EYFS

Overview

Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum Overview / Policy

Staff Responsible- Head of Early Years

Reviewed September 2026

Intent

Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high-quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up. (Early years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework, DfE, 2025)

Aims of the EYFS in the Vale of Evesham School

To provide a relevant curriculum which is play based, child led and is also broad, balanced, enjoyable and exciting.

For pupils to reach their full potential during the Early Years.

To prepare pupils for lifelong learning and nurture an enjoyment for learning and building the foundations for learning

To develop partnerships with people that are important for the child

To support and promote all the EYFS areas of development and the Characteristics of Effective learning

To ensure that all children are safeguarded

To provide equal opportunities for the pupils.

We will follow the over Arching Principles of the EYFS which are:

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

Given that all of the children who attend the Vale of Evesham school have additional needs, as identified in their EHCP, we have adapted our curriculum to meet their needs. All of the pupils have a delay with their development, especially in their Communication and Language (CAL) as well as their Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED). It is for this reason that we focus on these prime areas of development of CAL & PSED together with Physical Development (PD). As Physical skills are usually a strength for our children our intent in PD focusses on children’s self-help skills. As part of PD we also offer lots of opportunities and activities to meet their sensory diet needs’ and develop their ability to be ready to learn.

We understand that to promote development and prepare children for lifelong learning that we need to first develop the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning and we make this a key priority in Early Years. For example, in the EYFS, children are supported to develop the essential early learning skills that allow them to sit and take part in adult led activities as part of a group and to actively learn.

In addition to this Thinking and Literacy (including synthetic phonics) are given a high priority in Reception.

We offer a broad range of creative and understanding the world opportunities. Through these activities we aim to develop the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning as well as encouraging development in the prime areas.

Implementation

The Early Years Foundation Stage is for children from birth to the end of Reception (the academic year in which they turn five).

Transition and Settling in

The implementation of our curriculum begins even before the children start with us as we know that building relationships with the child and their families is a key part of being able to implement the rest of the curriculum. We recognise that children with SEND need greater support with their transition to school. It is for this reason that our transition support begins in the summer term. We offer Nursery visits and Home visits to begin gathering information about the child and building relationships with them and their families. We offer a staggered start if parents would like this option and it is suitable for the child. This gives the child the opportunity to get know the class team and the school in a smaller group environment, before the whole class attends full time. It also enables staff to build important relationships with the children and families. These key relationships are what we base all of the subsequent teaching and learning on.

We also recognise that our cohort have been significantly impacted by the Covid pandemic. Many did not access key services such as the Health Visitors or SALT in the same way either. At a crucial time in these children’s development services were less accessible to identify their needs and support their development. We therefore want to ensure that the implementation of our curriculum is adapted to suit our cohort.

Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning

The characteristics of effective teaching and learning help us to focus on and understand how children learn. Following characteristics of young children’s learning enables them to become effective lifelong learners. We look for and think about how the children learn when accessing all areas of development. The Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning are implemented through everything we do, but primarily in the child led learning time, through the engaging learning environments on offer.

The Characteristics of Effective Teaching & Learning will feed into the Engagement scales in First School 1 (FS1) Complex Curriculum.

The characteristics of effective Teaching & Learning are split into three different areas:

Playing and Exploring

Our classroom environments are set up to actively encourage and offer children the opportunity to play, explore and investigate using open ended activities. Play is essential for children’s development. Children learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play which is guided by adults.

Active Learning

We provide opportunities for children to follow their interests for extended periods of time, fully engaged in what they are doing and concentrating deeply. In their activities, children will be encouraged to persist in the face of challenge or difficulty, thereby developing a resilient disposition.

Creative and Critical Thinking

Children will have many different opportunities to be creative – generating new ideas, being inventive, finding problems and challenges and figuring out their own ways to solve them. Adults will be attentive to individual children’s interests and will provide new materials and experiences to extend and enhance these processes. We try wherever possible to give children more autonomy in how they approach tasks and focusing on the process of problem solving, not just on the final outcome.

Areas of Development

In the EYFS framework there are 7 areas of development. There are 3 prime areas:

Communication and Language

Personal, social and emotional development

Physical Development.

There are also 4 specific areas:

Literacy

Mathematics (Thinking skills at VoE)

Understanding the World

Expressive Art and Design

All of the 7 areas of development are implemented through the curriculum offer. As outlined in the intent, the prime areas are given priority and are often being developed through the activities in the specific areas of learning as well. The specific areas of learning grow out of the prime areas, and provide important contexts for learning.

Prime areas

Communication and Language (CAL)- This is taught throughout the day every day and built in to every situation. In reception the children have adult led communication sessions working towards personal targets 4 x a week. These will often be implemented through structured teaching eg a workbox system. In addition to these 1:1 sessions children will also have adult led circle times daily. These seek to develop attention and listening skills, as well as early phonological awareness when children are ready.

Adults will seek to develop communication skills at every opportunity through a variety of methods. We will encourage choice making at snack and dinner times. During child led time adults will comment on children’s play and model language. They will pause and leave gaps for children to communicate. Intensive Interaction is frequently used to encourage communication skills with children through their play to encourage enjoyment of being with another person and communicating with them.

The school day will be structured and follow routines to support the children’s learning and understanding. Strong routines are a key strategy to help develop CAL as it helps children to understand what is happening and learn key language associated with it. Adults will also promote CAL skills through the regular use of Objects of Reference and visuals. These help children to understand what is happening and what is being asked of them for adult led times for example, or when they are moving around school to different activities. Adults will often use key language or reduced language, again as a strategy to help children understand the key information they need.

CAL will feed into Communication in the Complex curriculum and Semi Formal in First School 1 (FS1).

Personal Social and Emotional Development (PSED)- This is taught throughout the day every day and in every activity. It will be a priority in child-initiated learning both inside and outside. We will work at building relationships, with peers and staff, as well as with families. This is naturally a greater focus in the Autumn term, especially as children are beginning their learning journey with us and are new to the school environment. Transition and settling in is given a high priority through home visits, Nursery setting visits and visits to the Vale of Evesham school. Information to help at home is offered through the summer such as video tours and a transition booklet. A staggered start is offered to families to help children build relationships with staff in a smaller group environment.

We offer high levels of adult support to children and lots of co-regulation to help teach self-regulation. Managing behaviours and emotions throughout the day is a high priority and is often where PSED is taught in the moment.

We also work towards the children being able to play and we do this by offering an inviting and stimulating learning environment. We rotate, change and extend play experiences weekly to develop children’s ability to play with a wide range of toys and activities. During child led play adults will try to scaffold and support sharing and turn taking as well as making a choice.

Children often struggle to learn as a group so small group learning is another part of our PSED implementation. We begin with short group times, increasing in length over the year to help children to access adult led learning in a group.

Pupils will have an intimate care plan.

PSED will feed into PSHE and pupil initiated learning opportunities in the Semi Formal Curriculum and Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) in the Complex Curriculum at First School 1 (FS1).

For the Full Policy, Please use the following link: EYFS Policy

Long-Term Plan

Text Map

Literacy and English Text Map

This is a working document to show progression in texts across the school. The literature suggested in the table below are linked to the units being taught within English lessons. Where possible, texts also relate to the overarching theme for the term. Teachers can select 1 or more texts from the list to study each half term between KS1-LKS2. Once in UKS2, teachers will usually focus on one text per half term and teach using multisensory approaches to suit the learning styles of pupils within the class. Where longer books are chosen; the focus may turn to particular extracts of the text.

Pupils will engage with literature above their reading ability; covering a broad range of themes, eras and cultures. They will access a range of motivating reading materials through a variety of medias, both for pleasure and for purpose. Texts will be high quality often using adapted versions (particularly in UPK2 onwards) and promote meaningful discussions. The texts chosen will go on to inspire and support pupil’s writing.

Semi-Formal Curriculum

Formal Curriculum

Timing Recommendations

Recommendations for timings within EYFS

Reception

In Reception there will be daily circle time, story, & reflection time. Literacy/CAL and Thinking skills will be 4 times a week. Across the week they will have an Outdoor Learning session and a PE session. Swimming will take place across the year – there will be 15 sessions, usually in blocks of 5. There will be four sessions each week for EAD and UW. There may be opportunities to focus on UW for longer such as a theme day or afternoon. PSED is intrinsic across all activities but it is a part of the circle time as well.

When completing Literacy, Thinking and CAL there will be a mixture of small group and 1:1 adult led activities. Many children will access these curriculum areas through a workbox approach. When children are not taking part in these they will access child led learning in the continuous provision.

Some children will access additional interventions and these will be jointly planned between the class teacher and the intervention teacher.

Assemblies – 30 mins per half term and join in with wider school events where appropriate to the individuals.

Circle time	15 – 20 mins twice a day – PSED CAL Literacy
Literacy /CAL	4 times a week – differentiated focus-often a workbox approach- Includes Reading for pleasure as well as phonics, Read Write Inc, & reading books where appropriate
Thinking	4 times a week – Often a workbox approach
Physical Development	2 x 30 mins weekly PE session in the hall OR 1 x PE and 1 swimming1 Outdoor Learning session per week30 mins swimming session 15 x a year, in 3 x 5 week blocks usually Outside patio available throughout the day Toileting 45 mins daily – Snack and dinner Access to the Big playground where appropriate
EAD / UW	4 x 30 min sessions a weekIncluding at least – 1 X Music focus and 1 Media and MediaUW – Across the year a mixture of our world, communities and people and technology Topic days and afternoons including educational visits
Story and Reflection	15 mins daily
CIL / Continuous Provision	All other times both inside and outsideAll areas.