In Year R we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (EYFS). This is a curriculum for children aged 0-5, which means the reception year is at the end of this curriculum. All early years providers, including reception children in school, have a statutory duty to follow this curriculum.
The EYFS is based around child development and is backed by research. It identifies that learning through play is key to making good progress. It also identifies the important role that adults play when interacting with the children.
The EYFS curriculum has 7 areas of learning. The first three are referred to as the Prime Areas and these are what underpin all other areas of learning. The next 4 are referred to as the specific areas of learning and these build on the the prime areas:
The three prime areas are:
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
The four specific areas of learning are:
- Literacy
- Maths
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
Whilst there are separate areas of learning, much of the learning in Year R is interlinked as young children do not separate their play into subjects.
At Shamblehurst, we have used the EYFS to help us map out a long term curriculum, based on children’s common interests, using a range of high quality texts to instill the love of reading and using food as a way of celebrating diversity. We have developed a ‘key question’ for each half term and have built some key experiences around these questions.
Our curriculum map is deliberately open ended and flexible so that we can also build on children’s interests over the year.
We use a separate scheme for phonics and follow the ‘Little Wandle Programme’ and for Maths we follow the white rose materials.
