences that interest and inspire them. They have opportunities through their play to think creatively and critically, alongside other children as well as on their own. They are able to practice skills, build upon and revisit prior learning and experiences at their own level and pace. Play gives our children the opportunity to pursue their own interests and inspire those around them.

Characteristics of effective learning

There are 3 characteristics of effective learning; Playing and exploring, Active Learning and Creating and Thinking Critically. We ensure children have the opportunity to engage in all of these types of learning as well as monitoring which of the characteristics they adopt during child initiated time.

Enabling Environments

Within each classroom, we have a large variety of levelled continuous provision set up to ensure all that children are able to practise their basic skills in all 7 areas of learning. The provision areas across the setting are changed to reflect the needs of each cohort and are changed each term to ensure progression and challenge for our children, as well as allowing them to consolidate their learning. All resources are clearly labelled and accessible to children throughout the day. The provision areas may change to reflect the needs of the cohort throughout the year.

During child-initiated time we operate a free flow system to allow children to decide where and how they are going to learn. This includes free flow access to the indoor and outdoor learning environment. Staff are able to facilitate learning and child interests by acting as play partners. Enhancements are provided to develop their interests or to give children additional access to develop their skills, understanding and knowledge. The enhancements are both planned in the moment and part of our teacher-initiated planning (objective led planning)

Assessment, Observation and Planning Assessment

Baseline Assessment

We complete the statutory Reception Baseline Assessment within 6 weeks of children starting school. We observe and interact with our children and then complete discussions with all members of staff. We are then able to identify next steps and plan accordingly. These baselines are collated and moderated with all EYFS staff to ensure they are accurate reflections.

Assessment of the Early Learning Goals

Assessment is at the end of the EYFS – the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) Each child’s level of development must be assessed against the early learning goals. Staff indicate whether children are meeting expected levels of development, or if they are not yet reaching expected levels (‘emerging’). This is the EYFS Profile.

Observations

Ongoing assessment is an integral part of the learning and development process. It involves practitioners understanding children’s interests and what they know and can do. We then shape teaching and learning experiences for each child reflecting on that knowledge. Practitioners make and act on their own day-to-day observations about children’s progress. We also request weekly ‘wow moments’ from parents too so we have a full overview of each child’s achievements.

Planning

Long and Medium Term Planning

In the EYFS our children learn through a balance of teacher-led and child-led activities. We plan for both teacher-led and teacher-initiated activities and ensure that continuous provision allows our children to develop these qualities. A long-term overview is used for our teacher-led activities. This is taken from the Educational Programmes within the EYFS framework. We identify skills and knowledge that our children need and enhance our curriculum to reflect the many and varied additional opportunities that Pennyhill offers to our children. These are organized into the three terms. Within this there are six topics and these are text based. Our Medium Term Topic Plans and knowledge organisers detail in more specific terms the skills, knowledge and understanding that is covered in these Teacher Led Topics.

Short Term Planning

Teacher Led/Directed Activities

There are specific times in the day when teachers lead the learning. These are called Teacher Time Sessions. They are planned for weekly and are responsive to the needs of the children. Phonics, literacy and Maths are the main focus of our Teacher Time sessions but other areas of learning are also covered in these times. We follow the Litle Wandle scheme to teach phonics and reading. Writing and maths is taught during our Teacher Time sessions along with the other Areas of Learning. There are additional opportunities to revisit phonics, literacy and maths throughout the day within our daily Missions. There are opportunities to teach and develop Communication and Language during our Picture News sessions and in our weekly reading book change.

Missions

We want to develop independent learners who are accessing all areas of the EYFS provision. One way that we are supporting this is through our weekly ‘rainbow missions’. Each week, a challenge is set for each of the areas of learning except for communication and language which runs through every other area. Throughout the week, the children can choose to complete these missions and in doing so, will collect the associated colour for that area of learning. Children who collect all seven colours, gain their rainbow which is celebrated in our weekly rewards assembly. This encourages children to explore learning out of their comfort zone and teachers can use their work through play partners to support children who have chosen not to participate in activities which would earn them colours on their rainbow.

Reporting

A short commentary provided on completion of the Reception Baseline Assessment is shared with parents. At parents’ evenings (Autumn and Spring Term), parents will receive key targets that their children are working towards in school. At the end of the year we will report on whether children are emerging or expected in each of the 17 Early Learning Goals. Within the final term of the EYFS, we provide a written report to parents, summarising their progress against the ELG’s.

Inclusion, SEN and Equal Opportunities

At Pennyhill, we recognise that every child is a competent learner who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured. We recognise that children develop in individual ways, at varying rates. Children’s attitudes and dispositions to learning are influenced by feedback from others; we use praise and encouragement, as well as celebration/ sharing assemblies and rewards, to encourage children to develop a positive attitude to learning.

We value the diversity of individuals within the school and do not discriminate against children because of ‘differences’. All children at Pennyhill are treated fairly regardless of race, religion or abilities. All children and their families are valued within our school. In our school we believe that all our children matter. We give our children every opportunity to achieve their best. We do this by taking account of our children’s range of life experiences when planning for their learning. In the EYFS we set realistic and challenging expectations that meet the needs of our children.

We meet the needs of all our pupils through:

• Planning opportunities that build upon and extend children’s knowledge, experience and interests, and develop their self-esteem and confidence;
• Using a wide range of teaching strategies based on children’s learning needs;
• Providing a wide range of opportunities to motivate and support children and to help them to learn effectively;
• Providing a safe and supportive learning environment in which the contribution of all children is valued;
• Using resources which reflect diversity and are free from discrimination and stereotyping;
• Planning challenging activities for children whose ability and understanding are in advance of their language and communication skills;
• Monitoring children’s progress and taking action to provide support as necessary.

Health and Safety, Safeguarding and Welfare

It is important to us that all children in school are ‘safe’. We aim to educate children on boundaries, rules and limits and to help them understand why they exist. We provide children with choices to help them develop this important life skill.

Children should be allowed to take risks but need to be taught how to recognise and avoid hazards. We aim to protect the physical and psychological well-being of all children.

“Children learn best when they are healthy, safe and secure, when their individual needs are met and when they have positive relationships with the adults caring for them.”

We understand that we are legally required to comply with certain welfare requirements as stated in the revised Statutory Framework for Early Years Foundation Stage 2023. We understand that we are required to:

• Take all necessary steps to keep children safe and well
• Be alert to any issues for concern in the child’s life at home or elsewhere
• Ensure all adults who look after the children or who have unsupervised access to them are suitable to do so.
• To ensure that any staff medication is kept in a location out of reach to children
• To ensure child to adult ratios are always accurate for age of children
• Promote the welfare of children.
• Promote good health, preventing the spread of infection and taking appropriate action when children are ill.
• To ensure all staff are aware of children’s health and dietary requirements
• To ensure fresh drinking water is constantly available and accessible at all times and healthy eating is promoted and snack preparation is completed by an individual with food hygiene certificate
• To ensure a first aid box is available at all times and any accidents or injuries are dealt with effectively, recorded and reported to parents on the same day
• Manage behaviour effectively in a manner appropriate for the children’s stage of development and individual needs.
• Ensure that the premises, furniture and equipment is safe and suitable for purpose
• Ensure that every child receives enjoyable and challenging learning and development experiences tailored to meet their needs.
• Maintain records, policies and procedures required for safe efficient management of the setting and to meet the needs of the children.
• Ensure at least one person who has a current paediatric first aid (PFA) certificate must be on the premises and available at all times when children are present and must accompany children on outings.

It is important to note that members of staff do not use their mobile phones in the classroom and are prohibited from taking photographs with their personal devices.

Members of staff do, however, use school I-pads and cameras to take photographs for observations. All parents are asked to state if they give permission for their child’s image to be used on the school’s website.

We acknowledge that children will sometimes wet or soil themselves. We have a stock of clean clothes in school and change children in a designated toilet with the door open but we do request that children come with a change of clothes in case accidents happen. We find children are more comfortable changing into clothes that are their own. If the children have wet themselves, we will change their clothes as appropriate and inform parents at the end of the day. If children have soiled themselves we will encourage them to clean themselves as much as possible, parents will be phoned and informed.