Early Years at Nash Mills

At Nash Mills, the aim of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is to provide each child with the best possible start to their school careers, to ensure that they build excellent learning behaviours and develop the skills needed to succeed later in life.  Our curriculum is designed with this in mind and follows the EYFS statutory Framework as well as the Development Matters 2021 non-statutory guidance.  Where smaller steps of progress are considered, such as in our key ambitions, the Birth to 5 non-statutory guidance has also been used.

Intent

Our curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior learning, both from previous settings and their experiences at home. We work in partnership with parents, carers and other settings to provide the best possible start at, ensuring everyone reaches their full potential from their various starting points. In line with our whole-school vision, pupils will learn to be part of a family, considering others and showing empathy. 

Our curriculum has been designed to enable children to succeed through cooperative and collaborative learning principles. As such, there is a strong emphasis on the Prime Areas of learning; Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language, including Oracy.

At Nash Mills, we recognise that oracy not only improves academic outcomes, but is a life skill to ensure success beyond school, in life and future employment and as such it is a stand within our whole school aims and vision. Oracy develops children’s thinking and understanding, which in turn promotes self-confidence, resilience and empathy which support the child’s well-being. Our enabling environments and warm, skilful adult interactions support the children as they begin to link learning to their play and exploration right from the start.

We believe that high level engagement ensures high level attainment. We therefore 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 children’s interests and ideas to foster a lifelong love of learning both in and outside of school.

By the end of the Reception year, our intent is to ensure that all children make at least good progress from their starting points are equipped with the skills and knowledge to have a smooth transition into Year 1.

We see reading and the love of books to be a key focus for our pupils in Early Years as this will give them the best possible start.  We have an agreed reading spine, with carefully planned texts to support progression, which can be seen below.