Bourn Early Years Foundation Stage
Everything you need to know about Acorn Class
We hope you enjoy taking a look at what we are all about and thank you for joining us.
The Early Years Foundation Stage
The EYFS curriculum consists of 17 aspects of learning - at Bourn we provide our children with the opportunities to meet the goals in all of these aspects.
Children will learn skills, acquire knowledge and demonstrate their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.
Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first
- - Communication and language;
- - Physical development; and
- - Personal, social and emotional development.
These prime areas are those most essential for a child's healthy development and future learning.
As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas:
- - Literacy;
- - Mathematics;
- - Understanding the world; and
- - Expressive arts and design.
All 7 areas of learning are used to plan children’s learning and activities. The professionals teaching and supporting your child at Bourn will make sure that the activities are suited to your child’s unique needs. The curriculum is designed to be really flexible so that staff can follow your child's unique needs and interests.
Our Curriculum
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) marks a critical time in your child’s life and development as it helps to provide secure foundations that prepares them for future learning and successes. At Bourn, we work together to plan a well-balanced, exciting curriculum that incorporates all seven areas of learning and development. Our curriculum planning outlines half-termly themes which are accompanied by high-quality texts to engage the children in focused conversation, story-telling and role play activities. The themes offer structure; however, our plans are open and responsive to the needs and interests of the children.
We plan daily directed teaching sessions of phonics, maths, literacy and handwriting which are differentiated to meet the needs of all learners.
- - Phonics lessons follow the systematic approach set out in the Little Wandle parents page.
- - The Mastery In Number programme guide our maths planning which takes a mastery approach and is focused upon using manipulatives and pictorial representations - please click here for further information on Maths teaching in our school.
- - Literacy is led by Drawing Club. Click here for more information on Drawing Club.
- - We follow a handwriting scheme called Kinetic Letters.
Our plans are led by our professional judgement of each child’s achievements, interests and next steps for learning. The indoor and outdoor learning environment is carefully planned to offer children meaningful first hand, play-based experiences, in which they can apply the knowledge they already have to enable them to explore new possibilities. To ensure our continuous provision activities and resources reflect the interests and needs of the current cohort, we regularly audit our environment and make changes where necessary.
Play Projects
Our planning reflects a mix of adult led and child-initiated learning. In addition to providing focused learning groups around maths, literacy and phonics, adults work alongside the children during their child initiated learning time to play partner, observe and extend their skills. We encourage children to complete ‘Play Projects’ during this time which involve a ‘plan it, complete it, share it’ cycle.
Children are free to create any project they like meaning each child is able to express themselves as individuals and embrace their own creativity. Projects can take as long or as little time as they like to complete. Projects generally fall under one of four categories – building, writing, acting or creating. Adults use this time to support the children to develop their skills, model and play alongside the children. As a result of this the children engage in high quality play and have high levels of engagement.
When they have completed a play project they share it with the class and gain valuable feedback on how they could improve it. It then goes into their Learning Journal which they can share with you at our Open Classroom events once a term.
The Environment
Where possible, we plan to incorporate natural play into our provision. Children have access to stones, shells, sticks, pine cones, conkers as well as having opportunity to interact with everyday objects such as dustpans, buckets, pegs and kitchen utensils. We provide resources for construction inside and out to enable children to build and change their environment, such as blocks, crates, tarpaulins, boxes, tyres and blankets.
We incorporate a natural approach to learning by using a grassy outdoor space which includes a mud kitchen, large climbing tyres, gravel pit, mud pits for digging, sand pit, large construction with tyres, crates and sticks, growing beds and a stage area. The children have access to this during Play Project time. Children’s wellies are stored in this area for easy access and to support independent skills when changing footwear and for Forest School.
Forest School
The children go to Forest school once a week in our on site Nature Reserve with a trained Forest School Teacher. Forest School is learner-centred, allowing children to build from hands-on exploring. They are provided with play opportunities, such as a mud kitchen, swings and hammocks, ropes, den building, bug hunting, creative activities, and tool use. Each half-term is finished with a campfire cookout. All children learn in different ways and have different interests. We ensure they are supported to strengthen their skills and embrace new challenges.
Why Is forest school important?
Forest School is important because it fosters a deep connection with nature that can last a lifetime. It provides hands-on learning experiences that allow children to engage with the weather and seasons directly. Additionally, it helps in risk management and building resilience, ensuring that children are well-equipped to face challenges and embrace new opportunities.
There is lots of research out there to support the outcomes of Forest School, but we know that it isn’t just the educational outcomes and research that matter, our little Acorns and leaders love it too!
Assessment
The impact for every child is assessed through formative and summative assessments with the baseline assessment as their starting point. We make systematic observations and assessments of each child's achievements, interests and learning styles. We then use these observations and assessments to identify learning priorities and plan relevant and motivating learning experiences for each child.
Each child’s level of development is assessed against the early learning goals. Practitioners will indicate whether children are meeting expected levels of development:
Emerging - not yet reaching expected levels of development for age
Expected - reached expected levels of development for age
EYFS Documents
These are the key documents that underpin the learning and expectations for Reception.
- Development Matters DfE Development Matters offers a top-level view of how children develop and learn for all early years practitioners.
- EYFS curriculum progression and overview
