Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) applies to children from birth to the end of the Reception year. In our school all children join us at the beginning of the school year in which they are five.

The EYFS seeks to provide:

- Quality and consistency in all early years settings, so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind.

- A secure foundation through planning for the learning and development of each individual child, and assessing and reviewing what they have learned regularly.

- Partnership working between practitioners and with parents and/or carers.

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

Our EYFS practitioners use a cycle of observation, assessment and planning to deliver a bespoke curriculum to the children that they teach in order to secure the best outcomes. In the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum there are 7 areas of learning and development that shape the educational programme in EYFS at LCA:

• Prime Areas:
  • Personal, Social and Emotional Development
  • Communication and Language
  • Physical Development
• Specific Areas
  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Understanding the World
  • Creative Development

Phonics

Synthetic phonics is taught using a scheme called 'Letters and Sounds'. Children who have been to a nursery setting should have started to work on Phase 1 of this scheme before starting school although we do continue to teach skills such as listening, rhyming, alliteration and sound discrimination in EYFS.

Preparing your child for school

There is lots that you can do at home to help your child prepare for life at school including:

• Teaching them to put their coat on and fasten it, as well as how to take it off again.
• Teaching them how to take their shoes off and put them back on the right feet.
• Helping them to recognise their name (this will help them to find their coat peg).
• Helping them to write their name (only use a capital letter at the beginning of their name).
• Supporting them to use the toilet independently (please talk to us if you are worried about this).

Transition into Key Stage One

EYFS practitioners and Year 1 teachers at LCA recognise that the transition to Key Stage 1 is a landmark event for children and has a definite impact on their emotional and academic development. It is a time of exciting change, new opportunities and growth for every child, however it can also be a time of uncertainty where surroundings, expectations and procedures are different and key people are unfamiliar. Getting transition right is vital for every child and should be seen not as an event but a process that involves children, practitioners and parents together. EYFS practitioners at LCA are very adept at gradually building the expectations for the pupils in their care in preparation for their transition to a Year 1. This includes gradually building the amount of time that children are expected to take part in an adult guided sessions as the year progresses. Practitioners also work hard to build up pupils’ independence so that they can complete a task without over-reliance on an adult. In the summer practitioners begin to deliver whole class sessions where children are all expected to complete a task at the same time. These tasks might include handwriting, writing and number.