Our Foundation Stage learning environment is vibrant and it offers exciting, challenging opportunities. We provide a wide range of indoor and outdoor opportunities that allow children to learn from a combination of independent play and exploration and adult focused tasks. Positive learning attributes are promoted and activities are purposefully planned to encourage independence, individuality and resilience, ensuring all children grow to respect and support each other irrespective of ability, race, belief or background.

Planning for children in the Foundation Stage is based on both the ‘Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum’ and the ‘Focus Learning Challenge’ scheme. The seven areas of the ‘Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum’ (Communication and Language, Personal, Social, and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive arts and design) are woven together with the stimulating topics of the ‘Learning Challenge’ to underpin the activities and experiences children are offered. Opportunities to explore child led interests are also highly valued and swiftly acted upon.

Children enter our Foundation Stage class in the September of the academic year they turn 5. Their learning is tracked using the ‘Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum’ and their progress measured against the ‘Early Learning Goals’ at the end of their first year in school. Some children will exceed the goals and others will be working towards some or all of them. Monitoring each child’s progress is essential to ensuring they are making progress and any particular difficulties in any of the areas of learning can be identified and addressed. Monitoring includes observing the way children learn (The Characteristics of Learning) and playing alongside, as well as focused learning activities and challenges. Planning is adapted and evolves to accommodate each child’s needs, next steps and their learning styles.

We value the important role parents play in supporting their child’s progress and we strongly encourage their communication and participation.