Intent

At Barley Close Primary School we want our youngest children to thrive in a language rich, practical and stimulating environment. We support all our children to become independent, happy learners who thrive in school and reach their full potential from their various starting points.                     

Implementation

• High quality language and communication is modelled by all adults and is reflected throughout the environment.
• Personal, social and emotional development of all children is developed through the personalised relationships that all key adults have with individual children. The environment and continuous provision match the specific and individual needs of all children and ensure that they are both supportive as well as challenging.
• Continuous provision is well thought-out, planned and reflective of the children’s needs and interests. This provision will evolve throughout the year as the children develop to ensure that all learners are stretched and challenged to reach their full potential.
• Both the inside and outside environments will be of the same standard and quality. They will provide the children with a stimulating and interesting environment that will allow them to develop their language, communication, mathematical and knowledge skills alongside supporting their personal and social developmental needs.
• Play underpins our curriculum. We use both structured, adult guided activities and child led play experiences. Through play; children are enabled to make decisions about their learning and become inventive, flexible and resilient learners. Adults provide a key role in facilitating this ethos within our setting.
• Planning in EYFS covers the 7 areas of learning alongside the characteristics of learning behaviours ensuring that the provision offered reflects the needs of the child alongside the statutory frameworks.
• Reading, Writing and Mathematics are taught explicitly to the whole class. Children will then work in a supported adult group to work on specific skills that are closely matched to their needs. Further opportunities to then practise these taught skills will be embedded in the continuous provision which children will be taught to access independently.
• Early reading and phonics is a key driver within our early years setting. All children will receive a daily phonics lesson from the start of term 1. From term 2 this provision will be taught in smaller groups to allow children to consolidate prior learning and access new sounds in line with their individual progress. Children requiring further support will receive this daily from trained adults working within the setting.
• Children learn to read using phonically decodable texts. These are carefully matched to taught sounds and each child’s individual ability. Parents and Carers are expected to support their children with reading at home. Adults within reception hear children read regularly. Those children requiring additional support are identified early and regularly in order to ensure their needs are met.

Impact

Through our Early Years provision children are supported in becoming independent life-long learners. They will develop a passion and enthusiasm for learning that will allow to access not only the year 1 curriculum but also lay the foundations for their ongoing educational journey.