Wimborne First School & Nursery

Curriculum

At Wimborne First School and Nursery we seek to provide a supportive and stimulating environment in which every child can enjoy their learning, make a positive contribution to the life of the school and achieve their potential.

At Wimborne First School and Nursery we greatly value the importance that the Early Years Foundation Stage plays in laying secure foundations for future learning and development.  We also believe that the EYFS is not simply preparation for the next stage of education but preparation for life.  The EYFS for children is from birth to five years of age.  All children begin Nursery and School with a wide variety of experiences and learning and it is the privilege of adults working in the Early Years setting to accept the task of building upon that prior learning experience.  This is done through a holistic approach to learning ensuring that parents/carers and the Early Years team work effectively together to support the learning and development of the children in their care.  

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe.  It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.”

The EYFS aims to provide:

• Quality and consistency in all early years’ settings so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind.
• A secure foundation through planning for learning and development of each individual child, assessing and reviewing regularly.
• Partnerships between practitioners and with parents/and or carers.
• Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practise ensure that every child is included and supported.”

(Early Year Framework Department of Education September 2023)

Principles:

There are four guiding principles that shape practice in Early Years settings:

• every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured,

• children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships

• children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.

• importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Curriculum:

Our early years setting follows the curriculum as outlined in the 2023 statutory framework of the EYFS and EYFS Development Matters. 

Our curriculum encompasses seven areas of learning and development.  All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected.  Three areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships, and thriving.

These are called the prime areas:

• communication and language
• physical development
• personal, social, and emotional development.

Four areas help children to strengthen and apply the prime areas.  These are called the specific areas:

• literacy
• mathematics
• understanding the world
• expressive arts and design

Throughout their time in the EYFS our children partake in an ambitious curriculum which is designed in a sequential way to ensure progress towards the end of reception goals. These goals are defined as Early Learning Goals (ELGs) see link below for more information.  Our curriculum incorporates learning through play, learning by adults modelling, by observing each other and through guided learning and direct teaching.  It is also important to highlight that our plans are flexible to allow us to respond quickly to children’s new interests and/or needs.

Each term we will provide you with a curriculum leaflet so you know what knowledge and skills we will be developing so that you can talk with your child about their learning and continue their learning at home. 

Timetable

Below is a copy of our weekly timetable.  This is subject to change but gives you a good idea of when your child will be accessing different areas of the curriculum. 

Parent and Carer Information

You may or may not be aware that the government has been making some reforms to the curriculum that early years children experience from birth to five years old.  These changes became statutory from September 2023.  These national changes have been made to better support all young children’s learning and development in particular the outcomes for children in Communication and Language.

Changes have been made to the wording in the educational programmes. Specifically, this means:

•  they are longer, there is more depth, and they contain examples of things that we can all (staff and parents) do with children to enable them to build a depth and breadth of knowledge skills and understandings;
• there is an increased focus on early language and extending vocabulary, with more examples on how to embed and develop vocabulary skills across all 7 areas.

The aim of this is to improve outcomes for children as they progress through the EYFS and on into the next stages of education.

Changes to the wider EYFS

There are some elements of the EYFS that have not significantly changed and some that have. Below are some of the key points from the new EYFS reforms that include relevant changes which parents, carers and children may notice or experience.

• Staff will be spending less time on large amounts of written observations and assessments for evidence collection. This means they can spend more time supporting and engaging with the children and their learning and development needs. You therefore may notice that the quantity of observations in your child learning journey book and being uploaded on Tapestry reduce. Our focus, going forwards, is going to be on recording significant progression - 'wow moments'.
• Children will no longer be assessed against statements from an age band category – such as 40-60+. Instead, staff will use their experience and knowledge to monitor if a child’s learning and development is on track for their age.  

• There are still Early Learning Goals – the assessment used at the end of the Reception year, however these have changed. Please take the time to familiarise yourself with these by looking at the statutory guidance document at the bottom of this page.  Previously the assessment of the Early Learning Goals has included an ‘exceeding’ statement – used to indicate children who have surpassed the content of the Early Learning Goals. This has been removed in the reforms. Children will instead be challenged to have a greater depth of understandings about the concepts and skills they have built up over their time in Nursery and Reception.
• Safeguarding and welfare of children is still a priority, with the added mention of teaching children about the importance of good oral health and how to keep teeth clean and healthy.