EYFS Curriculum

Early Years Foundation Stage Provision​​​​​​

Early Years Leader: Miss Maskell

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) includes all children in Foundation Stage 1 and Foundation Stage 2.

Foundation 1 is also known as 'Nursery' and Foundation 2 is also known as 'Reception'.

We follow the Statutory Framework for the EYFS as set out by the government, with seven areas of learning. 

At Cherry Tree Hill Primary School, we strive to provide a secure foundation for future learning and development in our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). We aim to ensure that each child has a happy and positive start to their school life in which they can build a foundation for a love of learning.

We ensure that pupils develop the attitudes and knowledge that they need to thrive. Communication and language are at the heart of the curriculum, where pupils, especially those who are from disadvantaged backgrounds can build on new vocabulary learnt and embed them in carefully planned provocations. We promote teaching and learning to ensure children’s readiness for the next stage of their education, and give children a broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

How we teach:

Our curriculum has been built using the Programmes of Study from the EYFS framework as a foundation and enhanced with knowledge and skills that our young people need to flourish. 

A broad range of activities and experiences are planned, having regard to three characteristics of effective teaching and learning:

• Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, use what they know in their play and are willing to try new things.

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

• Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas and use what they already know to learn new things, and develop strategies for doing things.

At Cherry Tree Hill Primary School, we ensure there is a balance of child initiated and adult led activities across the day. Although much of the time is spent with children self-selecting in our carefully planned environments, the interaction between our staff and children is essential as our staff member's responses build children's understanding and therefore guides new learning. The staff at Cherry Tree Hill Primary School continually model, demonstrate and question what the child is doing, adding new vocabulary or using questioning to model critical thinking. 

In both Nursery and Reception, practitioners provide learning opportunities both inside and outside throughout the day. These opportunities are designed to engage children in practical, first-hand experiences which will support children to discover, explore, investigate, develop their personal interests and areas of curiosity, and help to make sense of the world around them as they begin to understand specific concepts. Resources within the continuous provision are set up to provide  opportunities to apply newly acquired knowledge, demonstrate their skills and level of understanding and to learn new skills.

Our children are encouraged to become independent learners and select the resources they need or want for their chosen activities with confidence, while being given plenty of support to extend their learning and understanding.