Early Years Foundation Stage
At Brampton Ellis Primary, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) applies to children within Foundation Stage 1 (3 to 4 years) and Foundation Stage 2 (4 to 5 years).
The start of a child’s school life is a special and exciting time. Within the early years we have a unique and important role of making pupils' first experiences of school a happy one. We aim to provide a safe, happy and caring environment where children find learning an enjoyable experience.
From the beginning, our intent is to deliver a quality early education which we believe is a key element in children being successful in later life. Our early years classes have a positive impact on children giving them access to resources and experiences to reach their full potential and good level of development. We develop a variety of other skills including social, independence, confidence and self-esteem. These are developed through our school values - respect, resilience and responsibility.
There are four guiding principles which should shape practice in the early years;
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Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
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Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
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Children 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. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
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Importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates.
These support the implementation of children’s exciting experiences within their curriculum. We believe in a cross curriculum approach where children can foster knowledge using their retrieval practice skills in areas of the classroom. A hands on approach where children can discover and enhance new skills is important to us. Developing the children’s cultural capital through our lessons is a big part of our curriculum.
We focus strongly on the characteristics of effective learning to show an impact to our children’s education.
Playing and exploring: children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’.
Active learning: children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements.
Creating and thinking critically: children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
At Brampton Ellis Primary we strive to build positive parent partnerships with all of our families. Working closely with parents is crucial for sharing experiences from home and school. We encourage both active learning, play, exploring and critical thinking.