EYFS
Welcome to Elton Early Years
A very warm welcome to Elton Early Years!
We are so pleased to have you and your child as part of our school community. Starting school is such an exciting time, and we are here to make sure that your child feels safe, happy, and inspired to learn every day.
At Elton, we believe the Early Years are the foundation for a lifelong love of learning. Through a balance of play, exploration, and structured activities, we create a nurturing environment where children can grow in confidence, curiosity, and independence.
Our dedicated staff work closely together to support every child, helping them to develop socially, emotionally, and academically. Whether indoors or outdoors, our learning spaces are designed to be stimulating and engaging, encouraging children to ask questions, investigate, and discover the world around them.
We also value strong partnerships with parents and carers. By working together, we can give your child the very best start to their school journey. We’ll keep you updated on class news, share celebrations of learning, and provide ways for you to get involved.
We are looking forward to an exciting year ahead, filled with learning, laughter, and lots of memorable moments.
Welcome to Elton Early Years — where every child’s journey begins
Elton Early Years Foundation Stage
Intent, Implementation, Impact.
Intent
Elton Primary School believes that all children deserve an education rich in memorable experiences that allows our children’s creativity and curiosity to grow, alongside the development of key skills and knowledge. We believe that offering our children a strong foundation and a love of learning gives children the best chance to become well-rounded, happy individuals, ready to succeed in an ever-changing world.
We recognise the importance of giving our children the best possible start to their education by planning and implementing teaching and learning opportunities that support them in reaching their full potential.
It is our intention to provide a stimulating learning environment where all children can work with adults and peers in a climate of mutual respect to develop confidence in their ability to learn. We aim to provide children with a well-structured, safe and active learning environment. This will enable our young learners to develop the skills, attitudes and understanding that support our children to become lifelong learners and encourage them to become active members of our ever-changing society.
Implementation
In EYFS we carefully plan each activity to develop a multitude of skills and knowledge-based learning. We have clearly defined areas within our classroom where children learn and explore via play-based learning to practice skills that have been taught and to explore the topics we are learning about. We also have our outdoor classroom, where children learn via carefully planned activities and resources exploring the outdoors and learning resilience and planned risk-taking activities. All activities that are planned by the EYFS teachers offers different ways which carefully meet the individual needs of the children. Weekly enhancements are added to the broad and rich continuous provision.
Children have high quality teaching and support in all they do. Carpet time is divided up into subject specific focuses, Phonics, English, Maths, Character Curriculum, Guided Comprehension and Jigsaw. Some of these are taught in smaller groups, so that we can target learning appropriately. Additional carpet time is given for story time, rhyme and language development.
We follow the Read Write Inc phonic and reading scheme, and the teaching of phonics happens from day 1 in Reception class. Nursery are exposed to the speed sounds from Spring 1, prior to this they learn about the sounds around them following the Twinkl Phonics scheme. Children who are not learning phonics at the expected rate are given interventions later the same day, as well as one-to-one intervention and group interventions which take place weekly. SEND Speech and language issues are supported by lots of singing and speech and language interventions, such as Wellcomm, take place depending on the need of the child. APDRs are used as needed, in line with the rest of the school. We use adaptive teaching when planning and delivering lessons and make sure everyone can access the lesson in a way which suits them. Where needed, we will plan additional activities for those who need extra support. Interventions are also used for writing and maths as the year progresses. Discussions regularly take place with our SEND co-ordinator.
Impact
By the time children leave EYFS at Elton Primary School, they will:
- be beginning to read with confidence, fluency and understanding.
- have a love of reading and a desire to read for enjoyment;
- have a solid and growing vocabulary.
- be confident to try new things.
- have a can do attitude.
- have a good foundation of knowledge on which they will build upon throughout the school.
We will ensure this happens by:
- Completing a baseline assessment as soon as possible after the child has started the reception year, but at least within six weeks.
- Assessing phonics daily, weekly and half termly and using this information to support 1:1 phonic intervention and group intervention.
- Using a reading book which matches the phonic knowledge of the individual child.
- Giving immediate feedback
- Giving opportunities to reflect on their learning with a key adult to celebrate success and consider next steps/targets.
· Feeding back to parents regularly via ClassDojo and Tapestry
· Inviting parents into EYFS weekly to share a love of reading with the children.
Knowledge Mats CYCLE A 2023/2024
Knowledge Mats CYCLE B - 2024/2025
