EYFS Curriculum

At Holy Rood Catholic Primary School, we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. It is called the Foundation Stage as it gives a solid ‘foundation’ from which to build upon your child’s learning. We believe in providing a secure foundation for future learning and development for each and every child, taking their starting point into consideration. We continuously encourage and nurture children to be independent, curious, creative and resilient learners who show respect for each other, their communities and the environment which God created for us.

Our aim is to make every child’s learning experience exciting and enjoyable by delivering a creative and stimulating curriculum, based on the skills and outcomes highlighted in the Early Years Framework. Wherever possible, learning will be linked to the interests of the children as well as providing insights and experiences of the wider world around them. Further to this, our teaching and learning approach aims to develop children’s communication skills, ensuring that they know how to appropriately express themselves, share their opinion and feel heard.

We recognise the importance of not only building a strong foundation of learning, but also strong foundations of positive relationships between the child, their family and the school. Through this, we aim to ensure that pupils feel valued as an individual created by God, are empowered to meet their own needs and enjoy their learning experience whilst achieving the Early Years Learning Goals (ELGs).

Click here to view our EYFS Policy

The Early Learning Goals	Characteristics of Effective Learning

Take a look inside our EYFS Classrooms

EYFS Parent Workshop Information

2023-2024 EYFS Parent Workshops

Autumn 2: Tuesday 28^th Nov - 1:45pm – 2:45pm

Autumn 2 Theme: Developing Key Skills in the EYFS

Spring 1: Thursday 8^th Feb - 9:00am – 10:00am

Spring 1 Theme: Phonics in the EYFS

Spring 2: Friday 22^nd March - 1:45pm – 2:45pm

Spring 2 Theme: Personal, Social & Emotional Development and Communication & Language

Summer 1: Monday 20^th May - 1:45pm – 2:35pm

Summer 1 Theme: Mathematics in the EYFS

Summer 2: Monday 24^th June - 9:00am – 10:00am

Summer 2 Theme: Supporting Transitions into Year 1

2022-2023 EYFS Parent Workshops

Autumn 2: Wednesday 30th November – 9.00am - Developing Key Skills

Spring 1: Thursday 2nd February – 1.30pm - Personal, Social & Emotional Development

Spring 2: Monday 24th April – 1.30pm - Phonics

Summer 1: Friday 19th May – 1.30pm - Mathematics

Summer 2: Wednesday 7th June – 9.00am - Supporting Transitions into Year 1

2022-2023 EYFS Parent Workshop Handouts

Autumn 2 - Self-Care, Developing Independence and Communication and Language

Handout

Spring 1 - Personal, Social & Emotional Development

Handout

Spring 2 - Monday 24th April – Phonics

Handout

Summer 1 – Friday 19th May – Mathematics

Handout

Some parent and carer feedback from sessions this year:

2021-2022 Parent Workshops

At Holy Rood, we believe in the development of home school partnerships – when these are strong, your children thrive and flourish. Throughout the year, we provide you with a range of workshops to help you support your children with their learning. Please find the slides to the workshops below.

Our first EYFS Parent Workshop of the academic year was a huge success with over 35 parents attending. The feedback provide will now inform our planning for the next EYFS Parent Workshop.

Autumn 2 EYFS Parent Workshop - Self-Care, Developing Independence and Communication and Language

Click here to view the slides from our Autumn 2 EYFS Parent Workshop.

Please see just a snippet of feedback from the Autumn 2 EYFS Parent Workshop.

Spring 1 EYFS Parent Workshop - Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Click here to view the slides from our Spring 1 EYFS Parent Workshop.

Please see just a snippet of feedback from the Spring 1 EYFS Parent Workshop.

Spring 2 EYFS Parent Workshop - Phonics

Click here to view the slides from our Spring 2 EYFS Parent Workshop.

Other useful information

The Seven Areas of Learning in the Early Years

Both Nursery and Reception follow the Early Years Curriculum which is split into seven areas of learning.

There are 3 prime areas of learning. Three areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving. These prime areas are:

Personal, social and emotional development (which is all about getting along with others, sharing and taking turns)
Communication and Language (speaking and listening)
Physical development (this includes pencil control)

Children are also supported in four Specific Areas, through which the three Prime Areas are strengthened and applied. The Specific Areas are:

Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design

We teach these areas through a balance of adult-led activities and child- initiated learning (CIL). This ensures appropriate differentiation and challenge for all children. During CIL, children have access to a variety of areas both within the classroom and in the outdoor area to support their learning and develop their curiosity. These areas are enhanced with ‘Can you ..?’ questions to further challenge and stretch children’s learning. In addition, children are able to select from a range of free-access resources to enable them to relate their learning to their own interests.

Your child's work ...

Wow Work Folders

Your child will be very busy throughout each week completing different tasks across the curriculum. During some of the tasks, your child will complete some amazing, wow work which shows their best writing, best ideas, the first time they cut something independently, the first time they could identify an initial sound etc. This is ‘WOW WORK’ – work that your child has really tried their best, done something for the first time or shown an improvement in their learning – and this should be celebrated. Therefore, this wow work will be collated in their wow work folders and during open evenings, and at the end of the year when the folder is sent home, you can look through these and celebrate the many achievements of your child.

Special Books

Our Special Books hold all the children’s RE learning. They are called ‘Special Books’ because everything the children learn about God and their faith are put into these books. The children’s Special Books are kept by the RE prayer tables in each classroom and the children really take pride and care in making sure they complete their best work in these.

Phonics in the Early Years

In EYFS, the children are introduced to phonics through the Essential Letters and Sounds programme. This is supplemented by teacher’s own assessments of their class and, for some children, with a smaller group intervention programme. Phonics is also taught discreetly through Nursery rhymes, singing and stories.

To find out more about how we teach phonics, please click here.