Early Years Foundation Stage
We are delighted to welcome you to our Early Years Foundation Stage. The Early Years Foundation Stage includes our Nursery (accepting children from age 3) and a Reception Class. Meet our Teachers below:
At Bowbrook Primary, we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible start for our youngest children as we know a child’s development at this crucial stage has a fundamental impact on their happiness, school journey and shapes the young person they will become.
The beginning of a brand new Primary School is an exciting time and so we will start this journey together with your children. We will be set up in a large modern building, vast grounds and fantastic facilities and resources, all of which are designed to make the learning environment the best it can be. The resources will be carefully selected to provide an excellent education from the get go.
We will be recruiting a dedicated team of experienced Early Year’s Practitioners who care deeply about the children and will form close relationships with children and families so we can create a community that is special for our school.
We treat every child as a unique individual. Above all, we want our children to feel happy, secure and safe. Building the confidence, independence and resilience in our children is important to us. We believe in praising effort and valuing the little steps that really make a difference to the children’s progress and self-esteem.
We believe that young children are intrinsically capable of amazing things and we develop this through having high expectations and promoting a strong sense of Independence for their learning, personal belongings and routines. We want our pupils to be proud of their school and the part they play in it.
Our Reception classroom is located next door to the nursery. Both classrooms will be light and airy and over look their outdoor area so the children can access outdoor learning throughout the day. A habitat area and adventure play equipment is also planned for to provide optimum outdoor opportunities.
The Habitat area will provide Woodland Work to our children in all weathers to play and investigate. Here they can form relationships with others, assess risks for themselves and have the confidence and resilience to attempt challenges, having a go and trying again.
Adventure play equipment helps build children’s gross motor skills and physical development to aid the practical skills of writing and poses challenges to build confidence and self-esteem. Sharing equipment and space and negotiating turn taking are important skills for children to acquire and helps develop children’s communication.
The Nursery and Reception Classroom will help aid inspirational practice for EYFS. The indoor learning environment will include good quality, open ended, gender neutral resources to enhance the children’s learning.
The environment will support children to be fully engaged in purposeful play of their own choice and interest. Resources are to be displayed on open shelving units so they are accessible at all times so the children can choose where to go, what to use and how.
We are keen to promote a love of books and reading in school and so the reception classroom will have a calming space and cosy book corner for reading or reflection.
Lunch times play an important part of the school day and we encourage independence and take great care to support the children in the dining hall to make choices they are comfortable with. We educate the children on healthy eating and our Catering Provider will run lots of initiatives to make lunch times fun and deliver food education to support the curriculum.
The outdoor space will specifically provide real outdoor learning that is bigger, louder and messier than activities that take place indoors. It is vital that outdoor learning gives different experiences from learning in the classroom and gives the children freedom to explore, run, climb, build, investigate, make noise, move and get messy.
The school grounds includes landscaping with a variety of trees. It is important to us that our children are surrounded by sensory experiences and natural life such as grass, trees and wildlife.
Outdoor resources such as crates and loose parts and large outdoor construction will provide opportunities for children to imagine, plan, think critically, create, construct, balance, develop ideas, work together and solve problems.
The EYFS staff will work as a shared team meaning that staff can work across the classrooms getting to know all the Nursery and reception children really well and can plan learning opportunities and interactions to benefit all. This allows for a shared vision of inspirational learning, greater interaction between the children and increased opportunities for shared resources and experiences.
Our EYFS staff are key in providing the emotional environment that supports the children with their learning, ensuring they feel confident and independent, ready to try new things and reassured that adults can help them if necessary without taking over.
Key to our children’s progress are high quality interactions from our staff. It is when children are engaged in what they are doing, in that moment of curiosity, puzzlement, effort or interest that our skilful staff make a difference. Our practitioners are always ready to listen, communicate, role-model, assess, explain, demonstrate, question and push the next steps of the child’s learning that is appropriate to the individual child. Staff will ensure that obstacles are overcome and new possibilities are available so learning is meaningful and fun!
We will follow the fascinations and interests of the children responding to the needs of individuals and real-life situations. We want every child to enjoy coming to school and are passionate to instil a love of learning in our children to follow them throughout the rest of their time at school.
The Curriculum
There are 17 areas of learning and development that come under 7 broad areas, such as:
There are 3 prime areas:
- Communication and language
- Physical development
- Personal, social and emotional development
There are 4 specific areas:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive arts and design
The curriculum is made up of seven areas of learning and development. All of these areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected. However, in order for all children to succeed and achieve their full potential, they must be well established in their Prime areas of learning.