Intent
At Stanton Cross Primary School, we believe that children deserve to learn in an environment that is caring, nurturing and encourages a lifelong love of learning through a carefully planned mixture of child led and adult led activities. Delivering a curriculum that is full of ambitious learning opportunities, we believe that each child is unique and has the potential to achieve amazing things in their time with us in EYFS, into KS1 and beyond.
We want our children to love coming to school and develop their love of learning through a broad and balanced curriculum. We know children’s individual starting points and ensure that children are supported to make individualised progress. Our overarching themes allow for all children to access the curriculum in a way that is suited to them and ensures that all our children develop a deep knowledge and understanding of the world around them.
We have high expectations for all our children. We provide opportunities for challenge through hands-on experiences and high quality interactions with adults. Through our broad and balanced curriculum, we enable children to be confident and excited about their place in the world.
Our staff know our children well and embrace the diverse community within our school. Through a carefully selected reading spine, we ensure that all children, whatever their background, are welcomed into our school community with open arms. We promote positive relationships with our families and the wider community in order to provide our children with the best outcomes for their future lives.
Our progressive, ambitious curriculum covers the 7 areas of learning and is specifically planned to ensure that the knowledge and skills we want our children to develop is practiced and embedded over the year. We use Development Matters to support our curriculum development which is further supported by following robust programmes for teaching Phonics and Early Reading and Writing (Read, Write, Inc.) and maths (White Rose Maths). Our curriculum is further supported by well researched, expertly written curriculum resources from our Trust as well as schemes such as The PE Hub and Jigsaw. We ensure that learning is explicit, clearly defined and motivates all children to find success and creatively achieve the Early Learning Goals.
Our Foundation Stage provision is enhanced both inside and outside through well planned, carefully resourced areas of learning. These areas provide regular opportunities for children to embed concepts in Maths, Literacy and Understanding of the World. Enhancements to areas support children to understand and develop ideas through hands on experiences. Our outdoor learning environment compliments the high quality indoor environment with a strong focus on gross motor development, risk taking and communication and language.
Communication and Language is a key focus for our Early Years Foundation Stage. Communication with children, through high quality interactions, back and forth conversations, reading of high quality, language rich texts and opportunities to engage in the wider curriculum during whole school activities ensures children are provided with the knowledge and skills to become excellent readers, writers and communicators as they enter KS1 and beyond.
Implementation
Our high-quality curriculum plans, schemes of work and regular CPD empower teachers with the subject knowledge they need to feel confident teaching the youngest members of our school community. Learning in our Foundation Stage creates opportunities to follow children’s interests and is flexible and responsive with what is going on within both our local community and around the world.
Regular enhancements in each area capitalise on these interests and enable children to follow their interests in greater depth, moving their learning forwards. Teachers explicitly teach in short, systematic sessions in phonics, writing and maths and support the children during continuous provision to think about what they already know and how they can use this knowledge in a variety of ways. Areas of provision are planned carefully to allow for multiple opportunities for children to embed previous learning, and provide endless opportunities for the development of Communication and Language skills, mathematical concepts, independent writing and Personal, Social and Emotional Development.
Teachers consistently model the learning behaviours we expect for our children and are confident to ‘get in and play’ with the children, modelling how to play, developing a rich vocabulary, extending and challenging children’s thinking or merely just being a silent partner within a child’s quiet play.
Teachers' observations identify where children are achieving well and how children are progressing through the curriculum from their starting points. Learning is celebrated in displays, certificates, messages on Tapestry and direct communication with parents.
Floor books capture children’s personal class learning journeys, their interests, their learning from WOW Days, their questions, their learning in PSHE, their shared experiences, their work surrounding values, celebrations of trips, visits, visitors and experiences, their personal successes, their voices and their shared identity as a class.
Phonics is taught daily using Read Write Inc. through differentiated phonic groups, led by our highly trained staff. Phonic sounds are introduced in a systematic manner and progress is monitored with children moving on to read books from the scheme. The sessions are delivered in an engaging way and activities are revisited to embed over the year and supported in a range of ways including ‘Hold a Sentence’, ‘Fred Talk’ and rhymes and phrases associated with each sound. Additional ‘pinny time’ is used throughout the day to ensure children are exposed to their new sounds, and revisit previous sounds regularly in order to embed them within their memories!
Our English curriculum is taught using rich and engaging, high quality texts using RWI ‘Talk Through Stories’. Texts are chosen to link with our overarching themes and the writing element supports children’s development of our whole-school Kinetic Letters Handwriting Scheme. Vocabulary and oracy development are an important part of our Literacy sessions and new and interesting vocabulary is ‘drip-fed’ throughout the day in a variety of situations to support children’s understanding. Our Cosy Club is an extremely popular part of the day and develops children’s Understanding of the World through carefully chosen, high quality texts. This understanding drip-feeds knowledge ready for KS1 and beyond in subjects such as Science, History, Geography, RE and PSHE. We also have a dedicated Rhyme Time session each afternoon which supports children’s communication and language development, and helps to build children’s self-esteem and self-confidence when they begin to perform rhymes for their friends and grown-ups.
The Maths curriculum is taught through daily dedicated sessions and follows our whole-school White Rose scheme. These sessions are carefully planned using practical, concrete resources and later in the year, pictorial representations building on prior learning and real-life experiences. There are multiple opportunities for children to embed mathematical concepts throughout the day within our well-planned and progressive Continuous Provision.
Impact
Senior leaders work alongside the EYFS team and subject leaders to measure the impact of our curriculum through a continuous cycle of monitoring. Children in Foundation Stage make memories and foster a life-long love of learning that equips them with the skills and attributes which will allow them to flourish both in school and beyond. Children leave Foundation Stage having met their potential, gained new knowledge, learnt new skills, have confidence in their own abilities and are curious to learn more. Children have an enriched vocabulary, an emerging bank of familiar stories, rhymes and songs and have begun to foster a lifelong love of reading. Children are kind to others, have positive attitudes to learning and are proud of who they are and what they have achieved. From their own starting points, children will make excellent progress academically and socially, developing a sense of themselves so that they are well prepared for the transition into Key Stage 1.