Our Lady of the Rosary

Early Years

At Our Lady of the Rosary School, our vision is to transform the lives of our pupils within a Catholic environment by nurturing the wellbeing of each child, promoting the highest academic achievement and instilling a lifelong love of learning. We aim to fulfil our school strap line ‘Faith, Love, Learning’ by igniting a thirst for knowledge and a desire to achieve through an engaging and creative curriculum that promotes the highest academic achievements and prepares our pupils to be successful in their adult life.

Our Vision…

At Our Lady of the Rosary, we believe that the Early Years Foundation Stage is the bedrock for children to become lifelong, enthusiastic and engaged learners. We are passionate about children being happy, confident, well-rounded individuals with a love for learning. Our safe and nurturing environment is a place where children develop their independence as learners. Our vision is to provide a curriculum which is exciting and motivates children. We believe that the Early Years Foundation Stage is crucial in securing solid foundations that children continue to build upon throughout their school life. It is our aim that the children who enter our setting develop physically, verbally, cognitively, and emotionally whilst embedding a positive attitude to school.  We strive to ensure that all children access an engaging and stimulating environment both indoors and outdoors that builds on each child’s individual needs and interests. We believe that all children deserve to be valued as individuals and we are passionate about allowing all children to achieve their full, unique potential.

 

Intent

At Our Lady of the Rosary we provide a high-quality, broad and balanced Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum that is designed to meet the needs of the children. We place great importance on a curriculum that develops the whole child – socially, emotionally, physically, intellectually and spiritually. We have high aspirations and firmly believe that children are entitled to an ambitious Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum that is accessible to all, including children with SEND and from disadvantaged backgrounds. We promote a language-rich curriculum in our Early years and know that this is essential to the successful acquisition of language. The curriculum is progressive and coherently planned to incorporate child initiated learning opportunities and to build upon the children’s starting points. Our lessons are planned and sequenced with distinct end points and themes which run through each area of learning, leading to an accumulation of knowledge, skills and vocabulary to enable children to have a strong foundation for their next stage of learning. The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is designed to be challenging, engaging and exciting so that children can reach their potential.

 

 

 

Implementation

  • The whole school curriculum has been mapped and designed progressively with Early Years as the starting point for each subject to enable children to achieve the Early Learning Goals.
  • Our curriculum is implemented through successful subject leadership and secure subject knowledge.  
  • The subject leaders create subject action plans identifying priorities to ensure the effective implementation for the Early Years Foundation Stage. 
  • Learning opportunities are planned thematically using key texts which build progressively and sequentially throughout the year.
  • Learning opportunities are designed to ensure that all the areas of learning are strategically planned for within the indoor and outdoor continuous provision to ensure characteristics of effective learning permeate throughout.
  • Jolly phonics and White Rose for Maths is taught from Nursery into Reception.
  • Early Literacy and Maths are carefully planned to give the children the key building blocks to ensure their early Literacy and Maths knowledge is strong in order to achieve National Curriculum objectives as they progress through the school.
  • Speech and language is a priority throughout the setting and is addressed through targeted activities, interventions and continuous provision.
  • In Reception, children’s work is evidenced in their writing book, learning journey book and Tapestry.
  • In Nursery, observations are recorded on Tapestry.
  • Children learn to co-operate and listen to others. They do this in pairs, small groups and whole class groups.  
  • Early Years Foundation Stage teachers are given training opportunities to keep developing their own subject knowledge, skills and understanding so they can support curriculum development in the EYFS. 
  • In Reception, a baseline assessment is undertaken in the first six weeks of school to determine each child’s starting point.
  • Assessment is informed by observations during lessons using development matters and assessing by the ELG at the end of the Year.
  • The Early Years foundation stage profile is completed at the end of Reception.
  • All children’s progress is tracked and discussed at Pupil Progress meetings every term.
  • In Nursery, our children are assessed in relation to their progress using Birth to 5 Matters and the Early Learning Goals.  These judgements are made on the basis of accumulative observations and in-depth knowledge of the children acquired through ongoing assessments.  Next steps are taught in the moment during continuous provision and adult-led activities to ensure children are challenged. 

 

 

 

Impact

At Our Lady of the Rosary, we aim to ensure that all children across the EYFS achieve their full potential by providing a broad and balanced curriculum. Our creative and balanced provision of learning experiences enables our children to develop as happy, motivated, and independent learners. We strive to ensure each child makes a very good level of progress through to the Early Learning Goals at the end of Reception from their individual starting points in the Nursery. All children get the best possible start to their school life and develop the knowledge and skills needed to succeed as they continue their learning journey into Key Stage One.

We have high aspirations for all pupil, which will see them through to further study, work and successful in their adult life.