Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage and year 1
Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) at Manifold Church of England Academy. We offer a caring, nurturing and stimulating environment where, through liaison with parents and other agencies, we provide the best start to each individual child’s education.
EYFS IN ACTION
Through play, children can learn at their own level and pace and can explore and experiment without fear of failure. It gives children choice and ownership over their actions and provides concrete experiences, which provide the foundation for later more abstract thinking. Play is learning, and all children have the right to learn in an interesting, creative, enjoyable way.
The learning environment is arranged to provide an orderly, calm and stimulating space in which children can independently find, use and return the resources they require. It is crucial in supporting children's learning and sparking their curiosity and imagination. The children have access to the outside area throughout the day where activities reflect choices within the inside environment. This is to support the different learning styles and preferred learning environments of individual children.
Throughout the day the children’s skill development and characteristics of effective learning are observed and significant or new moments of learning are recorded. This is evidenced through written observations, photographs, videos or samples of the children’s work. Parents are also encouraged to be involved in this process by recording key learning moments that happen at home. This evidence is collated in the children's learning journals to build a holistic view of each child and the progress that they are making.
Parent Partnerships
We value parents/carers as important partners in our children’s learning and therefore believe that it is vitally important to develop and maintain positive partnerships with parents/carers throughout the children’s time in school. We believe that good communication between home and school is vital for the pupils' learning and emotional well-being. Each child starts school with a unique set of experiences, gained from home, nursery and in their communities. These experiences are highly valued and enable us to identify next steps in each child’s individual learning journey. As parents/carers, you are the children’s first educators and as such have unique knowledge and understanding of the children’s learning and development. We aspire to combine this with our professional expertise to ensure the children reach their full potential during their time with us.
We are committed to providing a broad, balanced and appropriately differentiated curriculum within the framework of the EYFS curriculum.
Through play, children can learn at their own level and pace and can explore and experiment without fear of failure. It gives children choice and ownership over their actions and provides concrete experiences, which provide the foundation for later more abstract thinking. Play is learning, and all children have the right to learn in an interesting, creative, enjoyable way.
The learning environment is arranged to provide an orderly, calm and stimulating space in which children can independently find, use and return the resources they require. It is crucial in supporting children's learning and sparking their curiosity and imagination.
We work with parents from the beginning to review and set targets for our children to ensure that they achieve as much as they can in all areas of development.
Strong Relationships
Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships. At Manifold Church of England Academy, we believe that warm and caring relationships foster a sense of belonging. Staff need to be sensitive and responsive to children’s needs, feelings and interests which will support them in their own efforts and independence. Good relationships need to be consistent in setting clear boundaries so children are aware of the expectations and can therefore develop their character dispositions and lead their own learning through play. We also believe that opportunity needs to be given for children to develop relationships with their peers so they can learn to listen, interact and develop communication and language skills that will support them in lifelong learning. Through active play opportunities children will become emotionally literate and holistic wellbeing will progress.
Creativity
We need to teach our children to think for themselves in a world where we can’t even imagine what kind of jobs there will be 10 years from now. In a world where almost all information is at our fingertips, it is about knowing how to find it when you need it. The kinds of skills that will get our children through in this “brave new world” are more creativity, self-confidence, flexibility and a love of learning. Through creative thinking children take risks, ask questions, solve problems and most importantly, have a go. At Manifold we strive to provide an environment that fosters creativity through the arts, interactions and a ‘what if’ approach.
Happiness
Children learn best when they are happy , relaxed and engaged. We believe strongly that children should be allowed to “have a childhood” – providing lots of time for play and allowing them to have fun and enjoy their time in EYFS. Happiness has a direct link to wellbeing and spirited children is the key in supporting them to reach their full potential in Nursery and throughout their school career.
Confidence
When starting at Manifold we want children to come to develop confidence in who they are and what they can do, along with expressing their own ideas. By developing effective relationships we can help children feel valued and special and give them a sense of self-worth. This in turn leads to them being confident with others and knowing when they need support, along with having confidence to try new things and challenge themselves within their own initiated learning. If self belief and self confidence are developed , children will have the robustness to succeed.
Feeling safe and secure
Ensuring that children feel safe and secure within our provision is a key priority. When children feel emotionally safe and secure they are able to explore and find out about the place they are in. Environments are not just physical spaces; they are the atmosphere created through warm and caring relationships, where children are respected and valued and their well-being comes before anything else. In these environments children’s voices are listened to and they thrive socially and emotionally.
Investigation
We strive for our learning environment to promote investigation and enquiry based learning through open ended resources and enhancements to the continuous provision. We believe that if children can ask questions and investigate how things work, they will develop a deep understanding about concepts that will support their learning throughout their school journey. Children can therefore build upon their skills and knowledge and challenge their own thinking further.