Curriculum rationale
Intention
In the Early Years Foundation Stage, our Curriculum is designed to meet the needs of our children by building on prior knowledge, and by setting the foundations of future learning in Key Stage 1. By incorporating our school values of Respect, Responsibility, Reflection, Resilience and Positivity, we create an enriching environment where children can develop and thrive.
At Barnfields, we believe that the Early Years Foundation Stage is crucial in igniting a lifelong love of learning and ensuring children develop the key learning behaviours to help them throughout their school life and also throughout their futures. Our learning is underpinned by our values which help to shape each child as a future adult. We create an environment where children feel safe, valued and supported.
We recognise every child as a unique child with varied experiences, cultures and starting points. We celebrate differences and have high expectations of all pupils by adapting, challenging and supporting their learning experiences at every stage. We recognise parents as the first educators and build strong parent partnerships with each individual family.
It is our aim to develop each child into a confident, independent learner, equipped with the key knowledge and skills required to be successful. We acknowledge that future academic success is underpinned by learning to be skilled communicators and so ensure we have an unswerving focus on developing children’s communication and language skills.
Implementation
Our bespoke Early Years Curriculum meets all the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework, which sets out the seven areas of learning and what is expected at the end of the Foundation stage through the seventeen Early Learning Goals.
There are three prime areas which run through all other areas of learning (Communication and Language; Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Physical Development) and four specific areas (Literacy; Mathematics; Understanding the World; Expressive Art and Design).
We incorporate a taught Curriculum which is delivered through adult-led sessions followed by a linked task or recorded piece of work and also an environmental Curriculum delivered through both our continuous provision and also our carefully planned enhanced provision.
Through providing a varied pedagogy, we can adapt our learning experiences based on the curriculum content, the specific children and their developmental levels, and our knowledge of child development. We can thereby ensure that each child gets the correct level of support and challenge to reach their full potential.
In order for children to be successful in our ambitious Key Stage 1 Curriculum we have an unswerving focus on the areas of Literacy, Maths and Communication and Language. We have identified that these areas are the most crucial foundations in order for our children to thrive as they begin their journey into the National Curriculum expectations.
We use Tapestry as an interactive tool to build parent partnerships, sharing photos of our class learning experiences as well as individual achievements. Parents can also use Tapestry as a way of sharing their child’s achievements from home creating a full and complete record of each child’s learning journey.
Impact
The impact of our Curriculum is assessed constantly through our skilled observations and interactions with the children. Teachers use questioning throughout each day to find out what children have learnt and remembered and also to quickly identify any gaps or misconceptions. These formative assessments feed back into our planning cycle and enable us to adapt our planning wherever necessary.
We use target tracker as a tool to track each child’s progress towards the Early Learning Goals and through this can identify and then target our challenge or support to those children who need it. We ensure that every child makes at least expected progress and quickly provide interventions to any child who is not on track.
We collate our summative assessments against the Early Learning Goals at the end of the year and moderate these with other staff, using our professional knowledge of each child and also physical evidence from target tracker and through pieces of work the children have completed.
Through our bespoke Curriculum, we ensure that every child is prepared for the learning experiences of key stage 1 and not only have the key knowledge but also the key learning behaviours that they will rely upon to be successful lifelong learners.
