St Elizabeth’s EYFS Curriculum
The EYFS has two parts
At St. Elizabeth’s, we believe that in the Early Years all children deserve to have an equal chance of success. ‘A child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances’ (DfE, 2021). Our high-quality Early Years education acknowledges that children are powerful learners and that every child can make progress in their learning with the right help. The Characteristics of Effective Learning are at the heart of our pedagogy and through these we enable our children to develop knowledge and skills that are transferable and promote their spiritual, moral and cultural development. This approach, coupled with enriched experiences enables all children to develop a rigorous understanding that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.
The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.
This sets out the legal requirements that settings have to follow in order to support children’s learning and development, to assess their development and to ensure they are well cared for.
Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage.
This contains guidance materials for practitioners on the characteristics of learning and the areas of learning and development that should be offered to children in the foundation years.
The Learning and Development Requirements outline seven areas of learning and development. All the areas of learning and development are important and interconnected but the prime areas of Communication and Language, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Physical Development, are priority areas. They are crucial in building children’s ability to learn, form relationships and thrive.
The Prime Areas
Communication and language
Listening, Attention and Understanding
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Listen attentively and respond to what they hear with relevant questions, comments and actions when being read to and during whole class discussions and small group interactions;
- Make comments about what they have heard and ask questions to clarify;
- Hold conversations when engaged in back and forth exchanges with their teacher and peers.
Speaking
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Participate in small group, class and one-to-one discussions, offering their own ideas, using recently introduced vocabulary;
- Offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non fiction, rhymes and poems when appropiate;
- Express idea and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past, present and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Self-Regulation
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Show an understanding of their own feelings and those of others, and begin to regulate their behaviour accordingly;
- Set and work towards simple goals, being able to wait for what they want and control their immediate impulses when appropriate;
- Give focused attention to what the teacher says, responding appropriately even when engaged in activity, and show an ability to follow instructions involving several ideas or actions.
Managing Self
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Be confident to try new activities and show independence, resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge;
- Explain the reasons for rules, know right from wrong and try to behave accordingly;
- Manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs, including dressing, going to the toilet and understanding healthy food choices.
Building Relationships
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Work and play cooperatively and take turns with others;
- Form positive attachments to adults and friendships with peers;
- Show sensitivity to their own and others’ needs.
Physical Development
Gross Motor Skills
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Negotiate space and obstacles safely, with consideration for themselves and others;
- Demonstrate strength, balance and coordination when playing;
- Move energetically, such as running, jumping, dancing, hopping, skipping and climbing.
Fine Motor Skills
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Hold a pencil effectively in preparation for fluent writing – using tripod grip in almost all cases;
- Use a range of small tools, including scissors, paint brushes and cutlery;
- Begin to show accuracy and care when drawing.
Literacy
Comprehension
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary;
- Anticipate – where appropriate – key events in stories;
- Use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems during role-play.
Word Reading
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Say a sound for each letter of the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs;
- Read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending;
- Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.
Writing
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Write recognisable letters, most of which are formed correctly;
- Spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing sounds with a letter or letters;
- Write simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others.
Mathematics
Number
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Have a deep understanding of number to 10, including the composition of each number;
- Subitise (recognise quantities without counting) up to 5;
- Automatically recall (without reference to rhymes, counting or other aids) number bonds to 5 (including subtraction facts) and some number bonds to 10, including double facts.
Numerical Patterns
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Verbally count beyond 20, recognising the pattern of the counting system;
- Compare quantities up to 10 in different contexts, recognising when one quantity is greater than, less than or the same as the other quantity;
- Explore and represent patterns with numbers up to 10, including evens and odds, double facts and how quantities can be distributed equally.
Understanding the world
Past and Present
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society;
- Know about the similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class;
- Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling.
People, Culture and Communities
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps;
- Know some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class;
- Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and other countries drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and when appropriate – maps.
The Natural World
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Explore the natural world about them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants;
- Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class;
- Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and the changing states of matter.
Expressive Arts and Design
Creating with Materials
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function;
- Share their creations, explaining the process they have used;
- Make use of props and materials when role playing characters in narratives and stories.
Being Imaginative and Expressive
Children at the expected level of development will:
- Invent, adapt and recount narratives and stories with their peers and teacher;
- Sing a range of well-known nursey rhymes and songs;
- Perform songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others and – when appropriate – try to move in time with the music.
The learning and development requirements also describe three characteristics of effective teaching and learning:
Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements;
Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
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