Intent

 

At Captain Webb Primary and Nursery we adhere to four overarching principles that shape our practice within the Early Years setting. These are integral to creating an Early Years that is engaging and ambitious for all. We believe all children including SEND and PPG should have the same opportunities, encouraging them to be curious, to play and explore, actively engage in their learning, and develop skills of creativity and critical thinking. Our aim is for the majority of children to gain or exceed the Early Learning Goals but for all children to make good progress and reach their full potential.

 

Our four overarching principles – from the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage- are:

• Every pupil is a unique child, who is consistently learning and can be resilient, capable, confident, and self-assured.

• Pupils learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

• Pupils learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Pupils benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.

• Pupils develop and learn at different rates so the curriculum offered caters for each child’s individual needs.

 

We believe that these Foundation years are an integral part of the children’s childhood and we support our children to be curious about the world around them, to have resilience when problems occur, to be highly motivated and to feel excited about learning. When our children leave the Foundation Stage we endeavour for them to have respect for others, to have high levels of self-control, that they can work cooperatively and to feel confident when entering Year 1.

 

It is important for us to work collaboratively with parents and carers. We believe that fostering good relationships is one of the key areas that supports our children to become confident learners. We encourage parents and cares to share their children’s learning achievements with us. We believe that this communication encourages a love for learning, it builds on their self-worth and their self-belief. We organise phonics and maths workshops for our Reception parents to support their understanding and to give them opportunities to ask questions about our curriculum. Stay and Play sessions are organised each term for nursery parents.

 

Across the whole school we use our Captain Webb Values to promote positive attitudes to learning:

Listen

Encourage

Achieve

Respect

Nurture

 

Implementation

 

The core of our Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (EYFS) is the Statutory Framework, which is supported by Read, Write, Inc, Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (2021), Development Matters, Birth to 5 Matters and the Seven Features of Effective Practice. At Captain Webb we provide an engaging curriculum that maximises opportunities for meaningful cross-curricular links and learning experiences, as well as promoting the unique child by offering extended periods of play and sustained thinking. We follow the children’s interests and ideas to foster a lifelong love of learning both in and outside of school. To enhance our curriculum further for the children we organise half termly trips or  workshops that are linked directly to their themes to support their children’s understanding of new concepts.

 

Our curriculum maps have been carefully designed to have breadth and depth. They challenge the children with new knowledge and enables them to revisit previously taught concepts which enable our children to know more and remember more. The ambitious curriculum is a carefully devised sequential offer to ensure the children become fluent in essential foundational knowledge necessary for reading, writing and mathematics. Systematic well planned lessons are taught through teacher directed and teacher led which leads into play-based learning where children can access a language rich environment through all 7 areas of learning independently inside and outside. Vocabulary is taught through teacher directed and teacher led learning which the children use in their child-led play. End points have been identified across all seven areas of learning in the EYFS progression document.

 

At Captain Webb reading and early language are at the core of our curriculum and is embedded into our in-door and out-door learning environment. We have devised planned progressive vocabulary for each of our learning areas and incorporate these into our planning from Day Car to Year 1. We understand that early language skills are one of the key components to becoming a successful, confident learner. We have a broad range of stories and rhymes that have been planned progressively to build on the children’s knowledge as they move through the EYFS.

 

Our Early Years setting is equipped with a wide range of resources across a variety of learning zones that supports the seven areas of the EYFS curriculum. These are developed and planned for by staff to provide meaningful experiences and create learning opportunities for pupils across an engaging and enhanced environment both inside and out. Adults work along side children during their play and adult focused activities, modelling skills, learning strategies, encouraging independence and providing opportunities to embed and deepen their understanding. Alongside our enabling environment we ensure that the children learn through a carful balance of child and adult lead activities.

 

Each half tern there is an over-arching theme that drives the learning and provides real life contexts for children to develop skills and knowledge about their world. We follow the same theme through each of our EYFS year groups and progress the knowledge and skills using our carefully planned curriculum that builds on from the previous years learning. This theme, along with the children’s interests and needs, is reflected in the environment which is enhanced to create awe and wonder, and to enthuse children to engage in and extend their own learning. There is a clear focus on stories, vocabulary, communication and language – all integral skills that enable learning across all areas. We endeavour to adapt out offer to meet the individual needs of our children, offering additional support and learning opportunities for those who need it. It is important to use to review and reflect on our EYFS offer against the seven features of effective practice as outlined in the Early Years

 

We endeavour to adapt our offer to meet the needs of each cohort, offering additional support and learning opportunities for those who need it, catering for the unique child. We review and reflect our EYFS offer against the seven features of effective practice outlined in the Early Years Development Matters Guidance (2021).

 

Key

• Pedagogical approach – how learning is taught - timetable, teacher directed, teacher led, play-based learning

• Focus Teaching – directly imparting new knowledge from our progression documents (whole class and small group).

• Adult directed – working with children to reinforce and apply new knowledge (small group and 1:1).

• Project learning –  During this session children have the opportunity to develop their learning through planned themes.

• Child initiated – children use the skills we have taught them in their play-based learning.

• Continuous Provision – Planned provision that incorporates a core range of resources to support the children to learn more and remember more and to develop perseverance when they encounter difficulties.

 

All staff are experts in teaching systematic, synthetic phonics (Read, Write, Inc). Daily RWI lessons and half termly assessment ensure all pupils practice their reading from books that match their phonics knowledge. Our school’s approach to teaching early reading and synthetic phonics is systematic and ensures that pupils learn to read words and simple sentences accurately by the end of Reception. Opportunities to develop maths skills are carefully planned using concrete resources and build on prior learning and real-life experiences across a theme and the year. Daily maths lessons planned using Number Sense and White Rose embed repetition which ensures our children will become confident mathematicians who can apply the knowledge they have learnt to real life experiences. Teacher directed and teacher led lessons teaching higher knowledge through careful steps in subjects such as maths, phonics, handwriting, and basic grammar enables children to use their taught knowledge.

 

Impact

The impact of our curriculum is that pupils:

• Have positive relationships with staff and peers.

• Understand the importance of good health (oral, food and exercise).

• Develop detailed knowledge and skills across the 7 areas of learning in an age-appropriate way.

• Develop their vocabulary and use it across the EYFS curriculum in preparation for KS1.

• Use their knowledge of phonics to read and write accurately and with increasing speed and fluency.

• Have gained knowledge in key concepts to make them ready for the next stage of education.

• Have the personal, physical, and social skills they need to succeed such as high levels of curiosity, concentration, and enjoyment of learning ready for the next stage of their education.

• Enjoy, listen attentively, to their peers and adults and respond with comprehension to familiar stories, rhymes and songs that are appropriate to their age and stage of development.

• Demonstrate their positive attitudes to learning through high levels of curiosity, concentration, and enjoyment.

• Are resilient to setbacks and take pride in their achievements.

• Can manage their own feelings and behaviour, understanding how these have an impact on others.

• Have a clear sense of right from wrong.

• Impact of our well-planned curriculum is that children know and remember their learning ready for KS1.

• Have a deep understanding of early numbers and the ability to recognise the pattern of the counting system as well as key aspects related to shape, space, and measure.

• Automatically recall number bonds to 10.

• Have attained well in RWI. 64% reception children at ARE in July 2023

• Have attained well by meeting the Early Learning Goals. 67.8% reception children achieved ELG’s July 2023