“Every child deserves the best possible start in life and support to their full potential. A child’s experience in the early years has a major impact on their future life chances. A secure safe and happy childhood is important in its own right, and it provides the foundation for children to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.’’ (Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage)

Rationale

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the area of education upon which young children build the rest of their lives. It is a single framework for care, learning and development. The Early Learning Foundation Stage curriculum refers to children from birth to the end of Reception class. For most children, the end of the reception year will be the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, where the expectation is that most children will achieve the Early Learning Goals. Although the Early Learning Goals are intended for children at the end of the reception year, younger children will be provided with experiences which will support them in reaching the goals at the appropriate time. In reception classes, a high quality, well resourced, integrated early education should make a positive contribution to this distinct stage in a child’s development with the key learning skills of listening, speaking, concentration, persistence, co-operation, literacy and numeracy. Rich, stimulating and appropriate experiences will provide each child with opportunities to develop these skills, their competencies and their thinking to the best of their ability across all areas of learning.

Children joining our school have already learnt a great deal. Many have been learning in one of the various educational settings that exist in our community. The early year’s education we offer our children is based on the following principles:

• it builds on what our children already know and can do;
• it ensures that no child is excluded or disadvantaged;
• it offers a structure for learning that has a range of starting points, has content that matches the needs of young children and activities that provide opportunities for learning both indoors and outdoors;
• it provides a rich and stimulating environment.