Early Years

Intent (What we do)

Our Early Years curriculum is unique to Poppleton Ousebank, planned and developed carefully around the specific needs of our children and our community and covers all aspects of the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage Framework (see below).

The Early Years curriculum is well sequenced, planned and ambitious.

The way we deliver the curriculum, values the children as individuals and we ensure we observe and respond to children’s own interests. This creates a curriculum that encourages children to invest and explore in their play, investigating and experiencing things by having a go through first-hand experience. Children develop their own ideas and through carefully created indoor and outdoor areas, there are opportunities for them to develop creativity, make links between their ideas and think critically. The prime areas of Communication and Language, Physical Development and Personal, Social and Emotional Development are a primary focus for the teaching and learning within the Early Years. These are understood by the Early Years team and considered fundamental in preparing children to become effective, self-regulated learners. We focus on making learning fun through exciting and engaging activities to provide children with the skills needed to achieve and excel in their future.

This is underpinned by the Trust Vision for excellence in the Early Years

The EYFS framework:

• sets the standards that all early year’s providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well
• ensures children are kept healthy and safe
• ensures that children have the knowledge and skills they need to start school

The Characteristics of Effective Learning

The three characteristics of effective learning describe the behaviours children use in order to learn.

• Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and build the resilience to ‘have a go’
• Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achieving
• Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

The Areas of Learning and Development

The three prime areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships, and thriving.  They are an intrinsic component underpinning the specific areas of learning.

The Prime Areas:

• Communication and Language
• Personal, social and Emotional Development
• Physical Development

There are four specific areas through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied.

The Specific Areas:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design

EYFS Framework

Learning to read and write at Poppleton Ousebank

The Curriculum is built around reading and encourages a love of reading from the start. Phonics is taught in Early Years and KS1 through the Read Write Inc Phonics programme which is a systematic and highly effective approach used for the teaching of early reading and writing. In Nursery, phonics concentrates on developing children’s speaking and listening skills through their ability to respond to sounds, play with sounds and sing songs and rhymes. Preparing them to blend and segment the sounds as in words is a key part of their development as the children prepare to move into Reception. Children become effective listeners and communicators and can describe and question through their understanding. They quickly develop reading and writing skills throughout their Reception year and after learning how to read and write words and sentences they develop fluency and comprehension skills. The importance of developing gross and fine motor skills is essential and highly regarded in our setting. We work closely with children to develop these skills through exciting and creative experiences.

Implementation (How we do what we do)

We have a Nursery Pre School provision and 2 Reception classes in Early Years. The team work closely together and children share the outdoor learning area.

Our learning environment

Our carefully constructed learning environment promotes creative, purposeful and meaningful experiences in order to support children to progress as learners. We offer an exciting, exploratory and stimulating environment at Poppleton Ousebank that promotes school readiness. This ensures our children feel safe and secure.  High expectations of the children and their behaviour, encourage them to excel and become respectful and responsible learners in our setting. The EYFS team have carefully constructed both inside and outside spaces to maximise learning time and opportunities. Meaningful and challenging learning is developed through the prime areas. An example of this would be the independent access to multiple manipulatives where planning and communication are focused on. Children access our Forest School area on a weekly basis to explore the natural world through a healthy engagement with risk, problem-solving and self-discovery, in a hands-on and thoughtful manner. Reading is a key focus within Early Years and books are well selected each week by staff to develop language and links to previous learning. Parents are informed about how to support their child at home, including key reading strategies. The school provides tutorial videos to assist parents with home learning and there is a weekly newsletter to ensure effective communication about the children’s learning. Staff model through daily interaction, circle time and Jigsaw sessions to develop pupils’ understanding of language and feelings. There is a great focus on emotional regulation.

Our adults

At Poppleton Ousebank we have a highly skilled, experienced and dedicated team of staff in Early Years who really value the importance of making strong relationships and connections with the children and parents at our school. Children achieving their full potential is of upmost importance to the adults in Early Years who have high expectations of the children, while ensuring they develop a love of learning.

Our partnerships

Partnerships within our community are paramount to the children having a positive and enriched experience at school. At Poppleton Ousebank we pride ourselves on the partnerships we build with our newest families and ensure parents and carers are greeted with warmth and welcome every day; communication between school and home is a key part of this. We communicate with parents through termly and weekly newsletters, regular Twitter updates and through the use of Google Classroom for key information, home learning support and home challenges. We value understanding what the children’s experiences are at home as this feeds into our delivery of the curriculum. We often invite parents in to the classroom at special events throughout the year, to encourage children to share and take pride in their learning. We value our partnership with other Early Years settings in the community and regularly meet to share best practice and provide experiences that develop the children’s a sense of belonging. These also encourage positive transition experiences for the children which is of paramount importance to us as the children enter Reception.

Staff ensure that their strong relationships with the children, model resilience and independence by giving the children the confidence they need to keep trying and being an active learner.  Staff in school work closely together to ensure smooth transitions especially when children continue their learning journey into Year 1.  We ensure the Year 1 team are involved in and aware of the children and their individual needs so that they can support them effectively.

Impact (The result of what we do)

Pupils develop strong social and emotional skills ready for their next stage of learning and development. They display high levels of engagement, showing they are happy and confident in the setting. A particular strength of the school is the interaction and problem solving that is observed in learning. The children display high levels of engagement and independence at all times. This is modelled by adults and children are clearly confident around the adults and their peers at our school. Children are able to maintain longer periods of concentration because of the curriculum being engaging and this is also the case in daily phonics sessions. When setbacks occur, children at our school, are able to cope and respond with changes in their approach and thinking. Staff are knowledgeable and well deployed so that staff are aware of and support children with barriers to their learning. Our children leave Reception as responsible and respectful learners, ready to apply their skills to new challenges that they are not afraid to embrace. In doing this, the children know that their enthusiasm, creativity and individuality is celebrated at Poppleton Ousebank and they use this as a driver to success.

Our Outcomes

We endeavor to ensure that all of our children achieve in all areas of learning, with the ability to self-regulate and self-motivate. At Poppleton Ousebank, our curriculum and provision are developed based upon the children’s prior learning, interests and learning needs. Our children are set individual next steps, based on their particular needs and these are regularly reviewed to ensure the whole team provide a personalised learning journey.

New Starters

Please see the following link for information about joining our Nursery: Nursery Information