St John's Church of England School

At St John’s we aim to provide motivating first-hand experiences to enable children to learn more and remember more. We also encourage children to build resilience, ambition and a lifelong love of learning whilst also learning how to look after their own mental health and wellbeing. Our curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior learning both from previous settings and their experiences at home. We work in partnership with parents, carers and other setting to provide the best possible start at St John’s Primary School, ensuring each individual reaches their full potential from their various starting points.

We recognise that all children are unique, celebrating and welcoming differences within our school community. Therefore, our curriculum is developed and adapted to follow the interests, fascinations and needs of the current cohort whilst also building specific knowledge and skills identified through the areas of learning.

Our curriculum ensures children are ready for the transition to Year 1. We embed a language of learning based on the characteristics of effective learning; this enables children to understand and talk about their learning experiences.

We aim to:

  • Provide high expectations encouraging children to develop perseverance and self-belief so that they can problem-solve and reach their full potential from their various starting points.

To prepare children to achieve a Good Level of Development(GLD) and the Early Learning Goals at the end of the Foundation Stage and ensure children make at least good progress from their starting points.

• Provide children opportunities to develop their sense of wellbeing and ability to regulate their feelings so that they feel confident in our community and are equipped with all the tools they need to transition to Year 1 effectively

 • Continue to develop the skills and expertise of staff working in EYFS through regular professional development either run by school staff or attending courses run by other providers

Our curriculum follows the Early Years Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and uses the Development Matters 2022 as a basis.

 We have used these to create our curriculum to ensure that we deliver an engaging, well planned and progressive learning environment and curriculum.

The children will learn new skills, acquire new knowledge and demonstrate understanding through the seven areas of the EYFS curriculum.

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Physical Development
• Communication and Language
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive Art and Design

These 7 areas are used to plan children’s learning and activities. Planning for this curriculum is design to be flexible so the children’s unique interests are supported. Our curriculum includes a blend of whole class, guided, adult directed activities and child-initiated learning activities to ensure children are taught the knowledge they need to learn progressively as well as following their own interests.

During each week the children will work with an adult to complete reading sessions where the books are matched specifically to the phonic phase they are learning, ensuring they are able to read independently. All children complete weekly adult led Literacy and Maths task.  We provide effective and focused interventions for those children who are finding learning challenging and are not on track to meet national expectations at the end of the year to enable them to catch up quickly with their peers.

Children in EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active and thinking critically and creatively and this takes place both indoors and in our outdoor area. The Early Years Curriculum is also carefully devised to ensure that the children are introduced to key concepts and bodies of knowledge that they will re visit in Key stage 1.

A range of formative and summative assessments are used to identify what children know and understand and to target their next steps in learning. The EYFS team collect evidence of children’s WOW moments (significant learning moments) for their Learning Journals through observations, photos and children’s work which are shared with parents throughout the year.

To support our wider curriculum, we provide regular opportunities for parents and carers to come into school and work with their child, share their work and celebrate successes. We keep parents informed, and we meet regularly with them to ensure children’s transition into school and that their EYFS Journey is a happy, positive experience allowing them to reach their full potential. This includes stay and play sessions, parent workshops, Learning Journey WOW moments, reports and parent consultations as well as more frequent, informal communication to suit individual families.  EYFS staff have a good understanding on how our curriculum feeds into the National Curriculum through our planning and CPD opportunities. Colleagues throughout the school are also aware of how our EYFS curriculum links to each foundation subject and the progression of the subject.

We support the transition into Year 1 for both child and parents, this includes the children visiting their new class, meeting the new teacher and ensuring that the curriculum and pedagogy in Year 1 continues to reflect the independent learning skills children have gained in Reception.

The impact of the EYFS curriculum is reflected in having happy, confident and independent children.

We strive for children to achieve a Good Level of Development and many of the Early Learning Goals at the end of Reception and to be as close as possible to National Expectations.

We measure the percentage of pupils achieving age related expectations that are on track for GLD throughout the academic year, and put supportive   intervention in place if and when needed. Class teachers use observations to make formative assessment which informs planning and ensures that all children build upon their current knowledge and skills.

Summative assessment compares children’s attainment age related expectations using month bands devised from Development Matters. This allows us to track children each term to ensure that children are making at least good progress, including vulnerable groups such as those with SEND, disadvantaged, EAL or summer born children. We also take part in local authority moderation to validate our assessments.