Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
EYFS is how the Government and Early Years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5.
Our curriculum begins in EYFS, where the uniqueness of each child is valued. We strongly believe that the Early Years experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure. It should support children's development, care and learning needs, while preparing them for future learning and successes.
At Fowey Primary School EYFS, we support our children to become independent and collaborative learners by providing a wide range of activities and experiences. Pupils explore their world through play and outdoor learning. Pupils work within the EYFS framework with emphasis placed on the teaching of numeracy and literacy skills, as well as encouraging the development of the whole child – fostering the creativity and love for learning inside every child.
EYFS Framework
At Fowey, we use ‘The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage’ to support the provision of quality learning opportunities. The EYFS is based upon four principles:
- A Unique Child
- Positive Relationships
- Enabling Environments
- Learning and Development
The EYFS framework includes seven areas of learning and development that are interconnected.
- Communication and language
- Physical development
- Personal, social and emotional development
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive arts and design
Our Early Years has a curriculum of learning which outlines how we teach the seven areas of learning throughout the year.
To view our long-term EYFS curriculum plan, click below:
To view our termly curriculum plans, see below:
Our EYFS team
In the Early Years Foundation Stage at Fowey, the Class Teacher is Miss Makinson, supported by Mrs Chanin as HLTA.
My name is Miss Makinson and I am the EYFS class teacher at Fowey Primary School. I have loved every minute spent teaching and learning in Early Years classrooms. My passion for teaching is in the EYFS, seeing every day how the children can learn through play, exploration and real life experiences. I learn from the wonderful children and their exciting play based learning experiences on a daily basis. I have a love for children's books and my favourite time of the day is story time. I take pride in incorporating authentic, exciting, diverse and inclusive books through every area of learning at Fowey EYFS.
Tapestry
All Early Years children attending Fowey Primary School will have a personal online Learning Journey which records photos, observations and comments in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage. This enables us to build up a record of each child’s learning during their time with us. Tapestry is a brilliant platform of shared learning opportunities. Not only can you see what your child is learning in school, you can also add your own posts! We love sharing learning experiences both inside and outside of school, all of which contribute to the progress your child makes as they move throughout the Early Years.
Useful resources
"Play is the work of childhood" - Piaget
"Play is the highest form of research" - Einstein
Reading and Rhyme at Fowey
Reading is at the heart of our learning at Fowey Primary School. After our Daily Read, Write, Inc (RWI) lessons, we incorporate reading into our curriculum time. In EYFS this takes the form of 'Adventure Time'. The children choose their own area of learning from the indoor or outdoor environment, navigating challenges and frequently having to use reading skills to support them to complete tasks and challenges - such as 'What do I have to add to the magic potion?' or 'What materials can you use to build a house for Stick Man?'.
Throughout the year, we will engage in daily story times, a ‘book vote’ linked to their Fundamental British values learning on democracy, and the children will have access to explore a variety of stories through the library our own classroom ‘Reading Realm’. Listening to rich and varied stories will help foster a love of reading and books. Our favourite stories are read frequently and joined in with to encourage repetition and development of vocabulary and word knowledge. We will explore a variety of stories, books, animation and traditional tales through ‘Drawing Club’, which the children will take part in on a daily basis.
We will immerse ourselves in stories and rhymes every day. We will sing nursery rhymes on a daily basis, join in with Daily Routine songs and learn a variety of popular rhymes and songs.
Some of our favourites are; Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Row row row your boat, Incy Wincy Spider, 1,2,3,4,5 once a caught a fish alive, Five little ducks, The Grand Old Duke of York, Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, Down at the station, Hey diddle diddle, Five currant buns, Baa Baa black sheep, Five little men, 5 speckled frogs, The bear went over the mountain, Mary had a little lamb, I am the baker man, Five little monkeys, I can sing a rainbow, London Bridge, Mary, Mary.