Nursery & Reception

EYFS: Our Vision

As part of Navigation Primary School, we as Early Years practitioners also want to be, 'Dedicated to a broad curriculum and to achieve high standards with every pupil. The children are at the forefront of everything planned in school as we look to support their development socially, emotionally and morally as well as academically.'

Curriculum

In reception and nursery, we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, learning through play. We have lots of lovely resources in our classroom and outdoor area so we are always busy playing and learning together. The children enhance their learning skills in the following areas:

• Personal, social and emotional development
• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Literacy
• Mathematical development
• Understanding of the world
• Expressive arts and design

We are passionate about how the very young children in school learn and we are aware that getting it right in the Early Years is crucial if we are to support the later learning of the children in our care. The information below serves as a mission statement/vision of everything we value here at Navigation EYFS and how certain aspects of it may differ from the rest of the school. We are constantly striving for improvement in our practice and our expectations for ourselves and the children are consistently high.

Timings

The timetable optimises the time for learning. Although we have a timetable in place, it is flexible depending on what happens in the week. The timetable itself reflects the activities that may be either teacher-led or teacher-initiated but there will be a mixture of activities ongoing in the classroom that are reflective of all areas of the curriculum every day.

Planning

Our observation and planning cycle is very much interlinked and so we plan on a daily to weekly basis. We do however have a ‘theme’ in mind at the beginning of a half term which may or may not change dependent on the children and their interests. Everyone is involved in the cycle including:

• Parents (who tell us what their children already know and would like to know)
• The child (who tell us what they are interested in!)
• Practitioners (who have the skills and experience to know what to focus on, what to allow the children to follow and fathom for themselves)

We plan for a mix of teacher-led (TL), teacher-initiated (TI), child-initiated (CI) activities and these may change on a day-to-day basis. We believe that children learn best when they are allowed to explore and play, follow their own interests and be allowed to do this uninterrupted. However, we also know that children are very receptive to being introduced to new experiences by either the practitioners or indeed their peers. This is where we also place huge importance on ‘talk’ in our setting and you will see lot of this. Planning is also for both indoor and outdoor experiences.

Evidence of Learning

We keep visual evidence in a book for each child. In addition to this, we also keep an electronic, photographic learning journal for each child. The progress and attainment of the children is tracked in great detail and we evaluation all of our experiences. Yet, we also believe that the best evidence we hold about the children’s learning is what they say and what they do. This means that we take the time to listen and observe them.

Teaching

Whole-class teaching is kept to a minimum. We believe things like music, story and circle time are best shared as a whole class. However, we have seen a greater impact on the children’s learning when adult-led teaching is via individual, paired or small group work which allows us to differentiate easily and ensure that all children are kept on task at their level. It will be short, sharp and purposeful. When observing our setting you may see the adult in different roles and we may not always be working with a group or directly teaching. We may be:

• Chatting with the children
• Observing the children
• Playing with the children
• Assessing the children via all of the above!

We may not have started something new that day, but may be consolidating some learning from the previous day/week which may or may not apply to some or all of the children. Our teaching is adaptive to adult-led and child-led situations and whilst we encourage talk through purposeful and meaningful interactions, we are also respectful during interactions and we will very often be listening to the children. We may not always be asking questions during our interactions either. We do this to give the children time to think at their own pace. We know we are responsible for guiding and extending learning and we may offer suggestions, but equally, at times, we do not want to ‘hijack’ the experience either. We like to show the children that we approve of their play and value it for what it is.

Environment

We plan for both indoor and outdoor learning to take place. There is an element of free flow between the 2 areas and children are given the opportunity to spend time in both areas. The provision in the outdoor area enhances our indoor provision, it does not ‘mirror’ it. We try and provide areas similar to the ones in the classroom but that are better suited to the outdoors. For example, the writing area has water painting, large rolls of paper, chalks, whereas in the indoor writing area we may have pens, cards, paper, notebooks etc. There are large building blocks and den-making equipment outdoors for building whereas indoors we have lego and smaller wooden building bricks. In all areas we aim for our provision to:

• Be organised and accessible
• Be flexible and responsive
• Be familiar and provoking
• Promote equality and diversity

Our view on this is that we cannot be in all the areas at once and so the provision in the background should provide the children with excellent independent learning opportunities. 

Aims for the children

Through all of the above we want our children to:

• Become independent
• Make choices
• Make decisions
• Take risks
• Not be afraid to make mistakes
• Follow their own interests
• Be engaged
• Persevere
• Be confident
• Be eager and enthusiastic

EYFS staff

You will see EYFS staff provide children with:

• Safety and security
• Genuine and natural interactions
• Respect
• Support and challenge
• Opportunities to do things independently
• Time! (to think, speak, work, play, learn)
• The next steps on their learning journey

We hope you find this information useful. Should you have any further questions, please speak to any of our staff.

Lindsay Kyle

EYFS Leader 

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