We have high ambitions for all children and provide a curriculum that meets the needs of each child, so all children from every background will do well and no child gets left behind. At Four Oaks, we focus on the development of every child as an individual, valuing and building on their previous experiences and responding to their individual needs.

The curriculum is well planned and well sequenced, building on from what children can do and they already know, so they can acquire new skills and knowledge.

We aim to provide a happy, caring, secure and stimulating learning environment to support and extend children's development and learning. We foster strong relationships with families, where they feel valued and are able to actively contribute to and participate in school life.

We encourage confidence, independence and a desire to learn; we promote and celebrate achievement across all areas of the EYFS curriculum ensuring every child is included and supported

We follow the Statutory Framework of the EYFS and the four guiding principles that shape practice within Early Years settings. At Four Oaks, we recognise that:

• Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, 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
• Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates
• Children learn skills, acquire new knowledge and demonstrate their understanding through the seven areas of learning and development.

Children should mostly develop the three prime areas first. These are:

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

These prime areas are those most essential for a child’s healthy development and future learning.

As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in four specific areas. These are:

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

Communication and Language

This covers all aspects of language development and provides the foundations for literacy skills.  Children’s developing competence in speaking and listening is focused on. We aim to extend and enrich the children’s vocabulary through story time, rhymes, role-play and group discussions.  Children are encouraged to share their own experiences through speaking and acting out events in imaginative play and talking about their own ideas. They are encouraged to take part in class activities such as working with puppets, saying rhymes and singing songs together.

We aim to provide meaningful contexts for communication and language in EYFS, following the URLEY Approach that supports and develops children’s oral language and communication skills and encourage them to be resilient and independent learners. We use the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-3) to develop enabling environments in our indoor and outdoor provision with high quality communication & language interactions, encouraging sustained shared thinking.

Children are highly encouraged and motivated to take part in creating their own fantastic stories, their imagination and talking about the characters, setting, problem and solution of their stories. We encourage children to respect and celebrate diversity and support them in developing rich communication and language skills by understanding other cultures and beliefs through first hand experiences, books, celebrating festivals.

Physical Development

Children are given the opportunities to move to music, use equipment, develop and practice their fine and gross motor skills. They develop an increasing understanding of how their body works and what they need to do to keep themselves healthy.  This is done both indoors and outdoors.  Children also develop their spatial awareness and coordination, whilst at the same time encouraging the fine motor skills that they will need to develop holistically

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Children are encouraged to learn to work together, share, take turns and co-operate with others.  Using stories, circle times and through conversation, children are supported with recognising, naming and regulating their emotions. 

Children are encouraged to be independent and make choices for themselves.  Staff support children to develop the characteristics of effective learning, so children become resilient and persevere when they encounter challenges.  Children are also encouraged to be sensitive to the needs of others and to respect other cultures and beliefs.  Children are enabled to become more confident and develop a positive self-image.

Literacy

We encourage children to treat books and others resources with respect.  The children will experience a wide range of stories, books (fiction and non-fiction), rhymes and poetry.  They are encouraged to use the mark-making equipment in all the different areas of the learning environments independently and take part in teacher-led activities.  These activities include whole class shared reading and writing, phonics sessions and writing activities.

In Little Acorns, high quality books and nursery rhymes are used as a stimulus for planning. Children become fully emerged in the story or rhyme and planning for continuous provision is based on it as well as the children’s interests. Children’s interests are used to develop their love for reading for example, children showed a strong interests in airports, this was then used to plan a small world area including high quality texts to develop vocabulary and understanding.

In Reception and Nursery, we use the Narrative Immersion approach to support the children’s literacy development.  All literacy work is based around ‘vehicle text’, that is of high quality.  The units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts that support a wide range of writing opportunities.  Many of the ‘vehicle texts’ used, also have strong thematic links to the other areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.

Phonics

At Four Oaks we aim to:

• To ensure the delivery of phonics is of high quality and is systematic
• To ensure there is a consistent approach to the teaching of phonics in a discrete session
• To give all children the most enriching phonics sessions allowing them to apply their phonic knowledge to both reading and writing
• To have opportunities to apply the skills they have learned throughout the day and in a rich learning environment

We follow the ‘RWI Phonics’ programme and the order in which the sounds are taught for Reception Class.

In Little Acorns and Nursery, children are exposed to communication and language games to develop listening and speaking skills. The activities develop general sound discrimination, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration and voice sounds.  The children have opportunities to work in small groups and activities are embedded into the continuous provision to support children’s learning and development.

In Nursery, children are also continually exposed to the RWI letter cards and rhymes. In Reception, children are taught phonics using RWI scheme of work and work through Sets 1, 2 and 3. All children in Reception are split into ability groups for phonic lessons.

Mathematics

The children in EYFS are immersed in maths; it is planned for in the environment and with additional opportunities to develop mathematical skills.

All children are supported to develop their mathematical skills and language through mathematically rich learning environments, real life contexts, rhyme and stories. Children are provided with meaningful contexts for mathematics in EYFS, following long term plans and children’s interests.

In line with Bruner’s theory of learning, new concepts are taught inactively, then iconically and, finally, symbolically as ways of capturing experiences in the memory. We also believe that it is important to include practical activities and discussion as an integral part of mathematics lessons; and the use of pictorial recording and the classroom environment are also important.

New mathematical concepts begin with the use of structured concrete materials including: structural apparatus such as cubes, counters, 3D shapes or weighing scales as well as contextual objects such as teddies or coins for counting or sorting; then develop imagery with pictorial representations including: children’s own mark making and simple drawings; and lastly move to the abstract/symbolic which include: young children’s emergent graphics, early number formation and number sentences.

In Little Acorns, we aim to enhance children’s experience and knowledge of maths in the world around them through high quality interactions during play. Children are also exposed to mathematical concepts through rhyme and stories.

In 3-4 Nursery in line with evidence from the EEF, children are taught the foundations of Mathematics in a dedicated group input each day which follows the Nursery White Rose scheme of work. In addition, opportunities are taken to explore mathematics through naturally occurring moments throughout the day e.g. morning routines to model language in context and allows pupils to explore concepts in wider contexts e.g. stories, songs and games. Our enabling environments provide opportunities for children to independently explore number and numerical patterns; high-quality interactions and sustained shared thinking extend children’s thinking and support pupils’ in developing their understanding.

In Reception, White Rose Maths Hub materials form the basis of the teaching sequences. This underpins our maths philosophy and ensures that fluency, reasoning and problem solving are taught through a concrete, pictorial and symbolic methodology. Problem solving strategies are explicitly taught and modelled before children apply them to real life situations. Maths lessons are delivered daily, and children are taught explicitly whole class and then in small groups with an adult. Children are then given opportunities to consolidate what they have learned in the continuous play areas and to apply their understanding in different planned activities or challenges. Work is recorded in a floor book, maths book or on Evidence Me. The work within these books exemplifies the process undertaken in learning a mathematical concept.

Understanding the World

All children are encouraged to become independent learners, exploring and investigating to solve problems and misconceptions. Children are provided, through both adult led and continuous provision enhancements, with relevant and purposeful opportunities to explore the world around them. Children are encouraged to independently explore, to solve problems, to investigate, to make decisions and experiment.  They will learn about living things, their environment, the world, history and the people who are important in their lives.  All children are exposed to the wider world around them including different cultures, foods, religion, languages and ways of life. Children are exposed to a wide variety of first-hand experiences to ensure children are immersed in their learning.

Expressive Arts and Design

Children will explore expressive arts and design through our EYFS across three strands: natural materials recreated, creative design and imaginative role play. Children will explore these areas of the curriculum by using a range of materials, tools and techniques using their imagination and creativity, and by experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function. Opportunities to do this are provided through art, music, movement, dance, role-play and design, in which children represent their unique thoughts, ideas and feelings.

We strive to ensure that our children’s progress during their time in EYFS is the best it can be.  We want all children to become competent lifelong learners, regardless of their backgrounds and starting points and develop good communication and language skills.  All children in our EYFS experience smooth transitions, whether they join us in 2-3 Room, Nursery, or Reception. 

We regularly assess children’s progress throughout the year.  Staff use observations to make formative assessments, which quickly inform planning and next steps for children in their learning.  We also use Development Matters as a guide to support our summative assessments of children and we use this information to put into place action plans to support all children’s learning.

Our children develop detailed knowledge and skills across all seven areas of learning by the end of Reception and are ready for their next stage of their education in Year 1. Those children who do not meet all the goals at the end of Reception make great personal progress from their starting points. Our curriculum builds solid physical and emotional foundations which are enhanced by a smooth transition into Year 1.