Early Years Foundation Stage

Our EYFS curriculum has high expectations but is age appropriate and designed to give all of our children an excellent start in life and a lifelong love of learning. We strive to create children with strong characteristics of effective learning (ready, willing and able), children who are curious and take risks. We have created our own bespoke curriculum which builds on the Educational Programmes as outlined in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and we also use Development Matters, the Leuven Scales of Well-Being and Involvement, our own Assessment/Progression documents and our RE scheme ‘Lighting the Path’ to plan, prepare and deliver a variety of purposeful learning opportunities through play. We have set themes where we take advantage of cross curricular links but we will also be led by the children’s interests sometimes adapting our planning ‘in the moment’ particularly in the Nursery year. We are aware that our children arrive with very different experiences from each other (mixed catchment) and we believe our role is to build on the cultural capital that the children come to us with through the Characteristics of Effective Learning which promote the overarching principles of the Unique Child, Positive Relationships and the Enabling Environments always being mindful that children will develop at their own pace.

Each child’s learning is planned and tracked individually. We use our practitioner knowledge of each child gained through interactions, observation of play and teacher led sessions to plan next steps which are unique to them. We are led by the children’s interests and provide opportunities to build on what they know and can do to make progress towards the Early Learning Goals and equip them with sufficient knowledge and skills for their future learning. We encourage parents/carers and other settings to work with us to ensure smooth transition and to offer extra help to those who need it as we recognise that the help that parents give their children at home has a very significant impact on their learning. We have an open door policy and encourage parents/carers to share their child’s learning through Tapestry by sending us photographs and videos of any ‘wow moments’ at home. As well as curriculum workshops and Parents’ Evenings we also have ‘Stay and Play’ sessions and invite parents/carers to join us on our frequent outings and trips.

We provide a language rich and text rich environment which promotes a love of interacting, reading and writing. All practitioners understand the crucial role quality interactions play in children’s learning and development. We use ‘Monster Phonics’ for our Phonics sessions and we provide plenty of opportunities for pre reading skills through song, nursery rhymes, sounds walks etc. We carefully choose our texts and stories to create a love of reading and to also broaden children’s cultural experiences. We let the children tell their own stories and show children we respect their ideas and their thinking. We do this through all areas of learning but particularly in small world play and role play. We take time to listen and hear a story unfold. We will sometimes scribe or record what has been spoken and then we can demonstrate their words can be heard back and listened to, enjoyed, celebrated and praised. We let the children imagine their stories first. The children are encouraged to mark make and write in all areas of provision indoors and outdoors and give meaning to their marks. In EYFS the children will have a daily Phonics session and in Reception individual and Guided Reading sessions. In Maths we follow the ‘Mastering Number’ in Reception and ‘Master the Curriculum’ in Nursery and we use a range of high quality resources to supplement these schemes. Parents and Carers are informed every week of the learning that has taken place so they can consolidate at home if they wish to, we do this through ‘Nursery News’ / ‘Reception Newsletter’, the school website blogs, Tapestry and Google Classroom. Parents are invited to workshops to demonstrate the teaching of Phonics, Early Reading and Maths. All reading books sent home consolidate the learning taking place in Phonics and Guided Reading Sessions. Our environment provides lots of opportunities for reading for pleasure through attractive Reading Areas and book nooks.

All children within the EYFS are given access to a broad, rich and deep curriculum tailored to their individual needs. We adapt our curriculum where necessary for children with SEND or particular needs to ensure their learning is still ambitious for them. The EYFS team have the ‘Trafford Giving Voice Accreditation Award’ and we are trained in WELLCOMM, TASS (Trafford Assessment of Speech Sounds), Speech and Language, Lego Therapy, Social Groups and Behaviour. CPD in SEND is always given high priority. The EYFS Lead holds the PgCert National Award for SEN Coordination. We work closely with Trafford’s EY SENAS team to ensure all children make the progress they should. Some children may require additional intervention and reviews with Parents and outside agencies, in EYFS we follow the Assess, Plan, Do, Review format for these.

We have a shared understanding of the role of the practitioner, our formative assessment is watching, listening, interacting and supporting children to solve problems and use new vocabulary. Learning takes place through adult-child interactions, child-child interactions and independent play. The Continuous Provision both indoors and outdoors is well structured to promote a love of learning through enhancements which are contextualised and motivate the children’s interests.

We enrich our curriculum through regular visits to the local library, outings to the park and local area walks, we go on annual trips to museums and art galleries, the zoo or farm and to watch dance performances. The children also take part in their own performances (Nativity, Dance Show, Nursery Rhyme Project) and a number of Sporting events including football training at MCFC. All the children in EYFS also have Forest School sessions within our school grounds.

All our practitioners are very experienced and when a new member of staff joins the team high quality CPD is a priority. Our EYFS was selected as an ‘Early Excellence Partner School’ in 2018 and we work closely with Early Excellence to plan and host CPD every term tailored to our own needs and development. The EYFS lead attends regular Early Years Forums and Cluster meetings to ensure we are kept up to date with any changes or new recommendations and is also a member of the North West EYFS Maths Hub. All the EY practitioners are very passionate about Early Years and invest a lot of their own time learning and reading research into EY development and approaches.

Interactions with children are crucial in our setting to communicate and model language, explain, demonstrate and question. Practitioners provide a narrative for what the children are doing facilitating learning and setting challenges.

Texts are chosen with careful thought in order to engage and excite the children. We ensure the texts are language rich and introduce children to new vocabulary, ideas and concepts. We use hooks to excite the children in advance of reading and then provide enhancements throughout the provision linked to the texts. There are many and varied reading strategies, shared reading, guided reading, story sacks, book nooks and regular visits to the school and local library.

The Continuous Provision in EYFS both indoors and outdoors is planned to enable the children to develop early mathematical concepts in classifying, matching, comparing and ordering. The children learn to understand Number and Shape, Space and Measure in all areas of learning. Children in Reception have a daily Maths carpet session and children in Nursery have a daily Maths input.

The learning environments both indoors and outdoors have been meticulously planned to support the curriculum. Enhancements are added based on children’s interests and to practise and deepen their knowledge and skills.

We provide a nurturing environment to ensure all our children feel secure and happy in order for the children to thrive. We promote the children’s self regulation helping them to understand and manage their own behaviours and reactions, to recognise their own emotions and to also show empathy and understanding towards others. We give children the strategies to make positive choices and resolve conflicts responsibly. We encourage a healthy sense of self-esteem. A positive behaviour policy is in place and rewards are given for good behaviour.

The children develop holistically across the 7 areas of learning as the curriculum is planned to meet the needs of all children across all areas of learning – this is evident by the GLD outcomes at the end of the year where the children have made considerable progress from their starting points.

We use electronic learning journeys and have Blogs on the website which evidence to the children and their families the successes of the children throughout their time in Early Years.

There is always a smooth transition into Reception for our Nursery children. Children entering Year 1 have developed into happy, confident, articulate children with a wide range of knowledge to build on. Most go on to pass phonics screener, with scores consistently above the national average at the end of Year 1.

The children in Y1 are becoming independent learners and they take their learning forward using the knowledge and skills they have required in the EYFS – most children achieve ELGs in Maths and Literacy.

Majority of children gain ELGs in PSE and display high levels of wellbeing and involvement (Leuven scales)

Children are kind, respectful and honest, demonstrating inclusive attitudes and have a sense of their role in wider society

As a team we carry out regular internal moderation sessions and also attend cluster moderation sessions to ensure that we feel confident with our judgements and that these judgements are consistent with a range of other settings.

The EYFS team are committed to raising standards by attending relevant CPD and working with Early Excellence as a partner school to ensure that each child at St Hugh of Lincoln has the best start on their school journey.

St Hugh of Lincoln EYFS Curriculum Themes Outline for 2025-26 – View here

Early Years curriculum – Long term plan 25/26 – View here