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Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) covers the age range from birth to 5 years.

At Bricknell, we have a Nursery for children age 3 to 4 and three Reception classes for children age 4 to 5.

We ensure that the children’s journey through Nursery and Reception prepares them well for Year 1 so they can confidently handle the transition and successfully continue their learning journey.

EYFS Curriculum

In EYFS, our broad and balanced curriculum has 6 main elements.

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All aspects of our curriculum require well trained, experienced staff who are flexible and put the child’s experience at the centre of their thinking, planning, provision and practise.

Every interaction is a teaching and learning opportunity, and our staff will offer effective pedagogy via a range of different approaches in a well organised and resourced environment.

We provide a rich start for all children, whatever their starting point.

This is mapped out on a progress model and allows the children to develop breadth and balance and embed their learning before moving on to learn new skills and introducing new concepts.

It provides an effective route into Nursery, onto Reception and then into Key Stage 1.

We have high expectations for all our children and recognise that, as a very large school, our children come from very different socio-economic backgrounds and have very different life experiences.

We also have an increasing number of children for whom English is an additional language as well as high numbers of children with SEND.

We put acquisition of language at the heart of everything that we do (filling the word gap) and ensure our curriculum is flexible and can be modified to meet all the needs of all children and give them all the same opportunities.

We value our parents and support them to have a significant impact on their child’s learning at home.

We are not driven by assessment and tracking but recognise its value.

Our assessments serve children’s learning and our curriculum, and most is formative, so that it quickly helps us to make a difference to children’s learning.

However, we also need to have an overview of children’s progress, so that we can take further actions where needed, and so we can monitor equalities.

Our assessment and tracking systems are proportionate, useful, effective and not overly burdensome.

Children are powerful learners, but it relies on their ability to hold information in their minds, focus their attention, regulate their behaviour and plan what to do next.

Our curriculum enables children to focus their thinking, regulate strong feelings, be patient for what they want and bounce back when things get difficult.

Our activities, taught sessions and continuous provision are carefully planned and resourced to develop self-regulation and executive function.

Our curriculum and planning cycle is part of the whole school model which dedicates a theme to each term.

Our themes are chosen based on the children’s interests though, as a large school, we recognise this is hard.

Our themes therefore are broad enough to follow specific children’s interests ‘in the moment’ and our staff are skilled in responding to a particular fascination of a child or group of children and linking them to the progression maps in a creative, ambitious and innovative way.

Our curriculum is designed with the strengths and needs of each cohort of children at the forefront of our minds. We use Development Matters as a basis to help us plan the journey towards the The Early Learning Goals, supplementing and enriching it with carefully planned activities, resources, opportunities and teaching.

In addition, each term we have 8 curricular goals. These goals enable our children to get off to a flying start. They are based on the Early Learning Goals, our school needs and the planned for experiences we already have in place. They have been developed with the understanding that there is SO much more that happens in the Nursery and Reception year, but we also wanted to acknowledge what makes children at Bricknell unique and how our EYFS children fit into the bigger school picture in an ambitious and clear way. Our curriculum recognises that depth in early learning is much more important than covering lots of things in a superficial way.

Further information:

My son is extremely happy in all aspects of school.  Fantastic teacher and an excellent education. ‘

- parent comments

‘She is very happy at school and I only hear positive things.  Many thanks to all the teaching staff.’

- parent comments

‘Thank you for helping us with her worries and for the support.’

- parent comments

‘We couldn’t be happier with the care and education my child has received so far.’

- parent comments

‘She is enjoying school a lot.  She is challenged appropriately and not over-loaded with homework.  She speaks positively about her time at the school and her teacher.’

- parent comments

I cannot fault the school or staff.  Everyone is very supportive.’

- parent comments

‘Very happy with my child’s start to year 5.’

- parent comments

‘We are very happy with Bricknell as a whole.  He is becoming more confident and is well supported.  Thank you to all of the teachers.’

- parent comments

I am delighted with how happy she is at school.  Her skills are clearly progressing and she is extremely well supported.  Her teacher clearly knows her very well.’

- parent comments

‘Positive environment and appropriate challenge for development, excellent.’

- parent comments

Thank you so much to all of the  members of staff; our child is extremely happy here and we are very grateful.’

- parent comments

‘Any concerns raised have been dealt with swiftly.’

- parent comments