Early Years Foundation Stage
At St. Oswald’s, our early years program prepares children for the learning journey ahead, believing that every child deserves an equal chance of success. Guided by our school vision of "nurturing a resilient community where the love of learning thrives," we have crafted a curriculum that supports each member, empowering them to overcome challenges, embrace growth, and contribute positively to God’s world.
We strive to create an inclusive school community rooted in mutual respect, understanding, and kindness towards others through the three characteristics of effective teaching and learning. Our commitment to developing positive relationships with parents and carers begins even before the children start their school journey. This strong bond nurtures the physical, emotional, and social development of each child, working harmoniously to enhance their educational and social outcomes.
Aligned with the Early Years framework, the EYFS curriculum at St. Oswald’s CE prioritises developing children’s language and vocabulary skills through planned activities based on high-quality texts.
Implementation
We implement a progressive curriculum from nursery through Year 6. The EYFS curriculum program delivers activities and experiences to help children flourish in all seven areas of development. We ensure that each area of the Early Year’s curriculum is valued equally, alongside mathematics and literacy, to provide children with essential 'real-life' experiences.
The Early Years curriculum at St. Oswald’s CE is enriched with a range of texts linked to half-termly themes, creating a language-rich environment that enhances speech and language development. At the start of each theme, children engage in pre-learning activities, fostering their curiosity and allowing them to demonstrate their existing knowledge. This approach informs our program of study, ensuring lessons are relevant and considerate of children’s different starting points. Our early years children receive foundational knowledge at the beginning of each new topic, with opportunities to revisit this through the use of a floor book. Throughout the theme, staff employ high-quality questioning to challenge children, helping them to think critically and overcome learning obstacles. Lessons inspire pupils to develop their curiosity, creativity, and scientific reasoning through awe-inspiring experiences.
Our staff are dedicated to ongoing professional development, enhancing their subject knowledge to become better Early Years practitioners for the benefit of our children.
The development of early language is supported through the delivery of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention and WellComm taught by highly skilled and experienced practitioners.
To enable our parents to experience as much of their child’s personal and academic growth as possible we deliver half termly workshops. Each workshop is related to the principles of the EYFS complimenting the learning and development taking place in Early Years settings.
Our Rainbow motto encourages our pupils to develop their:
R – Resilience
A - Aspirations
I - Inquisitive
N - Nurturing
B – British Values
O - Oracy
W - Wellbeing
Assessment is crucial in improving learning. Through observations and interactions with the children formative assessment regularly informs the early years staff of ongoing progress and allows adjustments to be made that reflect the learning needs of all children in our settings. In line with our school assessment policy, summative assessment in the form of teacher assessment is carried out at the end of each term in Nursery and Reception, this informs the overall annual progress made by each child.
We want the children to thoroughly enjoy learning in the Early Years therefore, encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and, in the future, and be able to understand the part they play in it.
All children in the Early Years will be able to communicate about their learning, skills and knowledge.
