Intent

At Carrington Infant School we place great value on the development of children as individuals and providing them with skills, knowledge and understanding they need to prepare them for the challenges in Key Stage One and beyond.

Our school motto is ‘We Sparkle and Shine’ and this underpins everything we do.

Our aim in the EYFS is to build strong foundations rooted in academic success, so that ultimately our pupils go on to be active citizens of society and happy, curious lifelong learners.

Our curriculum enhances the cultural capital we know our pupils need so that they can gain the knowledge, skills and understanding they require for success. They can only do that if we embed the right habits for learning through the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning- Play and Exploration, Active Learning and Creative and Critical Thinking.

Our overall intention: .

Implementation:
At Carrington Infant School we meet the welfare requirements laid down in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and actively safeguard and promote the welfare of all of our children. We prioritise creating a ‘language rich’ environment through the use of songs, nursery rhymes, stories and providing time for quality interactions between both adults and peers. Trained staff ensure that interactions are positive and progressive, allowing children to flourish and gather words at pace in order to become confident communicators. Children are encouraged to become early readers through enjoyment of books and the systematic teaching of phonics. The children learn nursery rhymes and develop their mathematical thinking through direct teaching and exploration. We want our children to become confident mathematicians who can apply what they have learnt to real life experiences.
We have built our school environment to enable our children to strengthen their core muscles through physical play, children spend time outdoors in their natural environment in all weathers. They develop through wonderful, exploratory, sensory experiences in our mud kitchen, sandpit and taking part in Forest School sessions. Our learning environment is adaptable in order to reflect children's interests and progression. The children are supported to learn to work together, manage their feelings and ask questions through skilled adult facilitated play.
The curriculum is taught through topics which are enriched with classroom enhancements, trips and visitors. Topics are supported by quality key texts. These are chosen carefully to encourage children's speech, language and communication development. All planning however, is flexible and responsive to children’s needs so plans can be changed and adapted dependent on children’s interests.
We understand the importance of parental engagement and believe that our parents have a crucial role to play in their children's education. We work hard to create strong partnerships between home and school.  We have half termly stay and play sessions and parent workshops, according to the needs of the cohort.  Tapestry helps us to communicate with parents about their child's learning and share experience from home.   
As part of the learning and teaching process, children are assessed in relation to their progress towards the Educational Programmes. These judgements are made on the basis of observations and in depth knowledge of the children acquired through ongoing assessment. These ongoing assessments are used to inform planning and next steps in teaching and learning for all children throughout the year.

Impact:

Our curriculum and its delivery ensure that children, from their own starting points make good progress. During their time with us children make rapid progress towards the national expectation for a good level of development at the end of the year. Pupils also make good progress towards their age-related expectations both academically and socially, developing a sense of themselves before transitioning into Year One. 
Children develop their characteristics of learning and are able to apply their knowledge to a range of situations making links and explaining their ideas and understanding. Children are confident to take risks and discuss their successes and failures with peers and adults drawing on their experiences to improve or adjust what they are doing.
 We believe our high standards are due to our carefully planned environment, enriched play-based curriculum, quality first teaching and the rigour of assessment.

End of Foundation Stage Assessments:

In summer term Reception children are assessed against 7 areas of learning as to whether they are emerging (still working towards the ELG) or expected. 

• Physical development

• Communication & Language

• Personal, Social and Emotional development

• Literacy

• Mathematics
• Understanding of the world
• Expressive arts and design

For more information on the EYFS framework please read the document below.