EYFS Curriculum & Guidance

Our Early Years Curriculum 

Running all the way through our early years is the principle of learning through play, the best and most meaningful way for young children to learn. We offer open ended exploratory experiences, and the structure of our day includes periods of uninterrupted play, so that children can get deeply involved in their learning. We see play as fundamental to their communication skills, their self-regulation skills as well as their ability to develop an inquiring mind, to express themselves, to imagine, laugh and have fun. 

We set high expectations throughout all areas of school life and beyond and we introduce our children to our school values right at the beginning in Nursery and Reception; REACH.

Respect, Enthusiasm, Ambitious, Courageous, Healthy.

Colham’s values help children understand right from wrong and also help to shape the mind sets and behaviour of future adults. Which is why they are embedded throughout their day to day lives as well as being explicitly taught. At the end of Reception, we want our children to have gained the confidence and skills to make decisions and self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong learners.

Our Curriculum

At Colham Manor, our planning has a sharp focus on the children’s needs, interests and stages of learning. We recognise that the seven areas of learning within the Early Years Framework cannot be delivered in isolation and seek opportunities to make links between them with the support of our whole school Dimensions ‘Learning Means the World’ curriculum - which is underpinned by the four highly relevant world issues, known as the four C’s - Communication, Conflict, Conservation, Culture. In the Early Years, Nursery & Reception are called Explorers/ Nursery are known as Explorers 1 & Reception are known as Explorers 2. As the children move up the school, they will become Pathfinders, Adventurers & Navigators.

Our Early Years Curriculum is defined by the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Profile which sets out the seven areas of learning and what children should be able to do by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (the early learning goals).

Prime areas: Communication and Language, Physical Development and Personal, Social and Emotional Development.

Specific areas: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design.

It’s important to note that none of these areas can be delivered in isolation from the others. They are equally important and depend on each other. All areas are delivered through a balance of adult led and child initiated activities. Through play and practical experiences children learn about the world and their place in it.

We recognise that all children develop and learn at different rates and so our EYFS curriculum is designed flexibly to meet the needs of all individuals. We support individual learning through our skillful interactions and observations which lead to detailed next step planning.

The characteristics of effective learning underpin our curriculum and children’s learning, through an enabling and well planned environment we ensure that we provide meaningful opportunities for playing and learning, active learning and thinking critically. As children utilise and develop these characteristics they become effective and motivated learners who demonstrate high levels of well-being and involvement.

Positive Relationships

When children arrive at Colham Manor they are already competent learners with 3/4 years’ worth of experiences. We believe that building good home links and strong parent partnerships are key in impacting a child’s learning in a positive way as well as providing a level of consistency between the home and the school learning environment. Embedding this strong partnership between parents and the school ensures that you are kept up to date with your child’s development and learning.

Interactions and the characteristics of effective learning

Much of our teaching is through interactions. Adults observe the children closely and join in sensitively with their play, to extend their language and thinking, and develop their knowledge and skills. We support the 'Characteristics of effective learning' ('playing and exploring', 'active learning' and 'creating and thinking critically') developing confident, resilient, independent learner throughout our early years. We encourage children to be ambitious and to be willing to always 'have a go'.

Enabling Environments

We provide rich, enabling learning environments, inside and outdoors, which promote exploration and discovery. Our setting is organised so that opportunities in all areas of learning are offered. Children can access resources by themselves, make choices, follow their own interests and extend their own learning independently. We enhance our provision through objects, prompts, conversation and questioning. This all leads to greater engagement and deep learning. 

Outdoor Learning

At Colham Manor, we place a strong emphasis on the important of outdoor learning throughout our provision. This has many benefits, including contributing to health and wellbeing, and in developing the 'whole child'. Children are often more confident, happier and healthier when they have regular opportunities to learn and play in the natural world, and active learning and exploration, as well as elements of risk and challenge. We have a system of 'free-flow' whereby children can choose to play and learn inside or outside at different parts of the day. 

We believe that our outdoor space and curriculum must harness the special nature of the outdoors, to offer children what the indoors cannot and so with sustainability also in mind, where possible, we try and only use recycled and/or natural materials.

Seamless Provision

All these aspects run through the early years at Colham Manor, so that children can become familiar and confident with this way of learning, and move seamlessly from Nursery to Reception.

We strive to ensure that our children make rapid progress across the EYFS curriculum from their varied starting points. We also strive for children to reach the Early Learning Goals at the end of Reception and to be at least in line with National Expectations.

Assessment

The impact of our curriculum is measured by assessment procedures which allow us to measure outcomes against all schools nationally.

We measure the percentage of pupils achieving age related expectations throughout the academic year, implementing supportive interventions if and when needed. Class teachers use observations to make formative assessments which inform future planning and ensure that all children build on their current knowledge and skills at a good pace.

Our assessment judgements are moderated both in school and externally with local schools and others in The London Borough of Hillingdon.

The impact of our curriculum will also be measured by how effectively it helps our pupils develop into well-rounded individuals who embody our values and carry with them the knowledge, skills and attitudes which will make them lifelong learners and valuable future citizens. We endeavour for pupils to be ready for the next school stage and have all five of our school’s core values embedded by the time they leave Reception.

Transition

During our Summer term, we design our curriculum to support your child's transition to their next year group. 

We know that starting school and starting a new year group can be a very exciting time for children, but for some it may also be daunting, and not just for them but for families too. 

Our aim is for children to leave our EYFS as confident, happy, independent, resilient learnings, emotionally and academically ready for Year one. 

Please click the link below to explore how we can all support your child's transition, whether that's introducing them to our school for the first time or when they're moving on to their next year group.