The EYFS Curriculum at Cumberland Infant School  

Intent  

The EYFS at Cumberland Infant School is a practical, creative and imaginative experience. Our philosophy is rooted in developing children’s confidence to play and explore, become active learners and challenge children’s thinking to refine their understanding, acquisition of new knowledge and encourage them to be creative and critical thinkers.  

Our rich and varied curriculum ensures that children learn the knowledge and skills they need to achieve success in the next stages of their learning. We are dedicated to ensuring that all children leave our EYFS provision having secured the foundations to be confident early readers, writers and mathematicians.  

We aim to give all children the opportunities to build on their early experiences through our indoor and outdoor provision as well as opportunities to participate in experiences they may have not had opportunities to such as travelling on the Gosport Ferry and visiting Tuppenny Barn to learn more about plants, growing and minibeasts. 

Implementation  

Play is an essential part of children’s learning and development. It is through play that skills in communication, cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being are improved. Through play, children learn about the world around them and themselves. With active role models, they also have opportunities to apply learning that has taken place within the setting.  

This forms the foundation of our EYFS provision. It is alongside play, adult interactions and planned opportunities linked to assessments of the children, which enhances our provision to meet the children’s varying next steps. 

Implementation in Reception 

Our Reception curriculum builds on the knowledge and skills the children bring with them from their previous experiences. We ensure that children have opportunities to develop the foundational knowledge and skills to be confident communicators, readers, writers and mathematicians, preparing them for the next stage of learning.  

Our curriculum is delivered through a mixture of adult led, adult initiated and child led learning opportunities. Children have a balance of these activities throughout their day.  

We are proud of our integrated curriculum with projects that not only build on the children’s prior learning but also enthuse and capture the children’s interests. We ensure our curriculum follows a coherent sequence between the knowledge and skills the children acquire in Pre-School, building on this in Reception thus preparing them for the next stage of their learning.  

Project sessions promote the learning of key knowledge, skills and concepts across all the areas of learning, helping to build the foundational skills needed for them to succeed in the next stages of their journey. For example, we explore our school environment, making observations, introducing them to the concepts of maps and the features of these. This prepares them for the Year One project, ‘Portsmouth the Great Waterfront City’ where they explore this concept in more detail and apply it outside of the school environment.  

We understand that for children to access the next stages of their learning, they need to be confident in the knowledge and skills of early reading, writing and mathematics. Therefore, we make this a priority throughout our provision and daily teaching sessions.  

Phonics is a priority to develop confident and fluent readers. In Reception, daily phonics lessons are taught to all children. The children participate in two phonics sessions a day, one focused on reading and one focused on spelling. Daily reading sessions promote the application of the phonic knowledge and skills the children have acquired.   

Mastery of number is essential to develop confident mathematicians who are well equipped for the next stage of their mathematical journey. Mastery of number sessions are a part of the daily routine in Reception. Other essential maths knowledge and skills (shape, space and measures) are taught and enhanced throughout the week through the provision, adult interactions and planned adult directed sessions.  

To become confident writers, children need to have developed their gross and fine motor skills. We pride ourselves on the opportunities to develop these through our provision with a large physical development area that promotes not only the refining of children’s gross motor development but also their imaginations. We provide the children with varied opportunities to develop their fine motor skills throughout our continuous provision. As the children progress, we introduce adult directed handwriting sessions so that all children are able to apply their phonic knowledge with an understanding of how each of the letters are formed.  

We have recently introduced ‘The Drawing Club,’ which involves the adult modelling drawing to the children and giving a running commentary of what they are drawing. The Drawing Club sessions follow a carefully planned sequence where the adult models developing a character, a setting then a three part adventure. This supports the children’s knowledge and understanding of story structure. There are also key vocabulary for each sequence which the children practice orally and the adult ensures that the meaning of each word is taught, helping to develop the children’s use of language. The children are invited to a small group Drawing Club session with the adult where they complete their own drawing, talk with the adult about their drawing as well as practice their maths skills, phonic spelling and sentence structure through magic codes within their drawings. It not only supports the development of children’s mark making and writing skills but also allows them to open their imaginations to the wonderful world of storytelling.  

We ensure that children have opportunities throughout the day to engage with a variety of stories and enjoy sharing our ‘Cumberland Collection’ with them. These are a set of chosen books to read with the children and encourage them to retell familiar stories, develop comprehension skills and build on their language and vocabulary development.  

The children have extended opportunities throughout the day to drive their own learning, apply newly learnt skills, increase their knowledge through their own explorations and challenge their own thoughts and ideas. This time is called ‘Discovery Time’ and it is in this time that the children can free flow between both classrooms and our outdoor learning environment. These sessions are supported by adults who engage with the children as play partners, making observations and assessments of what the children can do and how to move their learning forward. The environment is enhanced to meet the needs of the children and their interests informed by these observations and assessments. The environment will also promote the application of previously taught knowledge and skills. For example, in our mastery of number sessions we learn about subitising numbers and so will make this a focus in our Discovery sessions to give opportunities to rehearse, consolidate and secure the children’s development in this area. Phonic knowledge and skills are present throughout our environment with consistent access to a range of books and texts, displays that promote the use of graphemes when writing and tricky word displays to support spelling of these too. 

Impact 

The impact of our EYFS provision and curriculum is monitored, evaluating the knowledge and skills the children have acquired from their starting points. Adaptions and improvements are made throughout the children’s learning experience to ensure that all children make good progress from their starting points, ensuring that they know more and remember more to support their readiness for the next stages of their learning.