Early Years Curriculum

Intent 

At Weeke, we aim to provide an exciting and motivating learning experience where children are always ‘thinking, talking, doing’. We believe these active, first-hand experiences encourage children to build resilience, ambition, and a lifelong love of learning. Our carefully organised learning environment provides children with familiarity, giving them the tools and independence to be the leaders of their own learning. We recognise these first years of education are crucial in laying the foundations and language for their future learning, giving them opportunity to explore, create and think critically alongside their peers. We recognise that all children are unique and will join us with their own set of life experiences, we celebrate and welcome these.

Implementation

We have designed our curriculum with these aims in mind to create a happy and productive learning experience for our all children. From the warm welcome on the door, the calm routines, the beautiful indoor and outdoor environment, to the inspiring experiences organised to link in with our learning, we are passionate about making the most of every opportunity!

Our curriculum involves half-termly themes, such as ‘Who do you think you are?’ or ‘Down on the Farm’. We carefully structure our day to balance short adult-led learning, with longer child-led learning sessions. We call the latter ‘choose your learning’, and this is where children can challenge themselves and follow their curiosity as they play and explore. Our staff team continually interact with children during these times to extend learning and maximise developmental progress.

Our children make great gains during EYFS, consistently showing high levels of well-being and engagement, demonstrating our school values of kindness, respect, responsibility and excellence.

Impact

The Early Years curriculum at Weeke is reflected by having well rounded, happy and confident children transitioning into Year 1. Our children are often role models for others in the school. We measure children’s learning and progress across the year through formative and summative assessment, which is based on the teachers’ knowledge of the child and their learning journeys.

We want you and your child(ren) to have an engaging and interesting learning experience as they go through Early Years. To achieve this we have produced a range of resources, activities, videos and support guidance to help you be part of that learning journey. Please use the information and links within the page both with your child and as a guide to help you understand more about our curriculum.

EYFS Curriculum Documents

Below are a number of school and nationally recognised documents that will help you as a parent understand more about the Early Years Foundation Stage and our curriculum. 

Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage

Development Matters - non-statutory curriculum guidance for Early Years Foundation Stage 

Below is a link to a video that explains the areas of development in Early Years.

EYFS Areas of Development Explained

What to expect in Early Years - A guide for Parents

Learning Themes 

SUMMER 1 – Down on the Farm

Our theme for this half term is ‘Down on the Farm’. During this theme the children will learn about farms, farm animals and growing. Later this half term we will visit Sir Harold Hilliers Gardens, where the children will take part in lots of hands on activities around growing and life cycles.

We have put together a Pinterest page with some suggestions of how you might support learning at home through this theme. Scan the QR code below on your phone or tablet and it will take you to the Pinterest page or click on the following link https://www.pinterest.co.uk/user_ctnmareshm/

Communication and language

In school, we will be encouraging the children to listen to stories and non-fiction texts and respond with relevant comments. We will be focusing on asking and answering questions during lessons and continuous provision with cues such as why, how, who, where and when. We will be introducing new vocabulary related to our theme and encouraging the children to use this in everyday conversations. At home, you could share a range of non-fiction texts and ask questions for your child to answer. You could ask them what they would like to find out about life-cycles or animals, encouraging them to ask a variety of questions.

Personal, social and emotional development 

In school, our theme for PSED this half term is ‘Growing and Changing’. We will be looking at the different seasons of the year and the life stages of humans, plants and animals. At home, you could plant seeds with your child and encourage them to take responsibility in looking after the plant/flower/vegetable. You could also read the following stories:

- Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson. 

- The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. 

- The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

- The Growing Story by Ruth Krauss

Physical development (Gross Motor)

In school, we will be continuing with our Gymnastics programme. We have been learning different jumps named ‘Straight Rocket’ and ‘Star Jump’. We will be using these jumps to jump off a variety of equipment with control and co-ordination. At home, visit the local park and encourage your child to jump off the different equipment safely using these jumps, or ask your child to teach you the jumps!

Physical development (Fine Motor)

We will now begin to teach your children the harder letters to form. Any extra practise you can do at home would really benefit your child. The part they are finding tricky is to complete the letter without taking the pencil off the page.

Here is a reminder of the tripod grid which we encourage all children to use.

- Right handed

- Left handed

At home, you could practise these letters with your child by:

- getting them to trace over the letters with paint, crayons or chalk

- follow the letters outline by sticking on stickers or gluing on pasta or beads

- rainbow writing – trace over the letters in several different colours

- make the letters with pipe cleaners, playdough or on pegboards.

However you practise, try to make it as fun as possible.

Phonics and rich texts

We follow Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised to teach phonics and reading. Follow the link for further help on the Little Wandle parent support page.

Please see the document below to see what phonemes, decodable words and tricky words we will be teaching your children week to week. 

These will be our key texts during Summer 1 . Click on the books to listen to the story.

Maths

The children will learn to:

- Count to numbers beyond 30 – recognising the difference between ‘teen’ and ‘ty’, e.g. 13 and 30

- Subitise larger numbers by looking at sub-groups, using dice and tens frame structure, e.g. see 7 as 5 and 2 more on the tens frame. See image below.

- Composition of numbers 6 – 9, using the 5 and a bit method. For example knowing 8 is made from 5 and 3 more or 9 is made from 5 and 4 more.

- Compare numbers using a number line, e.g. 6 and 8 – which number is more or less – how do you know?

- Explore manipulating and rotating shapes, e.g. playing tangram games

Visit the Maths Video page for some short videos to explain some of the key concepts. 

We have found the 1-minute maths app created by White Rose Maths to be highly beneficial. Download the app from your app store on your tablet or phone. We recommend using the whole Subitising section and Addition - Game 1 - add 0, 1 and 2. See images below.

Understanding the World

In school, we will be exploring animals down on the farm. We will be naming them, sorting them and labeling their body parts. We will be introducing words like herbivore, carnivore, mammal, snout, trotters, mane and hooves. The children will also be learning about life cycles of chickens and butterflies, as well as learning the names for animal babies and adults. Oak and Ash will be lucky enough to have an incubator in class with chicks to gain first-hand experience of the growing and changing process. At home, you could read some non-fiction books with your children linked to mammals, you could also watch some episodes of ‘Down on the Farm’ on CBebbies to develop knowledge further. 

Expressive arts and design

In school, we will be exploring a variety of artistic effects like printing, modelling and observational drawing. We will also be drawing a tractor using step by step instructions and creating a moving egg. At home, you could go into the garden and choose a flower or plant to draw. You could use a variety of different tools to draw with and look closely at the details of the plant.

If you would like to revisit the learning theme information from previous half terms, please click on the links below.