Early Years Curriculum
Early Years Lead - Mrs Price
Stay and Learn - How to help your child at home in Reception
At Farnborough Road Infant School we welcome children into our Early Years Foundation Stage from the age of 2 years in our Caterpillar Nursery. Children then progress in either our Butterfly or Ladybird Nursery Classes at 3 and 4 year olds and then into one of our four Reception classes.
This is such an important time in your child's school life, where routines are established and relationships are built between children and between home and school. We will always do our best to work closely with you, to ensure that your child has a smooth and happy start to their learning journey.
At Farnborough Road Infant School staff will plan and guide children’s activities, reflecting on the different ways that children learn. Children will be given the opportunity to:
play and explore - investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;
be active learners – encouraged to concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements; and
be creative and think critically - developing their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
The New Early Years Foundation Stage continues to be divided into seven different areas of learning and these are divided into two further areas- The Primes and The Specific Areas.
The Prime Areas of Learning include
- Communication and Language (Interactions, Exploring Language, Listening and Understanding)
- Physical Development (Core Strength and Coordination, Gross Motor Skills, Fine Motor Skills)
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development (Emotions, Sense of Self, Relationships)
The Specific Areas of learning include
- Mathematics (Number, Patterns and Connections and Spatial Reasoning)
- Literacy (Reading Comprehension, Exploring Words and Writing)
- Expressive Arts and Design (Imagination and Creativity, Self-Expression Communicating through arts)
- Understanding the World (Personal Experiences, Diverse World, Widening Vocabulary)
Statutory Early Years Framework
What is changing?
The DfE says that the proposals are intended to:
- make all 17 ELGs clearer, more specific and easier for teachers to make accurate judgements
- focus on strengthening language and vocabulary development to particularly support disadvantaged children
- strengthen literacy and numeracy outcomes to ensure all children have a good grasp of these areas of learning in preparation for year 1
- ensure the ELGs are based on the latest evidence in childhood development
- ensure they reflect the strongest predictors of future attainment.
Educational programmes
The DfE said that it would make a number of changes to the reformed education programmes including:
- PSED will include additional information on self-care and healthy eating.
- Physical Development will be strengthened to include a greater focus on development from birth to reception and on the link between gross and fine motor skills.
- Literacy will include a stronger emphasis on pre-reception literacy learning, and the link between language comprehension and later reading and writing.
- Mathematics will include a greater detail on the importance of shapes, spatial reasoning and measure as part of early maths learning, and how children can foster a love of maths.
- Understanding the World will include wider experiences for children.
- Expressive Arts and Design will include a wider variety of ways children can develop their creative skills.
The Communication and language programme will remain as originally proposed.
Curriculum Overviews
For more information about the Early years Curriculum see Mrs Price- Early Years Leader