Early Years Foundation Stage (or EYFS) is where your child is welcomed into school and experiences the foundation of their learning journey within the community of Flintham Primary School.

In EYFS, we have a mixed class of Reception and Early Years children (N2). We have a large classroom with lots of exciting areas for play and our own designated outdoor space which we use daily. The highly stimulating environment allows children to play together in a multitude of different areas.

EYFS Intent

• To provide a happy, caring, safe and secure environment for learning which meets the individual needs and interests of the children.
• To develop warm and secure relationships between children and adults.
• To provide a broad, balanced, progressive, relevant and creative curriculum that is responsive to individual starting points and needs; providing firm foundations for future learning and development.
• To innovate our children to take the lead in their own learning, encouraging self-motivation, independence and giving children the confidence to explore new ideas, think about problems, take risks, make links and seek challenge.
• To develop high levels of engagement, curiosity, collaboration and co-operation. Highly adept at managing their own behaviour in the classroom and in social situations.
• To develop resilience and perseverance when things don’t go as planned and who adapt as necessary to overcome any obstacles in their path.
• To express themselves with confidence in a meaningful way. Respecting the opinions and values of themselves and others.
• To foster positive home school links, working with parents as partners.
• To provide an attractive, welcoming and stimulating learning environment which will encourage children to explore, investigate and learn through first-hand experience.

At Flintham Primary School, we believe the Early Years Foundation Stage is of the utmost importance to children and is the basis for long term well-being and lifelong learning. We feel a strong moral purpose to ensure our Early Years curriculum is inclusive and based on social justice and believe our practitioners directly shape children’s futures.

This includes building cumulatively sufficient knowledge, including phonic skills, a wide vocabulary, British values and an understanding of leading a healthy lifestyle. As well as this, we aim to develop Communication and Language, Physical Development, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. We aim for all children to develop a passion for learning both inside and out of the classroom. We are lucky to have such wonderful school grounds which we also make good use of at every possible opportunity. We encourage our children to spend as much of their time outdoors as they do indoors. It is a vital part of how the school nurtures both academic and social progress.

We want our children to enter the next stage of their education ready to tackle new challenges with confidence and a positive mindset.

EYFS Implementation

At Flintham Primary School, provision is underpinned by a complementary relationship between adult led, adult-initiated and child led learning. We are ambitious in our approach using a continuous cycle of observation and assessment, planning/teaching, alongside structured and systematic lessons and guided group work.

Knowledgeable practitioners appreciate that adult-led learning offers a child something different from, but complementary to, child led learning and it is one without the other that leads to an impoverished educational experience.
Fisher, 2016.

Shared Input

We have a shared input, three times a day as a whole class covering the specific areas of literacy, maths and phonics. Using the curriculum documents Development Matters 2021, alongside Read, Write Inc and White Rose and NCTEM Maths documents. These key documents are used to support our teaching, however we have developed our own tailored FPS Curriculum bespoke to our children’s needs and locality.

Adult-led focused groups

Short, focused groups are planned for writing, reading and maths and immediately follow a shared input. These sessions are planned with care, meeting the needs of all children, using prior knowledge of the child’s learning experiences and guidance from the EYFS document ‘Development Matters’, 2021.

If you have any questions or wish to visit our school, please contact school by telephone:01636 525371 or via email: office@flintham.notts.sch.uk