Organisation of our EYFS

Here at St. Martin’s we believe that every child is unique, with their own unique skills and special talents. We are an inclusive setting where all children can grow and flourish.

 

As a church school our Christian values are promoted, taught and explored through our everyday activities. We focus on a half termly theme such as love, generosity and respect. These are wonderful values for life that we cherish and celebrate.

 

We provide an environment where children and families feel safe and well supported.

 

Our Early Years is made up of two classes, each with up to twenty pupils. Pupils are taught in their own class group, small groups and on a one to one basis and then explore and learn together during ‘free flow’ time. Children take part in daily Little Wandle phonics sessions, reading, literacy and maths sessions. Children also access weekly music, PE, library, and PSHE sessions which are planned to meet the needs of the children. RE is taught as a whole week focus once each half term and additional ‘drop down’ days throughout the year.

 

Adult led sessions are teamed with daily ‘free flow’ exploration time for more child lead, adult enhanced and supported learning opportunities. This balances adult led sessions with age appropriate child led explorations, both indoors and outdoors. Practitioners are fully engaged with children during this time to ensure learning is revisited, consolidated and extended upon. We also use the ‘free flow’ time to consolidate learning taught during adult led sessions and make learning ‘real’.

 

High quality interactions and communication and language skills underpin everything we teach in our setting. We use the Speech Link strategies to explicitly teach good speaking and listening skills and build on advice and support from our on site speech and language therapist. Our setting is ‘communication friendly’, resourced with many visual prompts to support communication and understanding.

 

We love reading together and exploring new vocabulary. Developing and nurturing a love of reading for enjoyment and with purpose is such a special part of our setting and is something that is very important to both staff and children.

 

Areas of Learning

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework details the following areas of learning. They are as follows:

 

- communication and language
- personal, social and emotional development
- physical development
- literacy
- mathematics
- understanding the world
- expressive arts and design

 

Staff plan for learning opportunities across all areas of learning. Activities are pre planned on the long term planning - detailed below and on the class page. These activities are then broken down weekly, identifying the learning intentions for each session. Activities may take the form of adult led sessions on the carpet, table activities, physical activities or play activities indoors and outdoors. These learning opportunities also include our Beach School learning and trips within our locality.

 

Assessment

In the EYFS pupils take part in the Base Line Assessment. This is a range of short activities that children have a go at one a one to one basis withing the first few weeks of starting school. Guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1182374/2023_Information_for_parents_reception_baseline_assessment_WEBHO.pdf

 

We then use a range of ongoing assessment tools during the year, including observing children’s learning in play and when participating in adult led sessions. We assess phonics knowledge each week. This helps us to keep track of what children have remembered and identify where children need additional support and teaching. We also track literacy and maths in this way. This information informs our whole school tracker.

 

We assess and observe children daily, which then informs our termly judgements. We track children closely and use the terms ‘on track’ and ‘working towards’ - these relate to age related expectations.

 

We then assess children against the Early Learning Goals in the summer term as they leave Reception. Parents and Carers and regularly informed about how children are progressing and the summer assessments are shared with the Year One team.

 

Tracking and assessment opportunities are not a test for children.
They are used as a way of ensuring learning is planned to meet the needs of all pupils.

 

Staff

We have a wonderful team of enthusiastic practitioners who are passionate about learning in the Early Years. Staff are nurturing, helping to build safe, trusting relationships where children feel safe to develop a lifelong love of learning. We use an Emotion Coaching approach to encouraging effective behaviours for learning.

 

Mrs Angela Smith	EYFS teacher, KS1 Leader, Phonics and Early Reading Leader, RE Leader and SLT. Mrs Smith is also an SLE for EYFS.
Miss Jessica Moss	EYFS teacher and Design Technology Leader.
Mrs Elaine Shortle	Higher Level Teaching Assistant, Outdoor Learning Leader, EYFS Music teacher and Art Club Leader. Paediatric First Aid trained.
Mrs Nicola Johnson	Advanced Teaching Assistant and EYFS SEN Provision Leader, EYFS MSA and Breakfast and After school Club practitioner. Paediatric First Aid trained and Food Hygiene Trained.
Mr Terry Ellis	Sports Coach and PE Teacher
Mrs Sarah Cliffe	SENCo and DDSL

 

We have a range of SEN TAs who are based in the EYFS. This is on a need basis and may change as necessary. We also have our very own Speech and Language therapist Rachel from Seaside Salt who supports school fortnightly with any communication and language needs.

 

Below you will find the links to statutory and non statutory guidance that we use to inform our Early Years Foundation Stage at St. Martin’s School.

 

Statutory Guidance

Here is the link to the statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage. This documents the mandatory requirements for all Early Years providers in England. Link

 

Additional Guidance (Non-statutory)

 

Development Matters

At St. Martin’s School we use the Development Matters non statutory guidance to help inform our planning and assessment processes for children in the Early Years. Take a look here.

 

Food Safety Guidance

Here is the link to food safety guidance for under 5s. Take a look here.

 

Internet Safety Guidance

Here is the link to age appropriate internet safety guidance from Internet Matters. Take a look and keep up to date with knowledge on how to safeguard children on line here.

 

NSPCC Support

Here you’ll find guidance on how to talk to your child about keeping safe and privacy. We use these materials in class when we begin to get changed for PE. Take a look here.

 

Little Wandle Overview

(please also refer to our phonics and early reading page for more details) Here you will find the link to the parent section of the Little Wandle website. It has some useful information that will help you to be able to support your child to read at home. Link

 

White Rose Maths Guidance and Support

At St. Martin’s we follow the White Rose Maths scheme. This supports maths across the whole school and encourages consistency. Take a look at the parent section of the website for more details. Link

 

Tiny Happy People

Here you’ll find practical advice and guidance about communication and language development for under 5s. Take a look here.

 

Useful Links:

 

Class Page

Here you’ll find more information about our class and links to the long term plan. https://stmartinscofeprimaryschool.co.uk/w3/class9.php

 

Safeguarding Page

Here you’ll find more information about out safeguarding at St. Martin’s School. https://stmartinscofeprimaryschool.co.uk/w3/safeguarding.php

 

Class photos