Co-op Academy Broadhurst Primary School

Early Years Foundation Stage Policy

This Policy was approved by the Governing Body: 8/2/2023

Review Date: January 2024

EYFS Policy 2022 -2023

Intent

At Co-op Academy Broadhurst we aim to provide motivating first-hand experiences whilst encouraging children to build resilience, ambition and a lifelong love of learning. We believe that warm and positive relationships between staff and children, consistent routines and strong relationships with parents are key. We aim to build on the wealth of knowledge and skills children already have when they arrive and are actively developing relationships with parents and feeder settings through our home visits, stay and play sessions and transition visits.  We recognise that all children are unique, celebrating and welcoming differences within our school community. We understand that children develop physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally in an environment which values all cultures, communities and people. Therefore, our curriculum is child centred and we enhance our curriculum with the interests and fascinations of the children in the current year group. We understand that play is an integral part of learning and this is at the heart of our early years curriculum. We are passionate about children leading and engrossing themselves in their learning.

Our Values and The Four Ways of Being

We are proud to be a part of The Co-op Academies Trust. The Co-op was founded on a set of values that we embrace. These are Equality, Equity, Solidarity, Honesty, Openness, Caring for others, Self-help, Self-responsibility, Social responsibility and Democracy.

We also teach the children about the Four Ways of Being, referring to them whenever possible, to ensure that children develop a good understanding of the meaning and implications of each one.

These are:

• Be yourself, always
• Do what matters most
• Show you care
• Succeed together

We aim to:

• Provide a curriculum that broadens children's experiences, providing opportunities to try new things and encouraging them to relish a new challenge
• Provide high expectations encouraging them to develop perseverance and self-belief so that they can problem solve and achieve far more than they expected
• Provide a learning environment that helps children achieve their full potential and support those who need additional help in order to maximise their chances of achieving the Early Learning Goals
• Provide children opportunities to develop their sense of wellbeing and ability to regulate their feelings so that they feel confident in our community and are equipped with all the tools they need to transition to Year 1 effectively
• Provide a language rich environment
• Develop the skills and expertise of staff working in EYFS through regular and comprehensive professional development either run by the EYFS Lead or attending courses run by other providers
• Provide a  learning environment that is adaptable in order to reflect children's interests and progression. The children are supported to learn to work together, manage their feelings and ask questions through skilled adult facilitated play. In early years our environment and all our interactions and routines are intentional.
• The Characteristics of Effective Learning are at the heart of our curriculum and pedagogy. We believe to learn well, children must approach opportunities with curiosity, energy and enthusiasm. Effective learning must be meaningful to a child, so that they are able to use what they have learned and apply it in new situations. These abilities and attitudes of strong learners will support them to learn well and make good progress in all the Areas of Learning and Development.
• All areas of Learning and Development are interlinked within our continuous provision.
• communication and language.
• physical development.
• personal, social and emotional development.
• literacy.
• mathematics.
• understanding the world.
• expressive arts and design
• We provide opportunities for children to make progress across all areas of the curriculum towards meeting the ELGs and knowing more and remembering more.

Implementation

The curriculum is taught through sequenced plans, seasons, festivals and children’s interests which are enriched with classroom enhancements, trips and visitors. Interests are supported by quality key texts. These are chosen carefully to encourage children's speech, language and communication development.

We understand the importance of parental engagement and believe that our parents have a crucial role to play in their children's education. We work hard to create strong partnerships between home and school.  Parents receive a curriculum overview to inform them of what their child is learning each half term and to explain how they can support this at home. Parents are given online homework via Education City, Collins ebooks, White Rose Maths and Little Wandle. Term challenges are set which links to our half term learning.

Our curriculum follows the Early Years Statutory Framework for the Early years Foundation Stage 2021. This document specifies the requirements for learning and development in the EYFS and provides the prime and specific areas of learning we must cover in our curriculum. Through our knowledge of each child and formative assessments the EYFS team plans exciting and engaging activities that will move the children’s learning forward. This may involve following a class theme where we take advantage of cross curricular links in order to combine transferable skills and develop a wide-ranging vocabulary which underpins the children’s learning. This may also include following individual children’s interests and making the most of those ‘teachable moments’ where the teaching and learning can be maximised in a one to one way with teacher and child. 

Children in EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active and thinking critically and creatively and this takes place both indoors and in our outdoor area. Our outdoor area is open all year round and in all weather conditions. Children make their own decisions about where they learn best and teachers ensure that there are opportunities for all areas of learning both inside and outside.

The school follows the Little Wandle programme. Every child has access to a phonics session every day with intervention opportunities for those who find this area of learning more difficult.  We use our environment to be the third teacher with enhancements and challenges that support phonics. We use the phonics session to also develop children’s expertise in handwriting. Parents are kept up to date with half term assessments and next steps.

We provide effective and focused interventions for those children who are finding learning challenging and are not on track to meet expectations at the end of the year. This will be provided in an inclusive way and support from parents is also enlisted at an early stage to ensure that the children have every chance to achieve the Early Learning Goals.

We provide children with opportunities that many of them have not experienced before which enhance their learning. We go on visits to support this, for example a trip to the farm, beach and Chillfactor. We explore the local area and talk about the community that we live in, this includes trips to the postbox, bakery, postoffice, bird watching, nature reserve, library and supermarkets. We ensure that all of our visits are learning related and will provide the spark for further immersion in a theme or project.

By the end of the Reception year we provide opportunities for children to increase their independence in recording their work as appropriate to ensure they are well prepared for the move to Year 1. We have weekly challenges that help to aid transition in Year 1.  We also ensure that the pedagogy in Year 1 reflects the independent learning skills children have gained in EYFS working together as teams to develop expertise and confidence in all teaching staff. We do this through monthly team meetings where reflections on practice are made, evaluated and decisions about the best way to move forward to enhance children’s learning.

Our EYFS Team work tirelessly to ensure that children are surrounded by a kind, caring and happy environment which helps them develop the same skills in their journey through school. It is a positive place to be where resilience, perseverance and successes are celebrated and every child feels valued and respected.

Impact / Assessment
Our curriculum and its delivery ensure that children, from their own starting points, make good progress. Children in our early years, on average, arrive with much lower starting points than national. During their time with us children make rapid progress towards the national expectation for a good level of development at the end of the year. Pupils also make good progress toward their age-related expectations both academically and socially, developing a sense of themselves before transitioning into Year One. 
Children develop their characteristics of effective learning and are able to apply their knowledge to a range of situations making links and explaining their ideas and understanding. Children are confident to take risks and discuss their successes and failures with peers and adults drawing on their experiences to improve or adjust what they are doing.
We believe our high standards are due to our carefully planned environment, enriched play-based curriculum, quality first teaching and the rigour of assessment.
Our curriculum is reviewed annually to ensure relevance and to ensure the voices of our pupils, parents, staff and governors are heard. 

The EYFS team collect evidence of children’s learning through floor books, their Class Dojo portfolio, observations of ‘Wow Moments’, VIP days these are through a range of notes, photos and videos which are shared with parents daily using the this means that parents can engage with children regularly about their learning and can contribute to the knowledge we have of the child in school. Parents are very active and love to use ClassDojo to record the milestones children make at home during the year.

This is used to inform the end of Reception Early Years Foundation Stage Profile for each child which is reported to the Local Authority in July. Within the final term of the EYFS, we provide a written summary to parents, reporting their progress against the Early Learning Goals. Parents are given the opportunity to discuss these judgements with the teacher. We adhere to the statutory guidance for assessment and reporting arrangements (ARA) for the EYFS profile for the latest academic year.

Moderation

We recognise the importance of moderation, ensuring that assessments and judgments are accurate and valid. To this end, we carry out the following:

 Regular meetings to discuss observations and judgments

•  Effective use of the exemplification materials, including those for exceeding judgments
•  Attendance at whole school moderation meetings
•  Attendance at LEA moderation meetings
•  Complying with LEA moderation visits
•  Shared observations within the setting
• Shared observations with Nursery/Reception/Year 1 teachers