Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework is a government document that all schools and Ofsted-registered early years providers in England must follow.
The EYFS framework outlines seven areas of learning and development and educational programmes. There are three prime areas of learning, communication and language, personal, social and emotional development and physical development, which are particularly important for your child’s development and future learning.

There are four specific areas of learning, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, expressive arts and design, through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied.
Four guiding principles of the EYFS should shape practice in early year’s settings. These are:

• Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
• Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
• Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
• Importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates.
  

How do we achieve this at little Oaks?

In our Pre-School, we believe that every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured. Therefore, we use a topic based approach reflecting the children’s needs and interests.

Our intent is to promote the child's ability to:

• Develop their own thinking and interests.
• Seek out and respond to learning opportunities offered.
• Develop self-esteem, resilience and tolerance of others.
  Acquire knowledge, skills and understanding for use at home and later at school.
• Have fun and enjoy learning.

At Little Oaks, we understand that children learn best when they are absorbed, interested and active. We understand that active learning involves other children, adults, objects, ideas, stimuli and events that aim to engage and involve children for sustained periods. We believe that Early Years education should be as practical as possible and therefore, we are proud that our Pre-School setting has an underlying ethos of ‘Learning through play. PLAY is essential for children’s development across all areas. Play builds on children’s confidence as they learn to explore, to relate to others around them and develop relationships, set their own goals and solve problems. Children learn by leading their own play and by taking part in play which is guided by adults.’ We also value the adult led activities providing the skills and knowledge children need to progress and develop as they learn.
All of the areas we use present different opportunities for learning. From classrooms to the pre-school garden, from Hunts Wood or the playground to the wider school grounds, we take every advantage to use our learning environment fully.

Life at Little oaks
Children bring a bottle of water with them each day that is accessible to them throughout the morning. The parents are responsible for bringing in a few pieces of fruit at the beginning of the week. This is put into the bowl and at snack time the fruit is cut up and shared with the children. The children enjoy trying different things as well as keeping them healthy!
Friends
Typically, children start their day inside with the opportunity to free flow between activities such as painting, small world play, role play, construction and mark making. There are times when the children gather as a large group to take part in story, singing and circle time activities. We spend large amounts of time outdoors. All of the areas we use present different opportunities for learning.

Parents in Partnership

We believe that children grow and develop the most when there is a strong connection between home and school. You know your child the best. We welcome any input you have about your child and if you ever have any questions or concerns about your child, please do not hesitate to contact your Key worker or any member of staff. Together we can work as a team and make this an enjoyable and meaningful experience for your child!



Above all, we aim to ensure that children learn to co-operate with and develop a caring attitude towards others and at the same time develop self-confidence and the ability to express themselves.