Romiley Primary School

EYFS Curriculum Intent: To encourage independent, inquisitive and happy learners. We recognise that children have a thirst for new experiences and knowledge, and should be provided with opportunities to engage their interests, develop their resilience and foster a life-long love of learning.

In the EYFS, we aim for every child to be:

• Happy, secure and to feel safe
• Independent, self-assured risk takers
• Confident and resilient
• Excited, positive and motivated to learn
• Supportive and able to form positive relationships

The EYFS staff treat all children as individuals and promote positive relationships.  We endeavour to form close relationships with families and the wider community to promote the best outcomes for all children. Here at Romiley Primary we recognise and value individual’s strengths and talents and believe in praising effort and valuing the little steps that really make a difference to a child’s progress.  We know that by doing this, we are building happy and secure children, who feel safe. Praise and clear boundaries contribute to the confidence and resilience of our children.

The children follow the Early Years Foundation Stage framework (EYFS).  We consider the needs, interests and development of each child to plan challenging, relevant and enjoyable experiences for each child in all areas of learning and development.

There are three prime areas and four specific areas of learning and development in the Foundation Stage Framework curriculum. The three prime areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children's curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving. 

Prime Areas:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSE)
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development.

In the Prime Areas, the children learn to:

• Share, take turns and develop respect for each other.
• Make friends and become confident independent learners.
• Behave appropriately when playing with others.
• Listen to others and understand spoken language to enable children to follow instructions correctly.
• Learn new words rapidly, use them in conversations and develop their own narratives and explanations.
• Join in conversations with adults and children.
• Develop control of their bodies using both large scale movements such as running and jumping and small scale movements such as holding pencils and using scissors..

The prime areas are then strengthened and applied in the specific areas.

Specific Areas:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

In the Specific Areas, the children learn to:

• Enjoy sharing books and stories with adults and friends.
• Begin to read simple sentences using phonic knowledge to decode regular words.
• Draw, make marks, write letters, words and simple sentences.
• Count accurately groups of objects and recognise numerals.
• Add, subtract and problem solve during practical activities.
• Use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, distance, time, money and shape.
• Look closely at how things work, why things happen, living things and the natural world.
• Be imaginative, sing songs, dance and create models, drawings, paintings and stories. 

Our learning environments, both inside and outside are continually enhanced to meet the different and developing needs of the children. We aim to ensure that these are always stimulating and engaging and that they are accessible to all children, regardless of where they are on their learning journey. The environments are developed to promote independence within our children and allow them to access the curriculum independently and confidently with the necessary level of support and challenge

Within our EYFS Curriculum, children are assessed continuously through accurate observations. These provide us with information for future planning, not only for our individual classes but also for individual children’s next steps in their learning. They enable us, as EYFS practitioners, to ensure learning is embedded and consistent and that all children continue to make outstanding progress within our EYFS setting.

Throughout Early Years, we proritise the teaching of phonics and early reading in order to enable all children to access the EYFS and primary curriculums. Early reading and phonics skills provide a gateway to the curriculum and are crucial in removing barriers to learning. At Romiley Primary School, we follow the Monster Phonics validated child-centred phonics programme.