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Early Years Foundation Stage

Here at St John's we are lucky enough to have a Nursery provision on site, catering to 3-year olds, as well as Reception classes. 

Please click here to read more about our Nursery, and click here to read more about our Reception classes.

Our learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is based upon 7 Areas of Learning & Development and follows the statutory framework for the EYFS:

  • Personal, Social and Emotional Development
  • Physical Development
  • Communication and Language
  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Understanding the World
  • Expressive Arts and Design

Underpinning learning and development across all these areas are the Characteristics of Effective Learning (how children learn) which include playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically.

 

Our EYFS curriculum and approach has been carefully planned to meet the needs of our children, and focuses on the following areas:

 Language Development & Widening Vocabulary 

  • Expanding children’s vocabulary and developing language skills (receptive and expressive) 

  • Reading and retelling traditional tales and key texts, as well as learning songs and rhymes 

  • Developing a love of reading for pleasure, through effective phonics teaching and exciting learning opportunities linked to fiction, non-fiction and poetry 

 

  1. Social Interaction & Being part of a community 

  • Learning what it means to be a member of a group (e.g. pairs, group, school, family, local community)   

  • Modelling and teaching social interactions and interpersonal skills within the context of our School and British Values 

  • Supporting children with understanding their own emotions and how to express these appropriately 

  • Developing an age-appropriate attention span across a range of situations 

 

  1. Environment & Experiences 

  • Actively engaging with parents and carers in a range of ways to support learning at home and in school 

  • Providing an environment which broadens children’s life experiences and builds their cultural capital (e.g. eating around a table, growing food, preparing snacks, Forest School, visits to museums or the library, learning about celebrations, artists and musicians) 

 

Supporting children with additional needs in the Early Years

At St John's we believe that every child is unique and place value on ensuring that our curriculum and environments will enable all children to learn and make progress from their own starting points. Within our EYFS team, we have an SEN specialist teacher, a speech and language therapist and support staff who work closely with children with additional needs. The school also has an English as an Additional Language (EAL) specialist who works alongside EYFS staff to recommend strategies and approaches to use in the classroom.

Our EYFS block includes the Sunflower room which is a dedicated small group space and a sensory room. 

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