EYFS

Here at Garvestone Primary School, we pride ourselves on our Early Years provision. A child starting school can be a daunting experience for parents and children so our experienced staff ensure the process is a positive and happy one. This is the first stage of your child’s learning journey so we help this process by:

  • a full induction programme for children and parents which includes meetings and visits to the school prior to September start.
  • providing information about getting ready for school and life at Garvestone Primary School.
  • communicating and visits with the pre-school your child is already attending.

We use the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (March 2017) as our base for the opportunities and provision that we provide to children in their first year of school.  This is a continuation of the learning and experiences they would have accessed in their nursery or pre-school setting.  There is a great emphasis on learning through direct, first hand experiences in a play based environment. This allows children to develop the skills needed in preparation for their National Curriculum education that commences in Year 1.

Our curriculum is based upon 7 broad areas of learning; each child’s progress and development is reported to the Department for Education at the end of their Reception year against set Early Learning Goals.  These areas of learning include:

The Prime Areas
  • Personal, Social and Emotional Developmentthrough which children gain confidence and self-awareness, the ability to manage their feelings and behaviour and learn about building effective relationships with others.
  • Communication and Languagethrough which children learn about listening, attention, understanding and speaking.
  • Physical Developmentwhich emphasises gross and fine motor skills in moving and handling, as well as health and self-care.
The Specific Areas
  • Literacy:Early reading and writing skills, explicit daily teaching of phonics, recognising common and irregular words, reading and understanding simple sentences and talking about what they have read; children will begin to use their phonic knowledge to build and write words and construct simple sentences.
  • Mathematics:Based around counting reliably from 1-20, understanding number order and beginning simple addition and subtraction; children will also experience solving mathematical problems by talking about shapes, weight, capacity, time, money, halving and measuring and comparing everyday objects.
  • Understanding the world:Enables children to base their learning on what they understand of the world around them through talking about past and present events within their own families, being aware of the differences and similarities between others and among families, communities and traditions; children will observe the differences in their environment, learn about plants and animals and talk about changes. They will also use a range of different technologies, selecting and using them for different purposes.
  • Expressive Arts and Design:Children will sing songs and create their own music and dance. They explore a range of materials, tools and techniques to look at different colours, design and texture in their artwork and are given opportunities to be imaginative through art, music, role play and stories.

Development matters