In the EYFS at Kineton Primary School, we are committed to building a strong foundation, ensuring children have high levels of well-being and involvement to help pupils to grow into confident, successful learners with the thirst to achieve their best. A child’s experience in the early years has a major impact on their future life chances. Our aim is to provide a happy, stimulating environment where every child feels empowered to achieve well and develop as an independent learner. 

The curriculum will be based around the three key characteristics of effective teaching and learning in the early years outlined in the EYFS Statutory framework (March 2017).

• playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’; 
• active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements; and 
• creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

Intent

• Deliver a well planned curriculum that encourages pupils to develop creativity of thought and expression, whilst challenging themselves to strive for their best.
• Provide a curriculum that is broad and dynamic, building upon children’s knowledge, skills,  understanding and interests whilst teaching carefully sequenced knowledge and skills through well targeted, playful learning activities. 
• Create a stimulating, nurturing environment that offers children opportunities to practise and develop their skills and knowledge. We use our love of outdoor learning to develop the important skills of communicating, negotiation and teamwork. 
• Support children to build strong relationships with their peers and adults in their community so they communicate and work confidently with others. We value the engagement of our families as partners in their child’s learning journey, working to build a positive two-way relationship.
• Enable pupils to grow into independent, curious learners who demonstrate the characteristics of effective teaching and learning.

Implementation

Each half term, EYFS staff introduce a new theme to inspire learning, whilst providing the flexibility for children to follow their own interests and ideas. Children learn through a balance of child-initiated play and skillful, playful teaching. Play enables children to develop concentration, practise and apply new learning, explore and experiment with new materials and ways of doing things, solve their own problems and become active participants in their learning. When playing and interacting with the children in their chosen activities, staff are able to assess children’s current understanding, then model and demonstrate the behaviours, communication skills and vocabulary needed to enable them to make their next steps of progress. Our indoor and outdoor environments are valued equally as key vehicles for driving learning. We also recognise that some aspects of learning are best taught directly in order for children to acquire and use vital knowledge and skills ready for the next part of their learning journey in Key Stage 1. The timetable is carefully structured so that children have direct teaching during the day and opportunities to engage in extended periods of play, changing throughout the year to take into consideration the changing needs of the children.We provide high quality first teaching in phonics and reading through daily Read, Write Inc sessions. In addition, children are taught vital maths skills in their daily maths lesson. Teaching is delivered in whole class, small group and individual sessions and is tailored to meet the children’s needs.