Early Years

INTENT

At St Mark and All Saints we aim to deliver an outstanding Early Years curriculum, following the EYFS. We want to develop motivated children who strive to explore and understand God’s world, through stimulating and challenging play. Many of our children start their school journey having very limited cultural capital life; it is our aim to enhance our children’s experiences through: half-termly school trips or visitors to school linked to their interests and topic enabling them to grow a deeper understanding about their local and wider communities. Our aspiration is that children use our Forest School and Grow Zone to immerse themselves in experiences, which allow them to embed our school values and the key foundations of learning.

IMPLEMENTATION

Our children are nurtured in a secure environment, whilst being allowed to explore, enquire and take risks both inside and outside the classroom. The children have opportunities to engage in free-flow play as well as experiencing a wide variety of adult-led and child-initiated activities. Teachers build on children’s knowledge and experiences, and provide opportunities for progression, extension and challenge.

Each day every child within our early years provision takes part in an adult focus activity for both Phonics and Maths. The activities are varied and create interesting new experiences to stimulate learning alongside opportunities for children to revisit, practise or enjoy a sense of mastery or ‘can do’ attitudes.

Children are given opportunities to:

Talk and communicate in a widening range of situations, to respond to adults and each other, to listen carefully and to practise and extend their communication skills.
Explore words and texts in a vocabulary rich environment with a new story or traditional tale every day to enjoy, to decode and to read for pleasure.
Encourage writing, discussion and storytelling in our role play areas and linked into the topics we are studying.

IMPACT

Children make swift progress within a child centred context, and make a smooth transition to Key Stage 1. They flourish in their social, emotional and physical development, along with developing an excitement and love for learning and challenge.

Results

Children who achieved a ‘Good Level of Development’ in Reception at St Mark and All Saints in 2019 was 67% (National figure - 72%).