The Early Years Foundation Stage at All Souls'

At All Souls', we offer high-quality early education for our Reception children, and we are committed to giving the best possible start to their education. We were graded ‘Outstanding’ for Early Years provision in our Ofsted inspection in September 2023.

We have a balanced approach – we combine motivating adult-led activities, core experiences, and targeted phonics sessions with early years best practice – learning through play, enabling environments, outdoor learning, following children’s interests and teaching through adult-child interactions. The balance shifts as children move through the year and are adapted to the individuals if needed.  Our provision is developmentally appropriate, and children are taught the skills they need throughout the Reception year.

EYFS Curriculum

Our curriculum is based on the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework and ‘Development Matters’ guidance, along with children’s interests and developmental needs, and the context of our school. Our curriculum is designed to give children the foundational knowledge and understanding needed to prepare them for Year 1 and beyond. This is taught mainly through our focus texts and continuous provision. Our whole school curriculum is concept driven, and we have developed Early Years progression documents for key subject areas which clearly link our provision to the concepts and knowledge in the National Curriculum taught in Key Stages 1 and 2.

Language Development

A key feature throughout our provision is developing children’s language, communication and vocabulary. We do this through the stories we read, our quality interactions with children, and our language and communication rich environments (things to talk about and adults ready to talk). We provide lots of opportunities to develop children’s familiarity with stories, songs, and rhymes. Everything we do is designed to promote language development – our learning environments, the structure of our day, the way focus activities and interventions are organised, and using the latest research in early years.

Reading and Writing

Reading is central to our curriculum. Understanding and enjoyment of books is supported through daily stories and sharing books within all areas of our curriculum. We immerse children in high-quality books, which involves lots of talk and role-play, and has been highly successful in raising engagement and attainment in reading and writing. We develop children’s writing through spoken language and comprehension of stories.

All adults and children in Reception enjoy 'Drawing Club', which is a literacy-focused approach, created by Greg Bottrill, that uses drawing and storytelling to develop writing skills, imagination, and language. It involves the drawing of characters, settings from books and writing a unique code. This has proven to be magical and engaging, and we always observe the joy it brings to the children.

Phonics

Phonics teaching starts with Letters and Sounds Phase 2, alongside listening and sound discrimination experiences and activities, as well as lots of songs and rhymes. Formal 'Bug Club’ phonics lessons start at the beginning of the year and are taught systematically with daily sessions – children who need extra help are supported appropriately in small groups. 

Maths

Maths is taught through concrete, meaningful experiences aimed at developing children’s conceptual understanding. We use the 'Power Maths' scheme to inform our planning in Reception, which carries on through the school, supplemented by activities and experiences planned to support the specific learning needs of our children – for example, our emphasis on number, mathematical language, explanation, and concrete experiences. 

Early Years Principles

Running all the way through our Early Years is the principle of learning through play, the best and most meaningful way for young children to learn. We offer lots of open-ended exploratory experiences, and the structure of our day includes periods of uninterrupted play, so that children can get deeply involved in their learning. We provide rich, enabling learning environments, inside and outdoors, which promote exploration and discovery. The classroom/s and the outdoor area are organised, so children can access resources themselves, make choices, follow their own interests and extend their own learning independently. This all leads to greater involvement and deeper learning.

Outdoor Learning

We place a strong emphasis on the importance of outdoor learning throughout our provision. This has many benefits, including contributing to health and wellbeing, and in developing the ‘whole child’. Children are often more confident outside, and outdoor play offers great opportunities for experiencing the natural world, and active learning and exploration, as well as elements of risk and challenge. We have an outdoor learning environment and a system of ‘free flow’ whereby children can choose to play and learn inside or outside during the sessions. When appropriate, we use the local park to extend opportunities outside further.

Interactions and the Characteristics of Effective Learning

Much of our teaching is through interactions. Adults observe the children closely and join in (‘intervene’) sensitively with their play, to extend their language and thinking, and develop their knowledge and skills. We support the ‘characteristics of effective learning’ (‘playing and exploring’, ‘active learning’ and ‘creating and thinking critically’) developing confident, resilient, independent learners throughout the early years. We encourage good attitudes to learning, like curiosity, concentration, and willingness to ‘have a go’, in everything we do.

Our overall aim is for children to leave the EYFS as confident, happy, independent, resilient learners, emotionally and academically ready for Year 1 and beyond.