Welcome to our Early Years Foundation Stage
At Ireby CE Primary School, we have a dedicated EYFS unit.
The period from age three to the end of the reception year is described as the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). It is a distinct stage and important both in its own right and ensures that all our children have a strong foundation in their first years of school.
From your child's first day with us, we embrace them as part of our loving community. Our staff take time to develop relationships with you and your child so that we can understand and support their needs.
As a school, we have a clear understanding of foundational knowledge our children need in order to for them to thrive as they move through our school.
Our curriculum is carefully planned so that we have opportunities to explore every child's understanding across a range of areas so that we are able to adapt our teaching to meet their specific needs.
Our staff are passionate about ensuring every child has the foundational knowledge they require to be successful, and we leave nothing to chance. We constantly review our curriculum against the needs of our children, making adaptations wherever they are needed to ensure we maximise learning opportunities.
All children are part of our community and part of our learning and we ensure that all children have the experiences they need to be successful. We know what is important, and we make sure that our children have the time they need to practise and embed the skills and knowledge they require to have the very strongest foundation for future success.
Foundational knowledge
Characteristics of Effective Learning
At Ireby, we use the EYFS curriculum to help us identify the Characteristics of Effective Learning.
This document demonstrates how each child engages with other people and their environment, how they play and explore, if they are active learners and if they are creating and thinking critically. We have a balance of adult initiated and adult directed tasks as part of our curriculum offer to ensure that children make the best progress.
Development Matters Report
We also embrace the findings of the Development Matters report, which identifies the foundational learning required and sets out the pathways of children’s development in broad ages and stages. It also recognises that actual learning of young children is not neat and orderly and highlights the importance of accurate and proportionate assessment in order to help us make informed decisions about what a child needs to learn and be able to do next
The EYFS Statutory Framework and Early Learning Goals
The EYFS Statutory Framework, sets out the learning and development and assessment requirements for the EYFS. The Early Learning Goals set out the level of development children should be expected to have reached by the end of the EYFS and 'should support practitioners to make a holistic, best-fit judgement about a child’s development at the end of the EYFS, and their readiness for year 1.' At Ireby, we therefore, the ELG form a crucial role in determining our children's key foundational knowledge.
Our EYFS Curriculum
Our rich EYFS curriculum.....
Phonics in our EYFS
All children at Ireby have a strong foundation in phonics as part of supporting their overall reading development. Click below to find out more information.
Early Reading