At Woodmansterne, we have a play-based approach to our Early Years. We deliver our EYFS curriculum in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage and Development matters.

Our curriculum is based on seven different areas of learning which are implemented through planned and purposeful play:

1. Personal, Social and Emotional development – Children’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives, and is fundamental to their cognitive development. This area concentrates on children developing a positive respect for themselves and others; building self-confidence, making new friends, interacting with adults, understanding their own and others’ feelings, managing emotions, being healthy and gaining a positive disposition to learn.
   
   
2. Communication and Language – The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. This covers important aspects of language development; communicating, speaking and listening.
   
   
3. Physical Development – Physical activity is vital in children’s all-round development, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives. This area concentrates on developing gross motor skills; physical control, mobility, special awareness, and fine motor skills: including use of pencil, scissors and other tools.
   
   
4. Literacy – It is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading. Reading includes language comprehension and word reading. Writing involves transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech, before writing).
5. Mathematics – Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. This includes number, counting, shape, space and measure as well as looking for patterns and relationships between numbers and developing reasoning skills.
6. Understanding the World – Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. This area concentrates on developing knowledge and understanding of the environment; other people and cultures; and features of the natural world. It provides the foundation for historical, geographical, scientific and technological learning.
   
   
7. Expressive arts and design - The development of children’s artistic and cultural awareness supports their imagination and creativity. This area develops the children’s imagination and their ability to communicate and to express ideas and feelings in creative ways including through music, drama, art and role play.

Throughout the year, children explore, make friends, develop and learn. They have great fun exploring, playing and creating both indoors and outside. They gain independence and confidence, and their natural curiosity is encouraged at all times.

Throughout our play-based approach, our highly skilled staff support children through high quality interactions. We ensure that we are on the child’s level, engaged in the conversation and we are aware of child’s next steps. This helps us to further children’s learning through each interaction. Our staff follow the 3 M’s model by including making conversations, mathematics and making marks (writing) in each interaction. This makes sure that every child can make progress from the developmental stage they are in.

Each term, every child will be a focus child. This means we will spend a week focusing on the focus children and their next steps. We provide parents with a focus child letter, letting you know the next steps children are working on at school and we also ask for input from you. We ask if you have any special events coming up and whether you have any questions about your child’s learning. During this week, staff will upload observations onto ‘Tapestry’ which will show your child’s learning through that week. Staff use their knowledge of your child’s interests to plan lots of fun, exciting and engaging activities to help your child progress with their next steps.

We encourage children to be independent, take measured risks and follow their own interests. This helps the children to develop their independence and confidence, so they are ready to take on new challenges throughout their school life.

Outdoor play

We believe that outdoor learning is an essential part of young children’s learning and development, and we encourage all children to explore the outdoor area. Children must be allowed to experience the world around them in a full, messy, muddy, wet environment if they are to make useful meaning of it. All children will be given the opportunity to play outside throughout the day, whatever the weather. If your child comes home messy, it means they have had a great day of learning at school!