Our Early Years Intent (What we do):
Our vision, ‘Growing Greatness at Greenfield’ is at the heart of our school curriculum. We want our children to achieve life-long knowledge and skills across the full breadth of subjects, and to be equipped with the communication skills and personal attributes to enable them to be successful global citizens. At Kippax Greenfield, we believe that our Early Years is the foundation of our school and so we begin this journey from the very moment we meet our children and their families.
Our Early Years Foundation Stage has been designed to nurture the natural curiosity, talents and attributes brought by each unique child in a safe and stimulating environment. We want our children to be proud of their own background and culture, while also being inspired by the wonder of the world and all it can offer.
We believe that play allows our children expression and the freedom to become the explorative, curious, independent, questioning, experimental, critically thinking learners that they are. Play is an integral part of our children’s early years’ education and is nurtured and celebrated by all staff involved.
Our Great Greenfield Five Values underpin our Early Years vision:
Respect – respectful relationships are central to our approach to early years. We teach our youngest children the skills of respect and kindness, modelling these expectations in our relationships with all adults and children, giving them the ability to communicate with a multitude of different people.
Resilience – We believe that for our children to make great progress, they must first be able to overcome their mistakes and the challenges that they will face along the way.
Responsibility – we promote self-motivation and the consideration of our actions, including the impact on learning, by working hard and trying our best at all times. Children take responsibility for the care of their environment, their own actions and their own choices.
Collaboration – we believe that we are better together and therefore provide plenty of opportunities for children to work together. We model and celebrate team work and good communication skills in our provision areas, teaching our children how to be a good team member.
Aspiration – we believe that our children can do anything that they put their mind to. We use a mix of well-loved books/stories and the children’s interests to ignite their thirst for learning in the early years and encourage them to become authors, scientists, artists and much more.
Our Implementation (How we do what we do):
Environment
At Kippax Greenfield, we recognise the environment as the third teacher; meaning that it plays a key role in supporting and extending our children’s learning and development. The role of both the indoor and outdoor environment, in combination with the reflective curiosity that we nurture in our children, provides limitless opportunities for our children to make choices about their learning and to develop their skills and knowledge in all areas of the curriculum. Our environment is under constant review and adaptation and moves fluidly, depending on the needs and interests of our children.
We provide our children with the opportunity to learn both indoors and outdoors every day.
Our provision is made up of various different areas to support the holistic learning and development of our children. Children are free to move resources around the learning environment to suit their play needs. We encourage independence and problems solving skills through quality interactions and modelling. Our provision is designed to allow our children to make independent choices about their learning, allowing them to make mistakes in a safe environment and therefore building resilience.
Additionally, our outdoor provision provides an abundance of alternative learning opportunities. Reception children have access to their own garden offering our children opportunities to connect with nature, explore, develop critical thinking skills, be creative on a larger scale, develop physically and develop a compassion and respect for our environment.
Children’s play reflects their wide ranging and varied interests and preoccupations. In their play, children can be inquisitive, creative, questioning and experimental and will learn at their highest level. Playing with their peers is important for children’s development.
Through play our children explore and develop learning experiences, which help them make sense of the world. The adults model play and play sensitively with the children fitting in with their plans and ideas. The children are encouraged to try new activities and judge risks for themselves. We talk to them about how we get better at things through effort and practice and that we can all learn when things go wrong. They practice and build up ideas learning how to control themselves and understand the need for rules. They have the opportunity to think creatively alongside other children as well as on their own.
Facilitators of learning
Children thrive when their emotional needs are met. At Kippax Greenfield, we begin by allocating every child with a key person. The key person is chosen based on observation of relationships in the early days. This allows children to develop deep secure relationships with an adult in the setting, who is there to listen to them and support their needs and interests. This is also the key port of call for parents, supporting the development of relationships with the whole family.
Parents are encouraged to be a part of their child’s education in school, through the use of Dojo and termly newsletters. Parents can see and contribute to the assessment and learning of their child through Tapestry and can upload their own observations from home. Parents are invited in to learning consultations twice a year, plus a number of in school stay and play sessions throughout the year.
Staff work closely with other agencies, including previous settings, SEND and the Year 1 teacher, to support the needs of each child coming in to school, throughout the year and when moving in to year 1.
Plan, do, review
At Kippax Greenfield, we equip our children with the skills and attributes to facilitate their own learning through our plan, do, review approach. Children gather at the beginning of each child initiated learning session to plan their learning. This is a valuable time to build in those all important speaking and listening skills, introducing ambitious vocabulary which is used in context and made relevant to the children. Children share their ideas and therefore inspire their peers, which allows discussion and depth of learning. 'Plan' allows teaching staff to support children to build on their own learning and provides the basis for our collaborative approach to working. Children then carry out the 'do' part of their day (child initiated learning), with adults who are in tune with their plans and needs and are therefore able to be ambitious for their individual learning. Teaching staff work as both observers and facilitators during the 'do' session. At the end of the session, children gather together to reflect on their learning. Again, this is an incredibly valuable time to build speaking and listening skills and develop vocabulary. Our children love to share their learning and often bring things that they have made, done or seen to the meeting point to share. Teachers use photos and conversations they have had to participate in reflection time. Teachers plan next steps based on reflection time and develop the continuous provision based on these.
Parent as partners
Parents are incredibly important to the educational journey of our children. We communicate daily through the use of Dojo, sharing pictures, videos and comments about the learning going on in school. We love to have families in school with us and invite them in to share experiences with us as much as possible.
Here are some photos from our 'Christmas Crafts Event'
Enrichment
At Kippax Greenfield, we ensure that our children are proud of their own background and culture, whilst also beinginspired by the wider world and all it has to offer. In Reception, children are given lots of opportunities throughout the year to find out more about their local area. We take our children out of school to visit local places in our village regularly, including the Library, St Marys church, the Lines (Nature reserve), the playground and much more. We also provide our children with lots of enrichment opportunities which allow our children to be inspired by the world, and ambitious for their own future. We organise visits from the local police force, the fire brigade service and online visits from the Leeds teaching hospital radiographers. Children have had the opportunity to visit the Playhouse theatre in Leeds to find out more about their namesake city, and also to watch the wonderful production of Stick Man (our class text). Reading 'Little People, Big Dreams' books about famous people, including Neil Armstrong, David Attenborough, Emmeline Pankhurst, and finding out about one of our key author, Oliver Jeffers, has developed a curiosity in our children all about university. As a result we are visiting Leeds Beckett University in Headingly, where the education department are putting on some workshops which compliment our curriculum. Reception children are also able to attend 'Green Gang' an after school extra curricular club which focusses on nature, sustainability and developing our knowledge of the environment, through nature based crafts and out door activities.
Curriculum
Our Early Years curriculum has been planned to cover the Statutory Framework (revised 2021) but with breadth and ambition to meet the needs of our children. It is organised under whole school themes so that the content is taught under one overarching topic. Each topic has been carefully planned to cover all of the 7 areas of learning across each half term. Each topic is enhanced by carefully chosen books which build the knowledge and skills or our children.
Areas of Learning
The EYFS is made up of seven areas of learning:
Prime Areas
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development
- Communication & Language
Specific Areas
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
Maths
In EY we ensure each child is provided with enough time to master a concept and develop their fluency and reasoning skills. Children are provided with a variety of mathematical concepts both in targeted and independent play. They are encouraged to answer questions in order to deepen their mathematical understanding. Each school year begins by developing the concepts and skills needed, that have the most connections and opportunities for consolidation throughout the year. Once a new concept has been introduced it is applied and connected to many other areas of mathematics and within each area of learning.
Literacy
Early reading and writing
In EY Literacy is taught through a set of core texts and daily phonic/handwriting sessions. The Read, Write Inc programme with fidelity to the full programme. As the year progresses, children are encouraged to complete a targeted activity as well as accessing Literacy provision in each area. In September listening, attention, understanding and speaking skills are developed so this can then aid their writing at a later stage. Whole Class Reading and Book Talk is introduced in Autumn 2 and this is linked to ‘The Write Way’ approach. As the children develop their physical and Literacy skills they will use ‘Fantastics’ to scaffold their writing.
Wider Curriculum
Further information coming soon
Useful Links and Documents
