EYFS
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EYFS Curriculum Intent
At Smith’s Wood Primary Academy, we believe that Nursery and Reception are the most important years in a child’s development. The time spent in our EYFS should be happy, exciting and foster a lifelong love of learning. We aim to provide an environment whereby all children will develop into independent, caring and confident individuals, aware of their own abilities and talents. We aim to promote natural curiosity and encourage children to be inquisitive about the world around them, ask questions and seek out the answers. Children learn through the means of adult directed activities as well as child initiated learning. In our Nursery and Reception, children learn in environments that are rich in opportunities and provide children with the key skills needed to progress into Year 1 and beyond.
We are committed to providing a strong start to our youngest pupils and no child is left to fall behind. Early reading skills are given high importance in order to ensure children can become successful and confident learners. We are passionate about creating a curriculum that builds upon prior learning and follows the interests of the children. Our intent is that this is achieved through carefully planned themes, play based learning and by highly skilled practitioners that observe and extend children’s learning experiences.
We follow the statutory EYFS curriculum (updated September 2021). This can be found by clicking on the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2 We also use the non-statutory Development Matters guidance to inform our curriculum planning and develop children’s knowledge and skills. This can be found by clicking on the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/development-matters--2
Underpinning our EYFS curriculum are the four overarching principles:
1. Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
2. Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
3. 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.
4. The importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).