EYFS at Brunswick Park

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

The EYFS covers the first 5 years of a child’s life and, in schools, forms the statutory framework for our Nursery and Reception classes.

We use the document Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage as the basis for our planning, provision and assessment for our Nursery and Reception Children.

There are 7 areas of learning in the EYFS curriculum, all of which are important and inter-connected:

Three Prime Areas – these areas are crucial, as they support all later learning and underpin children’s capacity to grow, learn, form relationships and thrive. We prioritise them in the Early Years as many aspects of learning in the Prime Areas are developmentally time-bound (they have to be in place by a certain age).

The three Prime areas are:

Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)
Communication and Language
Physical Development

Our Nursery

We have provision for children aged 3-4 in our Nursery. We can offer full time or part time places, and wraparound care is also available.

Full time: Monday -Friday, 8.55am-3.30pm
Part time: Monday – Friday 8.55am-12noon or Monday-Friday 12.30pm-3.30pm
Nursery Breakfast Club: 7.45am-8.55am – £15 per child per week
Nursery After School Club: 3.30pm-6.00pm – £50 per child per week

Parents are entitled to 15 hours of free childcare from the term after their child’s third birthday. Some parents are entitled to 30 hours of free childcare. Go to
https://www.gov.uk/apply-30-hours-free-tax-free-childcare to check if you are eligible.

If are entitled to 15 hours but would like your child to attend more sessions, you can pay a top-up fee of £30 per half day. A hot snack in the morning and afternoon session is provided to all children free of charge. Nursery lunches cost £3 per child per day. To visit the Nursery or for an application form, please contact the School Office.

Four Specific Areas – these areas provide rich learning experiences for children, and planning provides for a mix of adult-led and child-initiated play-based activities, with more structured and guided work introduced and supported at each stage of a child’s development.

The four specific areas are:

Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding The World
Expressive Arts and Design

At Brunswick Park, we plan half-termly topics, based on Literacy Tree texts, which allow plenty of time for children to explore their interests, build on skills, and enjoy a variety of learning.

At the beginning of the year, children take part in the National Reception Baseline. This is a short series of tasks your child will do with their teacher, to see who developed their language and number skills are. At the end of the Reception year, a statutory assessment called the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) is undertaken on each child. This assessment is based on children’s learning and progress over time, backed up by observations and assessments from all adults working with the children.

There are no formal tests, tasks, or ‘set up’ activities involved in making judgements for the EYFSP. The main purpose of the EYFSP is to support children’s transition into Year 1 and to decide whether they have achieved a Good Level of Development (GLD) to prepare them for learning in Key Stage 1.

Phonics in the Early Years

We follow the programmes of study from Little Wandle Letters and Sounds (Revised). Reception children have a daily phonics lessons following the scheme and Keep-Up and Catch-Up sessions are available for children who are at risk of falling behind.

In Nursery, children follow Foundations for Phonics from the Little Wandle scheme.

Downloads:

Please click on the links below.