We believe:

1. Every child deserves the best possible start in life with the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right, and making those partnerships between practitioners and parent/carers is crucial.
2. Preparing children for ‘school readiness’ is an important aspect of EYFS and inviting environments ensure children are provided with the right foundations.
3. Providing quality and consistency across the reception settings, so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind.
4. Precise planning and assessment to ensure learning and development for all.
5. Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported.

Our learning and development requirements:

Our EYFS specifies requirements for learning and development and for safeguarding our children and promoting their welfare. Our learning and development requirements cover:

• The areas of learning and development which must shape activities and experiences (educational programmes) for children in all early years settings.
• The early learning goals (the knowledge, skills and understanding children should have at the end of the academic year in which they turn five).
• Assessment arrangements for measuring progress (and requirements for reporting to parents and/or carers).
• Clear safeguarding and welfare requirements, keep children safe and promote their welfare.

The overarching principles:

• Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
• Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
• Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
• Importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. Our EYFS covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Key areas of learning and implementation:

Bakewell Infant EYFS follow the learning and development requirements of the Statutory Framework which comprises of seven areas of learning – these shape our educational programme.

The Prime Areas:

• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development

The four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied:

• literacy
• mathematics
• understanding the world
• expressive arts and design

For more information from the Statutory Framework, follow the link below:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974907/EYFS_framework_-_March_2021.pdf

At Bakewell Infants EYFS, we plan guided and independent tasks in all areas in order for children to develop their skills and abilities. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected. Three areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving. We allow children to explore a wide range of provision and encourage a vocabulary rich environment when implementing all areas of our curriculum.

The Early Years Curriculum at Bakewell Infants is informed by:

1. The requirements of the Statutory Framework 2021 including: The overarching principles for the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage), the Education Programmes for each of the seven areas of learning and being mindful of the progress required to meet each of the 17 Early Learning Goals (ELG).
2. The skills, knowledge and vocabulary as set out in our chosen programmes of Little Wandle for Phonics, Talk for Writing for English and writing and White Rose for maths.
3. Our commitment to ensure that all children have the self-confidence, skills and knowledge needed for transition to Year one and for their future learning.
4. Our whole school principles of generosity, respect, forgiveness, courage, perseverance and friendship.
5. The composite and component skills, knowledge and vocabulary associated with the uniqueness of Bakewell Infants including: Our Christian faith, the people, our school buildings, our gardens and the creatures and animals who live there.
6. Our commitment that all children develop the language and literacy skills needed to communicate effectively and to have a lifelong love of books, stories and reading.
7. The composite and component skills and vocabulary linked to the physical and social context of our local community.
8. Children’s individual interests, needs and talents.
9. Our commitment that all of our children develop a sense of responsibility and care for the natural world and an appreciation and understanding of its wonder and beauty.

Early Learning Goals:

Our reception use the EYFS ELG Statements for the Prime and Specific areas to guide teaching and learning.

Reading and phonics:

Bakewell Infants phonics rationale outlines our practice in the teaching of phonics at Bakewell Infants to ensure that all children:

• Cultivate a love of reading.
• Develop strong strategies for reading new words.
• Read with fluency.
• Enjoy talking about their reading.

At Bakewell Infants reading is taught through a Systematic Synthetic Phonics approach, following the systematic delivery of phonemes from Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. All children take part in a daily 20-25 minute lesson of phonics teaching to enable them to learn to read and spell words for themselves. In reception they also receive three weekly guided reading sessions. Children are taught how to blend phonemes into words to read and segment phonemes to write.

We aim to embed the planned activities through a language rich environment. Enjoying and sharing books as a class, in groups and individually is also a daily experience for our children. We aim for them to see books as a source of pleasure and interest and to motivate them to value reading.

English and Talk for Writing (T4W):

English teaching and learning within Bakewell Infants EYFS is taught through Pie Corbett’s Talk for Writing (T4W). It enables children to imitate the language they need for a particular topic orally, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own version. Through this programme the children experience whole class storytelling, develop story maps and an understanding of beginning, middle and end of stories. They learn to retell stories using key vocabulary: once upon a time, first/then/next, but, so, finally and happily ever after. Children also learn to write non-fiction text including instructions, information texts and poetry. Children learn to write labels, captions, lists, and full sentences by the time they leave reception.

Mathematics:

Maths is taught through a mix of White Rose maths and teacher plans from assessments made. We aim to create a maths rich environment and curriculum which develops the understanding of number, shape, measure and spatial thinking as well as creating opportunities to question and develop reasoning.

We develop counting principles, subitising, cardinal and ordinal understanding, addition, subtraction and number bond knowledge.

Ensuring our children become Year 1 ready:

Our commitment to ensure that all children have the self-confidence, skills and knowledge needed for transition to Year 1 is paramount for their future learning. This is done through:

• Moderation throughout the year for Writing, Maths and Reading.
• Shared planning and expectations for the teaching and learning of phonics.
• Observations of Phonics across Reception and Year 1 for all teachers and teaching assistants so they can learn from one another and to ensure continuity of the programme.
• Story times in the summer term, for the Year 1 teachers to meet the children and for the children to meet the teachers.
• Indoor continuous provision is planned and taught within Year 1.
• Outdoor continuous provision is planned and taught within Year 1.
• Half-termly assessments within Reception identify gaps in learning.
• Objective led planning is used to close gaps in learning to ensure skills and knowledge is secure.
• Transition meetings in the summer term with Reception and Year 1 staff share key information for each child, focussing on areas for learning, safeguarding, well-being and the whole child.