EYFS Curriculum Intent

At Runnymede St Edward’s School, we strive for a high-quality early education and instil in our very youngest learners to ‘be the best they can be’. We build warm trusting relationships with the children and teach the children how to care for another and our world. Our ambitious, holistic and well sequenced curriculum is key to developing children’s language and working memory. We place great emphasis on teaching children early reading skills, how to problem solve and be independent thinkers. We endeavour to develop children’s listening, language and conversational skills during every interaction we have. We want our children to be happy at school and learn the necessary skills to make friends, deal with challenges as they arise and be resilient.

Implementation

Our approach builds upon the Early Years Foundation Statutory Framework and the Characteristics of Effective Learning. At the heart of our curriculum is helping the children to develop personally, socially and emotionally. We want the children to learn how to focus their attention, regulate their emotions, be patient and problem solve. This is parallel to providing a curriculum that teaches children to gain a deep sense of number and learn to read skilfully. We plan from children’s interests and connect with the wider whole school curriculum. We understand that EYFS underpins children’s future learning and successes and therefore shape our curriculum to reflect aspects of Science, Geography, History, Music and Art/DT. We believe our learning environment plays a key role in enabling the children to learn new knowledge, language and skills. Staff sensitively support, guide, extend and model learning as well as notice what our children can do.

We understand that parents are their child’s first educator and with this in mind, endeavour to build welcoming and respectful relationships with them. We listen to our parents and give them feedback on their child’s progress as well as encouraging them, as educators to help develop their children’s language skills through conversation, story sharing, Nursery Rhymes and playful experiences.

Impact

The impact of our curriculum is measured in children’s learning and development across the seven areas of learning and their readiness to move on to National Curriculum. We aim to ensure that our children are well prepared for the next stage of their learning journey and have the necessary language, skills and knowledge to move forward. We work closely with the Year 1 staff to inform them of the children’s stage of development and learning needs.

Our Young Edwardians are the foundation to continue the aspirations of our founding Father Blessed Edmund Rice. We endeavour to ensure they begin learning and understanding our 8 Essentials which underpin all aspects of the EYFS curriculum, life at Runnymede and beyond!