Early Years
Christ Church is an inclusive school where everyone is welcomed and valued. Our school thrives on diversity and is underpinned by Christian values. Our whole school vision is to shepherd each other in a safe, loving environment, whilst building a solid foundation to encourage and inspire us to reach for our own star.
Reach for the Stars – Living Life in all its fullness John 10:10
Intent
In the Early Years at Christ Church, we recognise that every child is unique. We aim to excite, engage and motivate all children to explore, play and learn through a broad and balanced curriculum and through developing children’s own interests. We learn about the wider world, as well as making links to children’s own experiences to promote and develop cultural capital. Our curriculum is designed to build skills, knowledge and vocabulary and builds the strong foundations for later learning in Year One and beyond.
We provide a safe, inclusive and stimulating environment for learning indoors, which adapts and changes to match children’s needs and interests and an outside area where children can develop their gross motor skills, through physical play.
We aim to build strong relationships with parents and carers, believing that parents are their child’s first educator and that they know their child best. We place high importance on the development of communication and language skills, particularly as many of our children come to us with English as an Additional Language, or with no English at all. Children engage in high quality interactions with adults and develop positive relationships.
We endeavor to encourage resilient children that will persevere and always try their best and children who are critical thinkers with enquiring minds and, with a ‘can do’ attitude, so that they are school ready, with a love of learning and a lifetime of curiosity ahead of them.
Implementation
Our curriculum has been developed using the development matters statements, alongside the characteristics of effective learning. Our substantive knowledge is delivered through half termly topics which enables the children to learn about things that are relevant to them and extend their awareness of the wider world. Each topic has a knowledge organiser, so that staff are all clear what information and vocabulary we want children to learn and retain. We use books and visuals in all of our learning to aid understanding, particularly for the children with EAL. We have a weekly nursery rhyme of the week to expose our children to common rhymes. Each class has 15 favourite stories, which include well known classics, teacher favourites and some that reflect the protected characteristics, so that children know these stories well.
The children learn through a variety of adult led and child-initiated learning, with continuous provision being enhanced to support learning and spark interest. Each area of the classroom provides challenge with adults using the common play behaviour charts to support and extend play. Play is a key part of our curriculum. It gives children time and opportunity to embed their learning and develop their skills, knowledge and vocabulary. Staff play and learn alongside children in provision, using the SHrec approach to develop communication and language skills.
We encourage the children to develop the Characteristics of Effective Learning through the introduction of our ‘Learning Safari’, where we meet 8 characters such as Exploring Elephant and Concentrating Crocodile to motivate and inspire children to develop these disciplinary skills.
Children in Nursery follow the Phase One aspects of Letters and Sounds and start phonics in the Summer term, when they are ready. We teach a daily phonics lesson in Reception, using LCP Letter and Sounds, supplemented with Little Wandle mnemonics. Reading books are matched closely to the children’s phonic ability. All children choose a library book to take home and share with parents.
We use ‘Talk for Writing’ strategies to develop our story language, vocabulary and writing skills. We use ‘Launchpad For Literacy’ to support children’s gaps in literacy and the ‘NELI’ programme to further support children’s speech and language needs. Children in Nursery use a daily Dough Disco session to develop their motor skills, in preparation for writing. Reception follow the Squiggle While You Wiggle program and then move onto Penpals handwriting scheme, starting with handwriting patterns and then onto letter formation taught in families.
We use a mastery approach to maths with both Nursery and Reception following ‘White Rose’. Maths is taught daily, with children being given time to explore and learn mathematical concepts using manipulatives and resources to support their learning across concrete, abstract and pictorial approaches. Children in Nursery have a mark making and writing learning journal and Reception children have an individual literacy book to record their phonics and writing. Children in Reception also have an individual maths and handwriting book.
We use floor books to document the learning that takes place across topic, RE and our school values. We follow the diocesan syllabus for Religious Education in the Diocese of Durham and Newcastle and use the Understanding Christianity resource to supplement this.
We have a termly focus based on our school values, which are taught in class and in whole school worship and assemblies. Our inclusive approach brings everyone together to learn. Some children may need extra support to learn and we establish personalised curriculums for these children, with time for focused interventions to work on their personal targets from support plans.
Impact
Assessment of children’s learning is ongoing and part of our daily practice. We observe children in their play, with adults interacting and modelling alongside children and noting any areas of concern, so that next steps can be further planned. We assess children termly against the Ouseburn Learning Trust’s benchmarks and record the progress and attainment on our school trackers. We use this information to identify any gaps in skills or knowledge that need to be taught and to plan the environment to meet the needs of the children.
We use the Reception Baseline within the first six weeks of a child starting in Reception, once the child is settled and their levels on the Leuven scales are high enough. Reception children are assessed at the end of Reception using the Foundation Stage Profile and this information is shared with parents in end of year reports and with Y1 staff.
Parents are invited half termly for workshops to learn about our curriculum and what they can do at home to help. Topics include the Prime areas, phonics and maths. We use Class Dojo to engage with parents and to share learning and WOW moments.
Children in our EYFS, make good or better progress from their starting points. The majority of our children start our school, both in Nursery and Reception, significantly below the expected level, particularly in the areas of communication and language (largely due to EAL) and literacy.
Behaviour is excellent, the learning environment is a positive place to play and learn. Children quickly learn the rules and routines and have a good understanding of right and wrong.
Children with SEND needs are identified quickly, with support put in place through the use of SEND Support Plans and adults deployed effectively to further support these children where needed. Outside agency support is sought from SENDOS and staff act on the advice given. Pupils are safe and happy to come to school. Children are ‘school ready’ to move on to Year One.