Early Years Foundation Stage

At Brampton Ellis Primary, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) applies to children within Foundation Stage 1 (3 to 4 years) and Foundation Stage 2 (4 to 5 years).

The start of a child’s school life is a special and exciting time. Within the early years we have a unique and important role of making pupils' first experiences of school a happy one. We aim to provide a safe, happy and caring environment where children find learning an enjoyable experience.

From the beginning, our intent is to deliver a quality early education which we believe is a key element in children being successful in later life. Our early years classes have a positive impact on children giving them access to resources and experiences to reach their full potential and good level of development. We develop a variety of other skills including social, independence, confidence and self-esteem. These are developed through our school values - respect, resilience and responsibility.

Unique child

There are four guiding principles which should shape practice in the early years;

Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
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.
Importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates.

These support the implementation of children’s exciting experiences within their curriculum. We believe in a cross curriculum approach where children can foster knowledge using their retrieval practice skills in areas of the classroom. A hands on approach where children can discover and enhance new skills is important to us. Developing the children’s cultural capital through our lessons is a big part of our curriculum.

Characteristics of effective learning

We focus strongly on the characteristics of effective learning to show an impact to our children’s education.

Playing and exploring: children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’.

Active learning: children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements.

Creating and thinking critically: children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

In school we express ourselves using the zones of regulation. This tool supports our learning, helping us to talk about our feelings and emotions which are important to show.

Working together with parents/carers

At Brampton Ellis Primary we strive to build positive parent partnerships with all of our families. Working closely with parents is crucial for sharing experiences from home and school. We encourage both active learning, play, exploring and critical thinking both at school and at home.

Useful websites and information

Within FS1, we use the Speech and language programme ‘Tiny Talkers’. This is a great resource for both schools and parents to assess information to develop vocabulary and the use of language.

Within FS2, we use the phonics programme ‘Little Wandle’. This supports our development of reading and writing. More information can be found on our Reading curriculum page.

We encourage the love of reading throughout school and believe ‘Reading is freedom’. To support our phonics development, we have access to online books through the Collins Big Cat Books. We also plan our learning using a variety of books from ‘Rotherham loves reading’. This way the children have assess to a selection of different materials, extending their vocabulary.