EYFS
We provide a curriculum that is bespoke to our school community and is inspiring, language rich, develops children’s skills and knowledge and is concept driven. Our curriculum is aimed at developing knowledge of the wider world and first-hand experiences of life outside the local community. This aims to ensure that our children are school and work ready and prepared to make a positive and fulfilling contribution to a 21st century world.
We have used current education research into neuroscience and learning to underpin our teaching and learning approaches, additionally staff use accurate assessment to support children's cognition and development needs. We have embedded the Deeplish Teaching and Learning approaches throughout the Academy and part of this has been their adaptation for use in EYFS. The foundations of this teaching approach are using informed assessment to plan next steps, regular retrieval of learnt knowledge and high-quality modelling of new skills. We use various methods of scaffolding to support the development of children's ideas, language and vocabulary. All the afore mentioned, supports the reduction of cognitive overload.
In order to address the barriers to learning that the children face we have a very focussed curriculum that is designed to address the language needs of the children. Vocabulary is at the heart of our curriculum and is mapped out progressively to build a firm foundation for the National Curriculum. Research proven interventions are primarily communication focused to quickly assess need and address barriers, so that children can fully access our broad and balanced curriculum offer.
Our Mathematics curriculum is based around the principles of practical exploration alongside oral reasoning and explanation. This supports the language rich focus we have in EYFS. We adapt a concrete and pictorial approach to support children grasping early mathematical concepts. We use Maths No Problem in reception and have adopted the workbook approach to ensure that our children develop the skills of independent learners and become Year 1 ready.
We give our children the confidence to make informed choices in order to develop healthy minds and bodies. We empower our children to achieve their personal best. We focus on the themes of healthy me, social me and thinking me throughout the Academy and this is a progressively mapped out personal qualities curriculum that is important for our community. In Reception we learn:
- Healthy Me: caring hands
- Social Me: patience
- Thinking Me: trying new things