Spaces which support learning

Our EYFS environments are welcoming, calming and promote a home from home feel. In every area, interesting objects and activities invite closer observation and deeper thinking. Our settings allow dynamic learning as children take their ideas from one space to another; sharing their ideas with others in a new area allowing rich possibilities for exploration. The effectiveness of continuous provision is reviewed regularly and carefully selected enhancements are used to further extend and enable learning.   

Authentic resources are selected to promote creativity, play and have multiple purposes. As such children have the opportunity to experience a range of textures, size, shape and weights. Supervised play with breakable, real-life items made of glass and ceramic materials is especially valuable because it gives children the chance to learn how to handle items with care and trust their own capabilities.

Opportunities our children benefit from: 

• Sports coaching - Shrewsbury Town Foundation
• Talk For Writing - Pie Corbett
• Forest School sessions - Weekly
• Community gardens
• School dogs
• School edible garden, chickens and orchard 
• Wrap around care 
• Music specialist teaching - Whole class and individual (if requested)
• Lending Library
• Thematic curriculum that is driven by our children
• Trips and visitors to our setting to make learning real
• Mental health lead

 Parent Partnerships  

• Parental Workshops including early reading and mathematics
• Tapestry online learning app  
• Parent meetings, reports and developmental checks  
• Transition meetings and events
• Parents are given the opportunity throughout the year to engage in the wider school community 
• Parents of children with SEND or additional needs have regular meetings and dialogue to ensure targets and progress are shared
• Parents are encouraged to support their child’s learning and development at home, through activities and home learning opportunities. This has a significant impact on their child’s learning.

What to expect in EYFS

What to expect, when?

Oral health parent information

5532 A-day - Perfect portions for little tums (1-4 years)

British Nutrition Foundation

Guidance for parents on infection control

Physical activity for early years guidance

Early Years choking hazards food safety advice

We want to support our parents in helping children to flourish in all aspects of their learning. 

EYFS Curriculum

Our EYFS curriculum is designed with our pupils and community in mind. It enables our children to access and enhance their understanding of their home, their village and wider community. It develops their cultural capital and gives them opportunities and choices about the impact they could have as they progress through their school career and beyond.   

The EYFS helps prepare children for success as they transition to their next educational phase and links to National Curriculum learning in KS1 and KS2. 

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework (EYFS) sets out four guiding principles, which shape practice for teaching in Reception.

A Unique Child

Positive Relationships

Enabling Environments

Leading to

Learning and Development

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework is structured around three Prime and four Specific areas of learning and develop, which are all important and inter-connected.

Within these areas there are 17 Early Learning Goals that children work towards achieving by the end of the year.

The way in which a child engages with other children, adults and their environment links to the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning.

Safeguarding 

Safeguarding children is everyone's responsibility. 

If you have any concerns regarding the safety or welfare of a child please come to speak, confidentially, to our school Designated Safeguard Lead. You can also use the NSPCC to report any concerns.

How to report child abuse without any worries - NSPCC

If a child is in immediate danger, please call the Police on 999 immediately. 

Online

Just as our children in EYFS are taught to keep physically safe, children are also taught how to keep safe online.

Parents and Carers - UK Safer Internet Centre

Test Your Internet Filter | SWGfL Test Filtering

Our children in EYFS learn about consent, visibility and understanding privacy.

Early Reading and Phonics  

Early Phonics

The teaching of phonics is strongly embedded in Dragonfly Class - through directly taught sessions, focus groups, interventions and regular assessments.   

We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme, alongside Development Matters, and follow a prescriptive schedule with the aim of helping our children develop the knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes needed to be ready to learn and succeed in Phonics and Literacy.   

LW Phonics Progression

Careful monitoring, across EYFS, is undertaken regularly to ensure children access help early where barriers to learning hinder progress.

Early Reading

We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week.

These:

• are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children.
• use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids.

Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:

• decoding
• prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
• comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.

Home reading

The decodable reading practice book is taken home to ensure success is shared with the family.

• Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to children.
• We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised parents’ resources to engage our families and share information about phonics, the benefits of sharing books, how children learn to blend and other aspects of our provision, both online and through workshops.

We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy.

As a Pie Corbett Story Telling school children are exposed to a range of different texts and have daily story-telling and sharing moments. 

Find out what Talk For Writing is and why we are a Pie Corbett Story Telling school.

Early Maths

Mathematical thinking develops through quality experience and these can be seen throughout the day, daily registration and cooking activities.

Practitioners use story and picture books such as 'The Shopping Basket' by John Burningham, as a tool for engaging our children with mathematical concepts.  Board games such as ‘Snakes and Ladders’ can be found in our provision and develop children’s understanding of numbers.  

Mathematical vocabulary is modelled by practitioners through play opportunities and direct teaching.  

Manipulatives and representations are a powerful tool for supporting our children to engage with mathematical ideas. 

Progress

Practitioners work together to ensure that accurate and relevant information regarding children's learning informs each child's learning journey.

We do this through:

• Staff discussions around children and barriers to progress 
• Regular parental meetings and workshops 
• Written reports
• Pupil progress meetings with SLT 
• SENDco monitoring

Children achieve a Good Level of Development if they achieve at least the expected level in the early learning goals in the prime areas of learning (personal, social and emotional development; physical development; and communication and language) and the early learning goals in the specific areas of mathematics and literacy.