Our Early Years approach starts from the children’s own experiences and starting points. It’s based on real experiences that the children get immersed in when they begin school with a structured and safe nurturing environment which is language rich.
High involvement and well-being including self-regulation is one of the keys to the children making academic progress and achieving the best they can.
Our aim is to ensure parents feel valued and respected as their child’s main carer and educator. It is imperative to develop good and lasting links with home. When parents and early years’ staff work together, the results have a positive impact on children’s learning.
Our principles are to:
Assessment in the early years
Within the first 6 weeks of children starting Nursery and Reception they will be assessed to find an accurate baseline of their needs and starting points.
In Nursery this will be:
This will be recorded on Insight as the entry teacher assessment judged against development matters.
We have chosen this as the baseline as we know the Prime Areas are often low starting points for the children in school and this will ensure that these are thoroughly assessed so that starting points can be rapidly built on.
Following the initial assessment information will be entered termly to ensure progress in rapid and next steps are firmly understood by all staff.
In Reception we will use:
National Baselines will be used alongside our system.
Following the initial assessment information will be entered termly to ensure progress in rapid and next steps are firmly understood by all staff.
Ways of working
All adults in the setting will be attachment aware/ trauma informed and use positive and helpful language in their approach to all situations. Children will be supported on an individual basis to ensure they can access language and situations that arise and that they may find challenging.
Actions and Reflections
All staff regularly make alterations to planning, continuous provision, timetabling, layout and display to ensure it meets the diverse range of needs within the class. This will be logged termly so that the impact of those actions are reflected on as a staff.
Interventions
Where targeted interventions are taking place or small adjustments to provision that ensure a child is successfully making progress this is logged to ensure continuity of support so SEND and Early Intervention can be carefully monitored.
Resourcing for Continuous Provision
Construction | A selection of pertinent small world resources to encourage purposeful building Wooden blocks Books related to structures they want to build Photographs of things they would like to build Clip boards and mark making equipment 3 types of construction linked to the children’s development stage Vocabulary pyramid Question stems |
Sand | Theme dependent Vocabulary pyramid Question stems Photographs of sand in different contexts linked to their experiences |
Water | Theme dependent Vocabulary pyramid Question stems Photographs of sand in different contexts linked to their experiences |
Book area | All books can be read to a child and are developmentally appropriate. Traditional tales Nursery rhymes Factual books Core stories Multicultural books Puppets and toys to read to Possible CD player Blankets Cushions / seating area Vocabulary pyramid Question stems |
Small world | Theme dependent Books, people, animals, vehicles, pictures of small world area Vocabulary pyramid Question stems |
Malleable | Theme dependent Tools Moulds Cutters Baking trays Books Vocabulary pyramid Question stems |
Painting | Paper. Eg sugar, large, small, coloured Brushes of different shapes and sizes Colour charts Colour labels Vocabulary pyramids Question stems Water pot Palettes and pots Paints (powder/poster/blocks) Different techniques e.g. printing Vocabulary pyramid Question stems |
Workshop | Tape Glue PVA or glue sticks Scissors Pencils/felt tips/markers Hole puncher Lolly sticks Paper fasteners String Junk modelling resources Art straw |
Maths | Counters Objects to count Scales Till and money Tape measure 2d and 3d shapes Sorting boxes Context items e.g. tins for shapes etc. Number lines Bead strings Numicon Numbers Books Boxes |
Role play | Theme dependent Photos Labels Books Writing equipment Costumes |
Music | Within the year as appropriate |
Investigation | Within the year as appropriate |
Sensory | Within the year as appropriate |
Floor Books