Welcome to the EYFS at Summer Lane primary school.

The most important years in a child's development are from birth to age five. Children's experiences and relationships that are formed during these years determine how their brain develops. With this in mind, at Summer Lane primary school, we strive for your child to develop a love of learning and a confident attitude towards life at school. We want all children in the EYFS to believe that learning is fun, exciting and engaging. We endeavour to achieve this by creating a curriculum that builds on the foundations and skills of each individual child on entry to the foundation stage to ensure that all children make good progress regardless of their starting points and needs. 

Play underpins the EYFS. It also underpins learning and all aspects of children’s development. Through play, children develop language skills, their emotions and creativity, social and intellectual skills. Our aim is for the children at Summer Lane primary school to become independent and creative thinkers, who will explore, take risks and learn from their mistakes. We embody our motto, a school to be proud of.

Children in both our Nursery and Reception class follow the EYFS curriculum, which has seven main areas of learning:

The Prime Areas

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

The Specific Areas

Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts

Children gain knowledge and develop skills in these areas through play based experiences and activities. Adults in the setting support and challenge the children as they play and explore. There is a combination of adult-led, teacher taught sessions as well as child initiated, independent learning through engaging continuous provision. Communication and language is at the heart of what we do and we develop vocabulary and conversation through a range of engaging activities. We also use the Development Matters 2021 document to design an effective early years curriculum, building on the strengths and needs of our children.

Our learning environments, both indoor and outdoor are regularly enhanced to meet the developing interests and needs of the children in our setting. We understand the importance of first hand experiences and plan regular visits to local parks, theatres and museums. We also plan for people in our community to visit our foundation unit to share their knowledge and experiences.

Early reading is a priority within EYFS. We share our love of books with the children and we value how important your role is in sharing this love of reading at home.  We use a systematic approach to teaching phonics following the Read, Write, Inc programme to ensure that children learn to read accurately and are ready for the next phase of school life in Key Stage 1. We hold regular reading workshops so that parents can also acquire the skills, knowledge and confidence to support their child with their reading at home.

Building relationships with parents is one of our major priorities at Summer Lane primary school.  We understand how important your role is as the child’s main educator and number one role model. We will work with you to support your child's progress and development and will offer advice and support if needed. We value the positive relationships that we establish with our parents in both nursery and reception, through effective communication, listening to your concerns and valuing your views.

Ongoing assessments also play an important role in the shaping of learning to meet the needs of all pupils. Through observations, all practitioners develop a clear understanding of a child’s achievements and next steps in learning to ensure that the children reach a good level development by the end of the Foundation stage.

Below are the two key documents.

The statutory document is both the legal framework and also guidance. 

The development matters we are guided by to support our development of an appropriate curriculum to meet the needs of children who attend the Foundation Stage at Summer Lane Primary.

Curriculum Plans Nursery

Curriculum Plans for Foundation Two

Refreshed 21/10/2023