CONTACT US

0161 973 7181

Welcome to Our Website! Click to scroll down

Welcome to our Early Years Foundation Stage

Inspiring every unique child on their first steps towards becoming a curious,  empathetic and independent learner.

Intent

The Early Years Foundation Stage at St Anne’s CE Primary School is wholeheartedly child-centred: everything we do starts with each unique child and their needs. It has an inclusive, strength-based, positive learning atmosphere which embraces the whole child. Underpinning the culture of our setting is a strong passion and wealth of understanding of early childhood and the development of young children.

There is a strong investment in teamwork between staff, children and families. Our staff team have worked within the community for several years and have established strong working relationships with up to three generations of families. This skilful collaboration has created effective partnerships with parents to benefit the children’s’ development and continues to be something we rely on year after year. Our early years unit is much more than a school community; we’re a family.

Teaching staff of the Nursery and Reception Classes work together to plan and deliver a curriculum designed for the children of our school and supporting them in taking their first steps as learners within the St Anne’s family. Both Nursery and Reception Classes follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework and a range of government-approved guidance, including Development Matters, underpins all our teaching and learning. We recognise the importance of this unique and significant stage in a child’s academic life for equipping all children with the knowledge, skills and mindset to succeed and achieve.

In their early years, children develop key skills together with a range of knowledge and understanding in many different areas. The Framework categorises a range of Prime Areas of learning and a further range of more Specific Areas of learning.

 

Prime Areas

Communication and Language

Personal Social & Emotional Development

Physical Development

 

Specific Areas

Literacy

Mathematics

Understanding the World

Expressive Arts & Design

 

Children should have a solid understanding of the Prime Areas before they can begin to learn the Specific Areas. To this end, our learning in Nursery mainly concentrates on the Prime Areas before children begin to explore the Specific Areas in more detail in Reception. Young children learn in different ways and at different rates. To reflect this, our curriculum remains flexible and is always child-centred.

 

Our school values-based EYFS curriculum has been developed alongside the St Anne’s Curriculum. We believe our curriculum supports our youngest learners to gain the foundational skills they need to successfully transition into Year One and continue to thrive and achieve as a St Anne’s learner and beyond.

  • We have a question-led curriculum which informs our termly planning which supports children to carry out their own inquisitive enquiries. A wealth of ‘wow’ moments are planned to excite interest in new areas of learning. Alongside this, planning remains flexible to incorporate the interests of the children so we can support each unique child in their own personal journeys of learning and development.

  • Our curriculum is delivered through a carefully balanced timetable consisting of guided teaching and independent learning opportunities. During each session, children are guided in learning new knowledge and skills then encouraged to practice these further during their independent learning time.

  • Our learning environment is designed to offer a multitude of invitations to play and explore the new knowledge and skills they are developing as life-long learners. Enhancements are made to continuous provision areas to support the learning challenge curriculum or to offer scope to learn at a greater depth.

  • Planned trips, visits and enrichment events occur throughout the year to inspire our learning. Children in the Nursery visit the local library and enjoy visits from storytellers reading stories in home languages of our school community. Reception children enjoy visits from Marine Biologists and trips to the Safari Park or Zoo.

  • Whilst children carry out their own independent enquiries through play, our team of experienced staff support and challenge them through quality talk and interactions supporting the children to articulate their knowledge. We are proud of our language-rich environment and are working towards becoming an Elklan accredited communication-friendly setting.

  • Children’s progress is tracked and monitored through observations and assessments. Emerging special educational needs are identified and monitored using a range of assessment tools and additional provision is mapped and reviewed on a regular basis with the support of our early years special needs advisory service.

  • Planned activities offered through our learning environment are carefully designed to remain accessible to any level of development.

  • Children are introduced to our St Anne's Learning Powers and are regularly rewarded for displaying these characteristics of learning. 

  • At St Anne’s, we are proud to offer a safe, secure and stimulating space for children to learn. Our spacious indoor classrooms, complemented by calming neutral décor, support our children to maintain a relaxed mindset for successful learning. Both outdoor areas have recently been redeveloped to provide a stable alternative learning space for children to learn in the restorative fresh air; purposefully designed to provide the right level of challenge for each age group of young learners.

  • Healthy practices are modelled and encouraged through our fruit-based snack offerings, shared mealtimes supporting the development of good table etiquette and support for children in learning to use the toilet independently.

  • Well-planned transition support and flexible schedules are in place to support effective transition for new starters as they develop healthy relationships with their new peers and teaching staff (key person).

  • Excellent home-school partnerships with parent and carers are established from initial home visits and maintained through ongoing stay and play sessions during our monthly Mouse Club sessions in both Nursery and Reception classes. We are proud to establish the foundation stones of the St Anne’s family.

  • Children enjoy coming to school in our Nursery and Reception classes. They quickly settle into the well-established routines and are soon learning and playing happily together.

  • Children respect each other’s differences and see diversity as a positive aspect to be celebrated.

  • Children learn good manners and how to behave well around others, as a result of the role models provided to them both by staff and other pupils. Our school has a strong family ethos, so children have many opportunities to work alongside and learn from older pupils, such as, Year 6 librarian readers and playground buddies to help us grow as stewards of God's earth together.

  • We prioritise supporting good mental health and wellbeing and daily discussions about feelings and emotional regulation are integral to daily life in our early years unit. The children are introduced to the Zones of Regulation through The Colour Monster and both classrooms have a bespoke regulation station area to support the early learning of self-regulation.

  • All staff are trained to deliver the Think Equal materials to support our PSE curriculum. Children enjoy putting the many strategies they have learned into practice eg: our Friendship Wish motto as a reference tool for encouraging positive and caring relationships with others.

Implementation

Further information on our planning for how we will investigate each learning challenge question can be found in our Learning Challenge Termly Overviews. 

Name
 EYFS Termly Learning Challenge AUTUMN 1 CARE updated Cyc 2.pdfDownload
 EYFS Termly Learning Challenge AUTUMN 2 CARE updated Cyc 2.pdfDownload
 EYFS Termly Learning Challenge SPRING 1 CHALLENGE updated Cyc 2.pdfDownload
 EYFS Termly Learning Challenge SPRING 2 INSPIRE updated Cyc 2.pdfDownload
 EYFS Termly Learning Challenge SUMMER 1&2 RESPECT updated Cyc 2.pdfDownload
Showing 1-5 of 5

Impact

Please take a look and listen to a representation of the many learning opportunities our children in Nursery and Reception Classes have experienced. 

Nursery Class Podcast Episodes