From 2-5 years (Early Years)
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) applies to children from birth to the end of the Reception year. At Treloar’s School pupils enter EYFS between the ages of 2-5. The time they spend in EYFS will depend on their starting date across the year, and on occasion this can extend to the age of 6.
We greatly value the pivotal role EYFS plays in laying secure foundations for the individual child and their future learning and development.
The EYFS at Treloar School grows out of the four Themes that underpin all the EYFS guidance.
- A Unique Child
- Positive Relationships
- Enabling Environments
- Learning and Development
A Unique Child
We believe that every child is unique and needs to be recognized as an individual, valued, supported and encouraged to achieve at their own pace. We aim to help the children to develop lively enquiring minds, become aware of the world around them and give them opportunities to make choices, take decisions and become increasingly independent and socially confident with a positive self image.
We understand that the complexity of the children’s needs, academically, physically and medically has an impact on the way children learn and access their world. By providing a happy, safe, caring, stimulating and well organised environment; children in the EYFS thrive, learn and develop by building upon what they already know, have experienced and can do.
The EYFS is set within a self contained area which allows the children to feel safe, settled and secure very quickly.
Positive Relationships
We have a strong ethos and place value on the importance of the unique child; because of this Positive Relationships are formed very quickly between staff and the children. Class sizes are small and on entering the EYFS the child is allocated a key worker who helps during the settling-in period. The team is caring and sensitive to the child’s needs and helps to foster and develop the child in a setting which is stimulating, well organized and where Effective Learning takes place.
Positive relationships are also formed between class staff, wider staff teams and parents/carers. This allows for each child to reach their full potential. We value the crucial role parents/carers’ play in their child’s development, and we will engage with and support them at every opportunity. Starting school can be an extremely daunting process and we fully understand the impact of this on parents/carers. It can be a very emotional time for everyone.
Transition from EYFS into Key stage 1 is very effective. Understanding the need to treat every child as a unique individual ensures a smooth and efficient transition into school at a pace which suits each individual.
Enabling Environments
At Treloar’s we provide all children with an Enabling Environment to support them to learn and develop. Extensive specialist provisions, facilities and classrooms that are planned to stimulate learning are available. We constantly reflect on the changing need of the children and adapt their environment as necessary.
A host of rich learning opportunities are delivered through sensory exploration, first hand experiences, child-led activities and small focus sessions. Learning takes place both inside and outside the classroom. There is access to an outside space daily on a differential level. Children enjoy being outside.
Within the EYFS snacks and lunch times happen in familiar identified classrooms. This allows skills to develop in relation to feeding or taster programs. The environment is modified and safe to further aid success. Many of our children have complex feeding needs and require a longer period of time to settle and adjust to eating with more children in a bigger space.
Once the children are settled and happy there are opportunities to interact with the wider school community. For example to attend whole school primary assemblies, join in with celebration days, spend time with other students, and use sensory room facilities.
During the summer term those pupils transitioning into KeyStage 1 join their new class groups for an afternoon a week; familiarizing themselves with their new class teacher and peers.
Learning and Development
Within the EYFS there are seven areas of learning and development that shape our provision. Whilst we value all areas of learning and development equally we understand that they are often inter-connected. Three areas are particularly crucial for arousing children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive.
Prime Areas:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
Children also learn and develop skills in the four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied.
Specific Areas:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive arts and design
We recognize that none of these areas can be delivered in isolation from the others. They are equally important and depend on each other to provide the children with a broad, balanced and stimulating curriculum. Due to the complexity of need we promote a very holistic and multi-sensory approach to teaching and learning and one that takes into account the features of effective learning:
- Playing and exploring – engagement
- Active learning – motivation
- Creating and thinking critically – thinking
Learning through play, first hand experiences, messy exploration and discovery are at the heart of all that we deliver. The children experience and learn through a balance of adult-led sessions and child-led activities, whole class sessions go hand-in-hand with small group sessions and free-flow activities. For the children to be ‘active learners’ the activities have to be set appropriately to meet and fit their needs. Our pupils may not fully meet the Early Learning Goals that the EYFS is working towards; therefore we take elements from the whole curriculum and adapt them.
The children learn and develop in a well planned and organized classroom. We work from a two year rolling program of topics in which the children explore and experience different aspects of the curriculum. This builds on their understanding and develops their learning.
Each child is planned for on an individual basis to develop along their own pathway of learning. We assess the children’s learning, development and well-being through formal and informal observations, photographic and digital evidence. To make sure that the children are not moved on to the next stage of their development before they are ready we use a traffic light system to show if the learning intentions have been covered and most importantly to see if the child has gained that skill or needs more time. This systems allows us to plan effectively for each of our learners
Safeguarding and Welfare
Treloar’s has a comprehensive portfolio of Safeguarding policies covering in particular Child Protection, the Recruitment of Staff, Medical provision, Health and Safety, Behaviour Management, and Complaints. All policies apply equally to the EYFS setting.