Early Years

EYFS Curriculum Intent  

At Quinton Church Primary School, we believe that everyone should have life in all its fullness. Therefore, our aim is for everyone to be part of our Christian community where everyone is happy, safe and supported, feels loved and demonstrates kindness; understands justice and shows fairness to all; and receives high quality education and is empowered to live life to the full (John 10:10).  

To achieve our vision, we believe that the effective use of high-quality continuous provision alongside well-planned enhanced provision and directed activities is the most effective way of ensuring we have highly effective teaching and learning that leads to impactful and sustained outcomes for our children.  

Our vision is underpinned by our three overarching values of Kindness, Fairness and Thankfulness as well as the three key learning behaviours of Ready, Respectful and Responsible, which allow our children to become ready to succeed in an ever-changing world. These key values and learning behaviours secure a foundation for future learning and development for our children. We aim to provide a fun, challenging, and rich educational environment so everyone can reach their full potential. We are fully inclusive, and all children are expected to think about the needs of others. 

Our Curriculum Model  

At Quinton Church Primary School, we have adopted the Early Excellence curriculum model. In the model, continuous provision is the basis for a rich and meaningful curriculum. Both the indoor and outdoor environment is well-planned and carefully organised to support children’s predictable interests, developmental schemas and innate curiosity. Layered on top of continuous provision is enhanced provision, which is used to complement and extend opportunities. Continuous and enhanced provision provide a clear structure for active learning and provide the basis for more focused investigations and adult directed activities. (Early Excellence: Guide to Continuous Provision)  

Aims for the EYFS Curriculum 

By the end of the EYFS year, our children are expected to achieve the seventeen Early Learning Goals which are fall within the seven areas of learning. The seven areas of learning appear as two categories: Prime Areas of Learning and Specific Areas of Learning. 

Prime Areas: 

• Personal, Social and Emotional                                      
• Communication and Language 
• Physical Development 

Specific Areas: 

• Literacy 
• Mathematics 
• Understanding the World 
• Expressive Arts and Design. 

Early Reading and Phonics  

 

At Quinton Church Primary School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Quinton Church Primary School, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

Please see the below link for resources you can use to support your child’s phonics journey at home.

For parents | Letters and Sounds (littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk)