EYFS
EYFS at St Matthew’s CE (Aided) Primary School
“Individuals working together to potential with God”
At St Matthew’s Primary school, our school vision is to encourage all children to flourish spiritually, morally, emotionally, physically and intellectually in all aspects of life demonstrating perseverance and resilience; this is emulated across all curriculum areas.
The Early Years Team is committed to providing all our children with the best possible start to school life, creating a collaborative, safe, caring and happy community where everyone feels safe, nurtured and supported.
Through a sequential and progressive curriculum designed to reflect the needs and interests of our children, we aim to provide language rich, engaging, enjoyable and purposeful experiences that allow our children to develop skills that build upon their prior knowledge that enables them to know more and remember more.
We want our children to leave our EYFS as confident, independent and ambitious learners who have secured skills and knowledge that form firm foundations to ensure their success throughout their educational journey and beyond.
Our Intent
The Early Years Foundation Stage at St Matthew’s nurtures and educates children between the ages of three and five years. It consists of up to 64 nursery age children and 40 full-time reception age children.
For most children starting in our Nursery centre this is their first experience of education, so it is essential that we work closely with parents to establish positive working relationships from the very first meeting. We aim to work closely with parents to gather as much information regarding their child as possible to ensure their needs can be met from the very first day.
Most of the children starting in Reception have either attended our nursery or another pre-school setting. We have a large number of feeder Nurseries/pre-schools and we work to develop good relationships with all, gathering as much information relating to the individual child prior to them starting with us.
We have one Nursery class that consists of AM, PM and thirty hours children. Our Reception cohort is spread across two classes; a straight Reception class and a Reception/Yr1 mixed class. All classes share a large outdoor classroom that all EYFS children can access. There are qualified teachers in all EYFS classrooms and at least one full time teaching assistant/HLTA in each class.
We use a variety of resources to implement the Early Years Curriculum and to support and enhance home/school learning opportunities. We also support teaching through the use of a number of online resources including the RWINc portal and Evidence Me.
The four principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage underpin our everyday practice in the EYFS at St Matthew’s:
At St Matthew’s we are fortunate to have a Nursery that provides children with morning or afternoon sessions. We are also able to offer places for children eligible for 30 hours funding within our nursery setting. In addition to our Nursery we have a Reception cohort that can accommodate 40 children.
Our Early Years leader, Miss K-A Booles oversees our three EYFS classes. We offer a warm, friendly and supportive environment which enables all children to make a confident start to their learning journey where the importance of the home school partnership is truly valued.
At the core of all learning opportunities both planned for and spontaneous, are the characteristics of effective learning:
- Playing and Exploring
- Engagement – Finding out and exploring, playing with what they know and being willing to ‘have a go’.
- Active Learning
- Motivation - Being involved and concentrating, keep trying and enjoying achieving what they set out to do.
- Creative and Critical Thinking
- Thinking – Having their own ideas, making links and working with ideas.
Aims of the Foundation Stage are:
- To work in partnership with parents, developing close, respectful relationships.
- To support the individual needs of pupils through early identification, planned additional support and early help.
- To offer support to children and families through continuing to form links with local agencies and community groups.
- To promote equality of opportunity and anti-discrimination in our day-to-day interactions with each other.
- To meet the emotional needs of all through the development of self-esteem, independence, resilience, and enjoyment ensuring a sense of value and belonging is fostered.
- Provide a secure and safe learning environment, indoors and out that is engaging and purposeful.
- To provide a rich and balanced curriculum that uses play and exploration as the vehicle for learning that provides children with a broad range of knowledge and skills needed for good progress through school and life.
- To plan and provide challenging learning experiences, based on the individual child and their prior knowledge.
- Provide opportunities for children to engage in activities that are adult directed and child initiated.
- To provide quality and consistency in teaching and learning so that every child makes good progress, and no child gets left behind.
- To work as a ‘TEAM’, committed to raising standards in child development and achievement.
Session Times
St. Matthew’s Nursery Centre provides Nursery places for up to 64 children on a part-time basis. The Nursery is open five days per week. Session times are as follows:
Monday – Friday morning 8.40 am - 11.40 am.
Monday – Friday afternoon 12.15 pm - 3.15 pm.
All parents are offered up to 15 hours per week flexible provision for their children to a maximum of three hours a day. This is in line with the Government’s statutory requirement. We have a limited number of 30 hour places available in Nursery for those parents eligible for this funding.
