The EYFS Curriculum at St Mary’s Voluntary Catholic Academy Primary School
We Believe. We Succeed. We Soar.
The Principles of our curriculum are that children:
• Meet Jesus through all aspects of their work. Our intention is for children to encounter Jesus throughout their time at St. Mary’s. Our curriculum has ‘Christ at its heart’ and every opportunity is made for the children to welcome God into their hearts.
• Experience the challenge and enjoyment of learning. Early Years is so important to ensure the best foundations are provided to ensure our children are happy, secure and want to be lifelong learners – to give them the building blocks for life!
• Learn within a coherent and progressive framework. The EYFS curriculum is built upon children’s interests, learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.
• See clear links between different aspects of their learning. EYFS is the crucial start to children’s education and it is vital that children have every opportunity to have the skills, knowledge and resilience to be ready for Key Stage 1. Our curriculum is built to ensure all children have the opportunities to experience (first hand, where ever possible) to prepare them for their role as a proactive citizen in our multicultural society.
• Understand the purpose and value of their learning and see its relevance to their past, present and future. As well as continuing the theme in the point above, children will learn about influences on their lives from their families, communities and cultures around them as well as globally.
• Explore the breadth and depth of The Foundation Stage. The intention is that the learning is fun, immersive and supports the ‘whole’ child. Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking
Intent
Our EYFS curriculum allows children to develop interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative thinkers. We aim to provide a fun, secure, challenging and rich educational environment that enables each individual to thrive.
Our Mission statement ‘We Believe. We Succeed. We Soar’ is at the heart of everything we do. We place a strong emphasis on the religious, spiritual, moral and cultural development of all our pupils.
We ensure pupil have a safe and stimulating environment in which to learn and explore and aim to foster children’s individual wants, needs and interests in order to enable them to get the most out of their experiences. Our aim in the EYFS is to build strong foundations rooted in academic success as well as moral and spiritual development, so that ultimately our pupils can be successful, go on to be active citizens in our multicultural society and be happy, curious life-long learners.
Children have lots of opportunities to facilitate their own learning through carefully resourced provision areas and adults support children through high quality interactions that challenge thinking and extend learning. Our curriculum is designed around the child. By giving learning a purpose and application, skills for reading, writing and solving mathematical problems will become meaningful and more desirable.
Through play-based learning and topics we endeavour to provide each child with a range of opportunities which stimulate their creativity and support their development based on their likes and interests. We value the importance of the outdoor environment in order to enable children to develop their thinking, problem solving and collaborative working skills.
