Our All Saints EYFS Curriculum

At All Saints, we offer an ambitious EYFS curriculum that is a blend of the EYFS Framework, non-statutory guidance (Development Matters) and our own school’s values which centre around engaging themes linking to Big Ideas in global citizenship.

 

The seven themes that the children are exposed to throughout the year are:

Sustainable Development

Identity and Diversity

Globalisation and Interdependence

Social Justice

Human Rights

Power and Governance

Peace and Conflict

These themes are brought to life and made relevant for our youngest children through half-termly topics presented through high quality children’s literature and are supported by a progression of skills and knowledge-based objectives reinforced by the EYFS Educational Programs. Our curriculum is delivered through a blend of adult-led and child-initiated activities including daily free exploration time in our indoor and outdoor provision.

Here are our Long Term Plans:

The skills and knowledge needed to begin to understand Oxfam’s Big Ideas look very different at different stages of the EYFS. We have broken these down into steps which show the level of understanding as a Two-year old, a ¾-year-old and what children should be able to know by the time they finish Reception.

To check out our skill progression of these Global Themes please click on the link below.

Our Curriculum is brought to life through the seven Areas of Learning of the EYFS.

Communication and Language

Communication and Language is a huge part of our curriculum and is prioritised throughout our adult-led and child-initiated learning.

We have adopted “The Poetry Basket” as a program to allow our children to learn a new poem each week alongside accompanying actions, intonations, expression and basic oracy skills.

Check out some videos of our staff and children reciting some of our favourites!

https://youtu.be/v2Ql83IR4jw

We use Jane Considine’s FANTASTICS to help children begin to organise vocabulary that they are encountering. The FANTASTICS are a wonderful way for children to explore and expand the words that they come across when reading and then apply them later on. The FANTASTICS icons are scattered around our Indoor and Outdoor provision and we encourage children to use their new vocabulary throughout the day.

Wordless Books

Although sharing books and stories with children is an invaluable way of promoting a love of reading and an important exposure to vocabulary, children also love to tell stories as read even before they have the skills. A great way of developing the skill of storytelling is through reading “Wordless Books” with out child. Please see the letter we sent to parents regarding wordless books and their importance below:

Physical Development

Children learn by doing! The EYFS is the time where children develop the skills needed to access the National curriculum such as pencil control for writing, cutting, gluing, and painting, as well as life skills such as getting dressed, joining and fastening.

All new skills have to begin somewhere! Click on the links to see skills progression maps that we follow for writing, pencil control and cutting.

Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle

Our Nursery children participate in weekly Squiggle Whist You Wiggle sessions to help them develop the gross and fine motor skills needed to improve the core strength needed for good handwriting. Through a mixture of movement, dance and scribbling. Children have the opportunity to build strength and understand the movements needed to write letters later on.

Shonette Bason, the author of the Squiggle Whilst you Wiggle program, show us how it’s done in this video for parents. Take a peek and try some moves at home!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptFAL-eSvxU

Reception

Our reception children are doing lots of writing and that needs more and more strength in their hands. In order to get quicker and faster, our children have a daily “Funky Fingers” time where they rotate through a series of activities to help their fingers and hands get stronger. Activities include threading, peg boards, clothespin pegging games, buttoning, and weaving.

PSED

An important part of our All Saints EYFS curriculum is centred around our understanding of ourselves, our self-regulation skills, and how we treat others.

Jigsaw

We follow a whole-school approach to PSHE through the JIGSAW program from age 3. This program begins with a Calm-me and mindfulness time before beginning a discussion around 6 half-termly themes related to ourselves and others.

Massage

Our Nursery and Reception children participate weekly in the Massage in Schools program. Children are guided through a peaceful and respectful program of child-friendly massage moves with a partner. They learn the value of consent, respecting our bodies, and how is can feel nice to connect with others.

Rowan Garth

Our Reception children participate in weekly visits to residents of our local care home, Rowan Garth. They visit residents who are living with dementia and do activities surrounding communication and language, storytelling, and arts and crafts. It is a pleasure to be a part of this project and we love the special connection that we share with the residents and staff.

Literacy

We centre our curriculum around a variety of carefully-chosen fiction and non-fiction texts. This literature not only exposes the children to the world around them, it also introduces them to a wide and enriched vocabulary that they can begin to apply to their imaginative play and daily communication.

Reading

We put great value and importance on reading at All Saints. We have dedicated daily time for reading and storytelling and children have free access to their classroom library and cosy reading spaces.

Our Reception classes have organised a classroom library project which allows children the opportunity to take books home to share with their families. This has been a huge success and has ramped-up the buzz around reading in their classrooms!

Half-termly “Stay and Read” sessions are another way that we try to enhance the profile of reading in our Early Years classrooms. They are a great way to share a love of books with our friends and families.

Phonics

Nursery

Our Nursery children receive daily phonics sessions from as young as 2 years old. In our Nursery, we focus on Phase 1 phonics and the seven aspects found within this phase:

Environmental Sounds

Instrumental Sounds

Body Percussion

Rhythm and Rhyme

Alliteration

Voice Sounds

Oral Blending and Segmenting

2-Year Olds: The children encounter the world of sound through a mixture of games and activities linking to environmental sounds, beat, percussion, instruments, rhythm and rhyme. This can be carried out through independent play in sound Treasure baskets, discovery Tuff trays, hidden sounds in sand and water, instrument exploration, etc. Or through adult-initiated games and activities such as sound walks, guessing games, nursery rhymes, movement songs, etc.

3-Year-Olds: The children are introduced to the 7 aspects of phase 1 in a more formal way. They move through the aspects in a progressive sequence and are given the opportunity to encounter the aspects as whole class inputs, small adult-led groups and continuous provision opportunities. The children practice and apply their new knowledge of sounds through fun and exciting games and activities in order to prepare them for recognising the phonemes in words when they begin Phase 2 in Reception.

Have a look at these Phase 1 videos to try out at home!

Reception

Our Reception children begin Phase 2 phonics at the beginning of Reception alongside further exposure to Phase 1 aspects. Children follow a synthetic and systematic approach to learning the Phase 2 letters and sounds. By the end of Reception, they will have learned all of Phases 2,3 and 4 phonemes and be ready to access the Year 1 Curriculum.

Please see these videos to help children learn their tricky words at home.

Mathematics

Mathematics in Reception

In Reception we encourage all children to have a positive mind set.  We would like all of our children to have I can do it attitude!

At All Saints we take a step by step approach to achieving fluency in the six key areas of Mathematics….

Cardinality and counting, Comparison, Composition, Pattern, Shape and Space, Measure.

We do this by taking a step by step approach ensuring all children are secure in a concept before moving on.

We feel that it is important the revisit all aspects of Mathematics on a regular basis to ensure that learning is embedded.

We do this by focusing on one number at a time starting with 0 and exploring this number in great depth.

For each number that we focus on we explore the six key areas….

Counting and Cardinality

Children often learn the sequence of counting numbers a long time before they understand the cardinal value of a number.  Cardinal value of a number refers to the ‘howmanyness’ or ‘threeness of three’ When children understand the cardinality of number they know how many things a number refers to as appose to just saying number names in order without an understanding of value.

In reception we count and subitise to find out how many items are in a group.

Comparison

We teach children to understand that comparing means knowing which numbers are worth more or less. To be able to understand this concept children need first to have a good understanding of the cardinal value of numbers, children will learn that the later numbers are worth more as the next number is always one more.

Composition

Children will learn that numbers are made up of two or more other smaller numbers.  Learning to see a whole number as well as its parts at the same time is a key development in children’s understanding of number. Being able to patrician numbers into other numbers and put them back again underpins the children’s understanding of addition and subtraction.

Pattern

Seeking and exploring patterns is at the heart of mathematics and research has shown that patterns may provide the foundations of algebraic thinking.

Children will learn about repeating patterns, progressing from children copying simple alternating AB patterns to identifying different structures in the ‘unit of repeat’, such as ABB or ABBC. We use resources such as coloured cubes, small toys, buttons and keys, and with outdoor materials like pine cones, leaves or large blocks.

Children also look at patterns in other subject areas such as Music and phonics lessons where children link pattern to movements, sounds, dance and rhyme.

Shape and Space

In this aspect we teach children visualising skills and how to understand relationships such as the effects of movement and combining shapes together rather the just knowing the name of a shape.

We provide structured experiences for the children to develop spatial skills to explore spatial relations and properties of shapes in order to develop mathematical thinking.

Measure

In reception we provide the opportunity for children to engage actively in making comparisons and exploring equivalence of length, volume, capacity and weight in different ways.

Although children have access to equipment such as rulers and scales this is difficult for children to understand therefore we teach children how to measure length and height using non-standard measures for example how many blocks tall is a sunflower? We use balance scales to compare which items are heavier or lighter.

Parent Partnership

At All Saints’ we believe that partnership with parents is key to educational success. We provide lots of opportunities for parents to be involved in their children’s learning.

Assessment

Children at the expected level of development will be able to do the following by the end of their first year at school.

Number:

• Have a deep understanding of number to 10, including the composition of each number;
• Subitise (recognise quantities without counting) up to 5;
• Automatically recall (without reference to rhymes, counting or other aids) number bonds up to 5 (including subtraction facts) and some number bonds to 10, including double facts.

Numerical Pattern:

• Verbally count beyond 20, recognising the pattern of the counting system;
• Compare quantities up to 10 in different contexts, recognising when one quantity is greater than, less than or the same as the other quantity;
• Explore and represent patterns within numbers up to 10, including evens and odds, double facts and how quantities can be distributed equally

Understanding the World

Our children are exposed to the world of Science, History, Geography and Technology through this area of learning. We provide a wide array of opportunities and experiences for our children to make the world come to life and encourage them to make discoveries and ask questions.

Expressive Arts and Design

Our children have the opportunity to make their learning come to life through their own creativity in our Indoor and outdoor provisions. They have access to a wide range of resources to make their imaginations shine. Check out some of our most recent work!

In Harmony

Our children participate in weekly lessons in basic musicianship delivered by our partners at the Liverpool Philharmonic.

Two-Year Olds – Are provided with a session called Tuning-In. In this session they are guided through sound to interact with people and instruments. The leaders interact with the children by copying, responding and reacting to their discoveries using instrumental sounds.

Three/Four-Year-Olds and Reception – Weekly lessons delivered by a specialist from the Liverpool Philharmonic. Children learn about pitch, beat and rhythm through a selection of carefully-chosen songs and tunes and perform their learning termly to their parents in a sharing session.