Early Years

Implementation

Within the Early Years we encourage children to demonstrate their attitudes and behaviours to learning through the Characteristics of Effective Learning.
 

Our curriculum is designed to recognise their prior learning by providing first-hand learning experiences and allowing the children to develop interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers to enable them to challenge themselves.  We ensure the content of the curriculum is adaptive to meet the needs of all learners and is taught in a logical progression so that children build on prior learning. We plan through a topic-based approach on an annual basis, but these plans are adapted and amended to address the ever growing and changing needs and interests of all our children. 
 

We understand, to maintain high standards of quality first teaching we have to invest in our staff by providing high quality Continued Professional Development (CPD) to match the current needs of the staff and also to match the needs of our children.  Teachers and Teaching Assistants at Ivington create an environment to match the needs and skill levels of our children and use their own teacher assessments and gap analysis to inform their planning and the quality provision.
 

We recognise that language and communication are vital in all areas of a child’s development. We welcome children from culturally diverse backgrounds and some of our children are at an early stage of learning English as an additional language (EAL). Communication and language development are therefore a consistent focus. We support children’s development by providing a rich language environment, where conversations, singing and sharing stories become a regular part of the children’s day. We aim to ensure that we provide all children with the best start to their education that enables them to fulfil their full potential and achieve future success regardless of their various starting points and backgrounds by creating a holistic and inclusive curriculum. We ensure that all children’s individual needs are met through careful planning and assessment, identifying and addressing any issues and implementing early intervention or additional support if required. We provide inviting classroom environments, indoors and outdoors to stimulate learners and engage them in developing the three Characteristics of Effective Learning. We also provide a phonics programme following ‘Read, Write, Inc’ which is clearly planned to ensure progression and enables every child to become a reader.

In addition to Read Write Inc. We have ‘core books’ which we read frequently with the children. These books are the type of books that can be re-visited again and again, on different levels to support language development. The idea is that children will develop language and increase vocabulary in addition to gaining a love of books and will become very familiar with these known texts so that they can remember and re-tell them. We also have ‘core rhymes’ which support language development. Children chant or sing the rhymes at group and carpet times. By the time the children move to Key Stage 1 they are familiar with each core rhyme.

We consider the all-round development of children. Our children are immersed in lots of practical, first-hand learning experiences through which they are encouraged to explore, experiment and develop their language.  The children use both the indoor and outdoor classroom during teacher directed and child-initiated times.  We offer enhanced outdoor experiences such as Forest School activities led by our qualified Forest School leaders. Additionally, throughout the year we organise several exciting activities, outings and visits/visitors to enhance the children’s learning.
 

We believe learning through play is vital, we use the environment to ensure the children’s needs are met through continuous provision, enhanced provision and following their interests.  Staff teach an objective through whole class, small group teaching and going into provision to observe children’s play and move learning forward at that point.  They record ‘snapshot’ evidence of children’s learning to build an overall picture and set next steps for learning.  Formative assessment takes place within every session and helps staff to identify any children that needs more support to achieve the objective and those that need challenging.  This may be instantaneous if appropriate.  Although EYFS has a separate curriculum we are keen to make sure our children are prepared for the next chapter in their school life.