Intent
At St Luke’s we follow in the footsteps of Jesus as we live, love and learn together.
Through our Early Years Curriculum, we aim to enable every pupil to participate fully and thrive within our school, local and wider communities, as responsible, self-confident citizens.
We actively promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical qualities of all pupils.
Intent
At St Luke’s we strive to deliver education of the highest quality for all our pupils. Our vision is to ensure that all children, no matter their background or circumstances, reach their full potential and leave our Early Years ready for the next stage of their education. We promote life-long learning, which begins when a child enters our Early Years provision.
It is our intent that children in our Early Years provision make outstanding progress in learning. We achieve this through following the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and linking these expected outcomes to a carefully planned and sequenced curriculum. This is planned around quality texts to support children’s spoken language which will allow all children at St Luke’s to become confident learners with an extensive range of powerful vocabulary.
We aim to provide the right mix of adult-directed learning and learning through play and exploration so that the children in our Early years become happy, curious learners with a thirst for knowledge and a positive attitude towards school.
Implementation
There are four overarching principles that shape our Early Years Curriculum at St Luke’s. These are taken from the EYFS statutory Framework.
A Unique Child
At St Luke’s we recognise that every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning. We also recognise that Children develop and learn at different rates. We aim to ensure children in our Early Years can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
Positive relationships
We aim to develop caring, respectful and professional relationships with the children and their families. All children are allocated a key person within our EYFS provision.
Enabling Environments
The learning environment plays a key role in supporting and extending the children’s development. Through interactions and observations, we continuously assess the children’s stages of development and learning needs. We plan challenging, achievable activities and experiences to extend children’s learning.
Learning and Development
We recognise that children learn and develop in different ways. We view all seven areas of learning as important and interconnected.
Communication and Language- Children are given opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop and grow their vocabulary; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves, and to speak and listen in a range of situations. This is achieved through daily story and song
times, interactions with children pitched at the right level, speaking and listening time and an oracy-based approach to the literacy curriculum. Intervention for the lowest 20% is provided through the Wellcomm programme to ensure that children keep up and not catch up.
Physical development- This involves providing opportunities for children to be active and to develop their coordination, control, and movement., alongside learning about healthy living. This is achieved through daily access to our outdoor environments, regular PE sessions and fine motor enhancements.
Personal, social & emotional development- Children are taught how to form positive relationships and social skills, to respect others, how to manage their feelings, understand appropriate behaviours and develop a positive sense of themselves.
Literacy- Read Write Inc. is used for the teaching of early reading. We begin this programme with our nursery children in the summer term. It is our aim that by the end of the reception year children can read and write short sentences using sounds they have been taught. Children are exposed to high-quality
literature using our daily EY2P literacy sessions along with linked, quality texts. This allows children to develop a love of reading and supports vocabulary development.
Mathematics- To support the teaching of mathematics we use NTCEM Mastering Number and Master the Curriculum. Variation, representation, fluency, mathematical thinking and coherence form part of our scheme of learning to develop good mathematicians. This allows children to develop a deeper
understanding of numbers and allows them to make clear connections throughout the different strands of mathematics. We deliver daily mathematical sessions to the children, and this is followed up with focused link provision activities and enhancements within the environment.
Understanding the world- Our linked texts approach allows children to make sense of their physical world and community by giving opportunities to explore, observe, and find out about people, places and the environment.
Expressive arts and design- Children explore and play with a wide range of media and material and are encouraged to share their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in Art, Design and Technology, Music, Dance and role-play,
Impact
That all children leave The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) with a range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.
