EYFS
The Foundation Stage follows a unique curriculum that enables every child to have the best possible start in life. We understand that children develop at different stages to one another and we believe that our curriculum ensures every child reaches their full potential. At Lark Hill Primary School we believe that our Early Years Foundation Stage is crucial to developing firm foundations to be built upon throughout our school journey and beyond. It is our intent that the children who enter our EYFS develop physically, verbally, emotionally, creatively, intellectually and spiritually whilst embedding a positive attitude to school and learning in order for each child to achieve their full potential. We set high expectations throughout all areas of school life and beyond. We believe that all children deserve to be valued as an individual and we are passionate in supporting all children to achieve their full, unique potential. Our EYFS children follow the EYFS curriculum, which has seven main areas of learning. At Lark Hill Primary School, we follow the new EYFS framework. Within the EYFS framework there are four guiding principles which shape our practice.
These are:
- 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.
- Children develop and learn at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
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The 7 areas of learning in the EYFS
There are seven areas of learning and development in the EYFS. All areas are important and inter-connected. The three prime areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning and for building positive relationships in order for them to thrive. The specific areas build upon the three prime areas and learning is strengthened and applied.
Prime Areas of Learning
- Communication and Language development of children's spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. This involves providing a language rich environment with extensive opportunities to use and embed new words in a range of contexts. Through conversations, storytelling and role play, the children share their ideas with support and modelling from the EYFS team, and questioning invites them to elaborate.
- Physical Development is vital in children's all-round development, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives. The EYFS team help children to develop their core strength, stability, balance, spatial awareness, co-ordination and agility through providing play opportunities in both indoors and outdoors.
- Personal, social and emotional development is crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives, and is fundamental to their cognitive ability. This involves forming strong and supportive relationships with the EYFS team which enables the children to understand their own feelings and feelings of others. Children are also supported to manage emotions, develop a positive sense of self, develop friendships, set themselves simple goals, have confidence in their own abilities, to persist and to understand appropriate behaviour.
Specific Areas of Learning
- Literacy development is crucial to develop a life-long love of reading. This involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write using our Read, Write Inc. programme. Children are given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest.
- Mathematics is essential in developing a strong grounding in number so children develop the necessary building blocks to excel in Maths. This involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, to subitise, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures.
- Understanding the World involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community by increasing their knowledge and sense of the world through visiting local places and meeting important members of society. In addition, listening to a broad selection of books will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world.
- Expressive arts and design development supports the children's imagination and creativity. This involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities.
We implement these areas of learning by providing a safe, stimulating environment that allows children to discover, be challenged, consolidate and achieve their very best whilst developing their resilience and independence. There is a combination of adult-led, teacher taught, whole class, group and individual support. Throughout all of these areas of learning and at the heart of the EYFS Curriculum are the “Characteristics of Effective Learning”. We strive to develop these key characteristics of “Playing and Learning”, “Active Learning” and “Thinking Critically” in order to give the children the skills that they will continue to draw upon throughout their development. We get to know our families and children well and use their interests and knowledge to support and inspire our children’s knowledge and understanding of themselves, our local community and beyond. Our learning environments, both inside and outside are adapted to meet the different and developing needs of our children. We are passionate advocates for ensuring all of our children are able to share how they feel and work with them to support any worries or concerns they may have as we fully believe…'Happy Children Learn.'
Within our EYFS Curriculum, children are assessed through accurate observations informing future planning and children’s individual next steps in their learning. This enables us to ensure learning is embedded and consistent and that all children continue to make the best possible progress within our EYFS setting.
Parents are recognised as partners in their child’s learning journey, and we strive to ensure parents are fully informed and involved.
Our key principles are to:
- Ensure that the development of early reading skills and phonics is given the highest priority
- Provide developmentally appropriate provision / resources / curriculum
- Prioritise the Prime Areas of Learning – especially Communication, Language and Literacy
- Fostering a sense of awe and wonder through our provision and learning challenges
- Provide regular opportunities for parents to be involved and learn about their child’s learning journey
- Provide wider opportunities such as trips and visits to bring the learning to life and broaden children’ experiences
- Use formative assessment to inform ongoing daily planning and provision
- Create displays and floor books which celebrate children’s learning journeys and inform parents
Characteristics of Effective Learning
Achievement of these Areas of Learning is reached by putting the Characteristics of Effective Learning at the heart of all we do. This ensures all children are exposed to a broad and balanced curriculum. Children become self-motivated learners who embrace challenge and are inspired to learn. They are able to fulfil their potential and develop the skills necessary for success.
Playing and exploring – engagement: Finding out and exploring, playing with what they know, being willing to ‘have a go’
Active learning – motivation: Being involved and concentrating, keeping trying, enjoying achieving what they set out to do
Creating and thinking critically – thinking: Having their own ideas, making links, choosing ways to do things
These elements underpin how we reflect on each child’s development and adjust our practice accordingly. Supporting children in their individual learning behaviour and observing the context of children’s play is essential.
The Learning Environment
There is a seamless link between the indoor and outdoor learning environment which children access all day and in all weathers!
- In the EYFS children’s natural, exploratory drive is developed through their self-directed play.
- A child initiated (self initiated) activity is an activity wholly decided on by the child itself and is the result of an intrinsic motivation to explore a project, or express an idea.
- The learning environment is organised in such a way that children can find and access resources for themselves. This promotes independence and responsibility.
- We ensure that there is a balance of adult-led and freely chosen or child-initiated activities, delivered through indoor and outdoor play.
- Outdoor learning has equal value to indoor learning
- Outdoor learning has a positive impact on children’s well-being and development
Parental Links
Before your child even starts Lark Hill with want to ensure they are welcomed and feel happy about coming. Once they are here, we want to ensure this continues. We do this via
- An induction meeting for parents
- Visits to the school.
- 'Tapestry’ accounts activated prior to starting. This is an on-line journal which helps staff and families celebrate their children’s learning and development.
- A settling in period
- Ensuring that children’s interests are reflected in provision enhancements - based on parent's and current settings information.
- ‘Stay and Play’ parent and child sessions
- Early identification of SEN
- A learning environment matched to the needs of individuals and the cohort
We use the online platform Tapestry which informs parents and captures moments of the child’s learning. Over time, it will tell a story about a child such as; their learning, friends and the activities they enjoy sharing with others. We also encourage parents to share experiences their child has done at home.
Our relationship with parents or carers is fundamental to our work in the EYFS. We nurture an environment of open communication and accessibility so that children can enjoy their Reception year to the full.
Transition into Year 1
- Before the children move from the Foundation Stage into KS1 the teaching staff meet to discuss each individual child’s progress.
- The child’s present teacher informs the future teacher of his/her level of ability, special educational needs and any other information relevant to the well being and development of the individual child.
- Year 1 teachers are therefore aware of all the children’s achievements and can implement the next steps of their learning
- The children have many opportunities to spend time with their new teacher to make their transition as seamless as possible.
- The Y1 curriculum builds on and extends the experiences children have had during the foundation stage.
Lark Hill Primary Early Years Foundation Stage Policy
At Lark Hill our Early Years Curriculum embraces the foundations set by the DfE's standards and is closely aligned to the Statutory Framework For The Early Years Foundation Stage, setting the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five. At Lark Hill we support children from ages 2-5 years. Throughout their time with us, each learner continues to be supported and challenged through a well-designed, stimulating curriculum which caters for individual needs and abilities. Our curriculum follows a progressive model whereby children build on prior knowledge and skills as they move through the Early Years, in preparation for Key Stage One.
Our approach:
- Start with the children – our work starts from getting to know each child as an individual through our home visits and close partnership with families.
- EYFS Statutory Framework. Our work is then informed by the themes and principles of the EYFS which supports all seven areas of learning.
A Unique Child: Every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
Positive Relationships: Children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person.
Enabling Environments: The environment (physical and emotional) plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning.
Learning and Development: Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and all areas of learning and development are equally important. Though the Prime areas are the key to accessing the rest of the curriculum and as such we place emphasis on these areas to ensure become secure in these areas and build the foundational knowledge they need in order to successfully access the rest of the curriculum.
Our way of working with children promotes independence, resilience, choice and challenge as our 3, 4 and 5 year olds explore together.
Teaching and Learning in the EYFS
Ofsted definition of teaching in the early years: Early Years inspection toolkit September 2026
Teaching is a broad term that covers the many different ways in which adults help young children learn. It includes their interactions with children during planned and child-initiated play and activities; communicating and modelling language; showing; explaining; demonstrating; exploring ideas; encouraging; questioning; recalling; providing a narrative for what they are doing; facilitating; and setting challenges. It takes account of the equipment that adults provide, the attention given to the physical environment, and the structure and routines of the day that establish expectations. Integral to teaching is how practitioners assess what children know, understand and can do, taking account of their interests and dispositions to learn (characteristics of effective learning), and using this information to plan children’s next steps in learning and to monitor their progress.
Our curriculum encompasses the seven areas of learning and development. All of the areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected.
The three prime areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving. These:
- Communication and language
- Physical development
- Personal, social and emotional development
The four specific areas help children to strengthen and apply the prime areas. These are:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive arts and design
So what does it look like?
Our curriculum is designed so that children learn through play, through high quality interactions, a mixture of child led and adult led leaning, through modelling, explaining, questioning, demonstrating and challenging children in different ways. Our environment is set up with continuous provision which is carefully planned and resourced to meet the varying interests and needs of all of our children and their stages of development. Adult-focused activities become more prominent as the child progresses through the EYFS, so that by the time they reach National Curriculum they are able to follow instructions to carry out tasks independently. All children have opportunities to revisit and extend their learning individually, in groups and with adult support rooted in responsive pedagogy.
Weaving through the EYFS curriculum are three Characteristics of effective teaching and learning:
- Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things first-hand, and ‘have a go.’
- Active learning – children concentrate and 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 develop strategies for doing things.
These elements underpin how we reflect on each child’s development and adjust our practice and/ or provision accordingly. Supporting children by observing the context of their play is an essential part of our practice.
Throughout their time in our Nursery and Reception classes our children are immersed in an ambitious curriculum which is designed sequentially and is underpinned by a commitment to develop children’s spoken language in order to support their learning in all the areas. This is known as our learning pathway, it details the knowledge and skills we want children to learn throughout their time in EYFS at Lark Hill (see below). Children are assessed against our learning pathway to identify children’s strengths, next steps and where they need support. At the end of the Reception year children are also assessed against the Early Learning Goals, which provides important information about each individual child’s strengths and areas requiring support.
Useful Documents:
EYFS to KS1 Bridging documents
Early Years to Key Stage 1 Bridging Document
Statutory Framework For the EYFS
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2
Birth to 5 matters
https://www.birthto5matters.org.uk/
Development Matters