Early Years Area

Our Early Years Phase Leader is Miss Davidson and she is also the teacher for "Sunbeams" Reception Class. Miss Henry is the teacher for "Rainbows" Reception Class and Mr Stokes is the teacher in our "Allstars" Nursery.

Early Years Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement

Intent

At Upperby Primary School's Early Years Phase, we put our children at the heart of everything we do. We work hard to create a safe, stimulating environment where all children are happy, enjoy their learning and thrive, growing in confidence and becoming independent, resourceful and enthusiastic learners. Warm and positive relationships between staff and children are fundamental to our approach. We encourage our children to be respectful of others and their thoughts and ideas, demonstrating kindness and a caring attitude towards others.

Our environment, curriculum and learning opportunities are planned to build on the children's previous learning and experiences, from their homes as well as their pre-school settings and Nurseries. We view each of our children as a unique individual and through ongoing, careful observation and assessments we are able to plan and provide for opportunities across the Early Years curriculum that support individual learning and development.

We actively support our children in developing a sense of pride in themselves and their achievements, feeling successful and having a positive attitude to school and a love of learning. With this in mind, we work collaboratively with our parents and carers to provide a positive, strong and united support network, valuing the children's individuality, recognising and encouraging their unique skills and abilities, promoting the possibilities for change and enhancing lives,

Implementation

At Upperby Primary School, we actively safeguard and promote the welfare of all of our children. We know that children learn most effectively when they are healthy, safe and secure, when their individual needs are met and when they have positive relationships with the staff who care for them.

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework, made up of four overriding principles on which our Early Years education is based:-

• Unique Child -Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self -assured.
• Positive Relationships -Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
• Enabling Environments -Children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between staff and parents/carers.
• Learning and Development -Children develop and learn in different ways. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​We ensure that there is a broad, balanced and progressive learning environment and curriculum. The children will learn new skills, acquire knowledge and demonstrate understanding through the seven areas of the EYFS curriculum:-

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Physical Development
• Communication and Language
• Literacy
• Maths
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

​​​​​​​Our curriculum is flexible and designed to accommodate children's interests throughout the year, aiming to develop the characteristics of learning which will support and encourage lifelong learning. We support our children in:-

• Learning actively -trying their best and persevering in the face of challenges
• Playing and exploring -investigating, experiencing and being willing to "have a go"
• Creating and thinking critically -developing their own ideas, both independently and in collaboration with others

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We ensure that we have a careful balance between child initiated play and adult led activities to maximise opportunities for learning, developing and practising new skills and knowledge with the opportunity to consolidate this within the continuous provision. We value the importance of children learning through their play. Staff use this time to observe and interact appropriately, modelling, demonstrating, facilitating, communicating and questioning. This process helps staff gain a deeper knowledge of individual interests, capabilities, next steps and where we can offer age-appropriate challenges.

Throughout our Early Years, we prioritise the development of Language and Communication and create a language rich environment through the daily use of songs, nursery rhymes, stories and making time for quality interactions with adults and peers, encouraging children to become confident communicators. We recognise the importance of reading and ensure that our Read Write Inc trained staff provide daily high quality phonics sessions.

Parental support and engagenment is key to ensuring our children make the most progress and our parents are encouraged to interact with our 'Tapestry' online learning journal, attend our termly 'Stay and Play' sessions and weekly 'Share a story' sessions. We share regular observations of the children in school and a termly update of their children's progress and their next steps in learning.

Impact

Our children have a smooth transition between Nursery, Reception and into Year 1. We have transition meetings so that staff can share information appropriately and a series of visits to new environments ensure that children are confident and excited to move to their next stage of learning.

We work hard to ensure that all children make good progress from their various starting points. Our assessments track termly progress and this helps staff and SLT to identify individual strengths and areas for development, as well as plan for our provision. Each child has a termly 'focus week' where snapshot observations are gathered to share current abilities and identify next steps in their learning journey with parents, via the online journal.

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Our staff take part in internal and external moderation of judgements made, to ensure consistent

and accurate assessments of children's achievements and progress. We regularly review our own practise and learning environments to ensure that we are meeting the needs of every child, offering an environment in which they can develop into successful learners.