EYFS

At St Margaret’s Lee, this refers to Reception. We follow the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage Framework.

It sets out:

• The legal welfare requirements that everyone registered to look after children must follow to keep your child safe and promote their welfare
• The 7 areas of learning and development which guide professionals’ engagement with your child’s play and activities as they learn new skills and knowledge
• Assessments that will tell you about your child’s progress through the EYFS
• Expected levels that your child should reach at age 5, usually the end of the reception year; these expectations are called the “Early Learning Goals (ELGs)”

There is also guidance for the professionals supporting your child on planning the learning activities, and observing and assessing what and how your child is learning and developing.

All the fun activities that you do with your child at home are important in supporting their learning and development, and have a really long lasting effect on your child’s learning as they progress through school. If you make the time every day to do some of the following things with your child it will make a real difference to your child’s confidence as a young learner.

Image courtesy of foundationyears.org.uk 

The best way is to speak to your child's teacher. This may be:

• a quick chat at pick-up
• during the scheduled parent meetings in the autumn and spring terms
• through a scheduled meeting or phone call with the teacher. This can be requested via the school office (info@stmargaretslee.lewisham.sch.uk)

Each week, the teachers provide parents and carers with ideas of things that could be done at home to support their child's development.  These ideas reflect learning in school: learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking

We are using a secure and private learning platform called Seesaw. This allows parents and carers to share learning with the teacher digitally and can include photos, videos, audio recordings and pictures. 

Children also take home books to read - some linked to the phonics programme and some to read together with a parent or carer. Getting into the habit of spending time each day with a book is so important.

The document below, Development Matters, provides a comprehensive outline of the EYFS curriculum.

Children are provided with many experiences that encourage and nurture the use of language. However, we do follow a structured phonics scheme called Read, Write Inc. This begins in the summer term of Pre-school and is used all throughout Reception and beyond. To find out more about Read, Write, Inc., click here.

We also use a writing scheme called Talk 4 Writing, that is used throughout the school. Within the EYFS, this generally involves learning to retell some classic stories with the use of actions and character voices! We often perform these retellings to parents and carers. Retelling stories also helps the children come up with ideas for writing their own creations. To find out more about Talk 4 Writing, click here.

We use the White Rose EYFS mathematics scheme as the basis of our curriculum. Although we use the scheme flexibly, the long term plan below helps to provide structure and ensure all children are ready for Year 1 by the end of the summer.

Maths carpet sessions with the whole class usually last about 15-20 minutes. During this time, children have opportunities to review what they are learning in a variety of ways, using a range of 'manipulatives' (objects), images, songs, rhymes and stories. This is to ensure they develop a deep understanding of number concepts.

Example of planning guidance (courtesy of White Rose)

However, the maths doesn't end on the carpet! There are lots of opportunities for children to develop their understanding through games and activities set up by the teaching staff. Often these games will initially be modelled and played with an adult and once children become familiar with them, they can play independently. 

Mr Tobi also supports Reception each day with 'active maths', during which time he will take a small group and reinforce maths concepts through more physical games, often played outside. e.g. counting star jumps, measuring beanbag throws or counting ball passes!

The EYFS wider curriculum has 'Early Learning Goals' that form the building blocks for school subjects in Year 1 and beyond as illustrated below:

Teaching staff in the EYFS help children achieve the early learning goals by providing a wide variety of experiences throughout the year.