Our Vision
Our Vision for our Early Years and Foundation Stage
Our vision for our Early Years is to enable our children to be kind, curious and individuals who will always try their best. It is our aim to guide the development of children’s capabilities with a view to ensuring that all children are ready to benefit fully from the opportunities ahead of them. We create purposeful indoor and outdoor areas that promote speech & language development, independence, happiness, safety & security and self-discovery that are fun for children to take part in. We recognise the importance of outdoor learning which is carefully planned and designed to have a positive impact on the children’s social and emotional well-being and development.
We have high expectations for all children to make good progress, no matter what their starting points. Through careful monitoring and interventions where necessary, we ensure children’s learning is monitored effectively so that our children flourish in our care.
We strongly believe that children learn how to learn through their play. As such, play will be purposeful and children will be encouraged to discuss what they are doing at every opportunity whilst having fun. Children will have the support of highly skilled and engaged adults who will help to promote high levels of oracy. We recognise the importance of developing well-rounded and sociable individuals who are motivated to learn through the modelling of positive interactions and language at all times.
We aim to offer a balance of child-initiated and adult-led learning using continuous provision, small group and whole class activities. Daily provision will build upon previous learning and interests that children bring to the setting.
At the start of the year, planning will focus initially on quality play opportunities across the seven areas of learning with more guided group teaching as the year progresses. We will ensure that children engage in learning where they can be the decision makers and where they can use their creativity. Some activities will be created by the adults yet predominately led by the children, rainbow challenges will be formulated to consolidate previous learning and other experiences are designed by the children with the adult extending their thinking and ideas by facilitating their play. Staff will observe, listen attentively, help where necessary and support learning in a nurturing way. Staff will record evidence if they feel it helps to plan the next steps for the child or helps to plan future engaging experiences.
Through the 'Characteristics of Effective Learning', children’s active learning skills are developed which support them to understand and respond to feedback. Persistence is encouraged and praised as we strongly believe that in order to develop resilience, we must teach children to be independent learners who problem solve for themselves; know to keep trying and know how and when to access help. We celebrate our children's abilities and strengths and help them to understand that mistakes are valuable learning experiences.
In order for our children to progress and gain the knowledge, skills and understanding that they need for success, we look at their work, observe their learning experiences, carefully analyse data, measure progress and ensure all staff are aware of next steps and expectations. Effective communication between all staff and parents/carers is vital and we endeavour to do this by building positive relationships with parents/carers through frequent home school communication.
Planning for our Early Years is thorough and adaptable and staff are responsive to our children, who we are aware can progress at different rates across the different areas of the curriculum. Phonics is taught methodically once a day but will also be explicit within the provision. Additional intervention, support and 'keep up' groups will scaffold children who may not be reaching their full potential, including our disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND. Also, children who are achieving well, will be challenged in their learning to ensure they continue to make good progress. Differentiation will be clear within our setting either by the task the children are involved in or the outcome.
Children’s independence is encouraged throughout our setting. Our children are challenged to discover answers for themselves with quality adult support.
Adults in our setting model activities with enthusiasm and there are high expectations for all children at all times. Nursery & Reception staff ensure that the learning environment for the children is engaging fun, happy, safe and and is an encouraging place to be and learn.
Observations and assessment of our children's learning are of high quality and team discussions enable us to monitor progress across the whole EYFS curriculum and intervene where needed to support children’s areas of development. We strive for a high percentage of children achieving the Early Learning Goals at the end of the year.
We are proud that our children flourish in our care as they develop the confidence to be inquisitive learners and to ask questions; work on feedback and learn and support alongside their friends.
In strong partnership with our families, we shape and grow happy and increasingly independent learners, who will be honest, have respect for others and will be ready for their next stage of learning as they enter into Key Stage 1 :)
All the documents we write, have our children at the heart of them. Our policy details each area of the EYFS provision to ensure consistency across the Foundation Stage Unit and to allow our children to achieve all they are capable of in a supportive, caring and challenging environment.
The following documents tell you more about our vision: