Early Years Foundation Stage

Intent

At Saint Aidan’s Catholic Primary School, we prioritise the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to establish strong foundations for lifelong learning. Our child-centred curriculum integrates cross-curricular, child-initiated, and adult-led activities, fostering confident, happy, and independent learners. We emphasise a language-rich environment, offering daily access to songs, poems, rhymes, and stories.

We incorporate children's interests into the curriculum to make learning engaging and meaningful, aiming to inspire awe and wonder through 'magical moments.' Our goal is to create a fun, secure, and challenging educational setting, both indoors and outdoors, where children thrive.

Through nurturing environments, we equip children with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes for fulfilling lives, guided by the love of Christ. We strive to develop resilient, creative, accepting, and caring global citizens who appreciate diverse cultures.

Implementation

Language and communication is placed at the heart of our curriculum as we know that children typically enter our Nursery with speech and language skills significantly below national expectations. We introduce children to a range of carefully selected, quality texts which enhances their understanding and extends their vocabulary. Through a bespoke approach to the teaching of language and communication we foster a love of story telling and early reading. These are skills that prepare children both for future learning and beyond.

Communication & Language

At Saint Aidan’s, we see communication and language as a very important aspect of child development; we know that speech and language skills are a key indicator in children’s lifelong outcomes. In EYFS we pride ourselves on providing playful, language-rich environments with opportunities to learn new words and hands-on experiences to encourage learning and provide a context for new words to be explored.

Wellcomm

Every term in Early Years we assess children’s Communication and Language skills using a screening tool called WellComm. This helps us to see where children may be in need of some extra support with their listening and understanding or speaking and wider communication. Sometimes children will have more specific things to work on or we look at developing an area of Communication and Language as a whole class. Individual and group interventions are delivered by our EYFS team throughout the week. We promote children’s speech, language and communication as a top priority when communicating with parents and carers. This begins at our ‘Welcome to Nursery’ and ‘Welcome to Reception’ meetings at the beginning of the year. We frequently provide advice, support and resources to help parents and carers support their children’s speech, language and communication skills. In EYFS, we work closely with a specialist speech and language professional to seek advice, support and guidance on practice, provision and any individual concerns arising as identified via WellComm screening.

Stories for Talking and 5 a day

Reading stories aloud and sharing books is an important part of every day in EYFS. This supports children to develop language and understand new concepts. It strengthens their language skills and widens their vocabulary. Children at Saint Aidan’s are exposed to the same story 5 times a day to introduce them to new vocabulary, enable pupils to internalise language structure and and build a bank of stories that children know well.

Visual Support Strategies

Visual support makes life predictable, understandable and positive. For children with Speech, Language or Communication Needs (SLCN) predictability and clarity is essential. Knowing what is going to happen next can reduce stress and lead to calmer and more co-operative behaviour, as well as help children understand how to do something. Many children will find that having visual support available makes it easier for them to process what is happening. Having visual support available is much better than words alone – once you’ve said them, they have gone, but with a visual support the message is there much more permanently. In our EYFS, we have large visual timetables, snack mats, clear class rules – looking, sitting & listening, we use widgit pictures to label each area of provision. Communication mats linked to resources and skills in each area and communication strips to support independence e.g. morning routine, toileting and painting. We use personalised visual support for individual children, where they may have SEND or additional vulnerabilities.

Impact

At Saint Aidan’s, we aim to give each child the best possible start in life, preparing them to thrive in KS1. By the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, all children will have achieved their personal best, making good progress across all areas of learning and aiming for a good level of development (GLD). This includes children with SEND or those at risk of disadvantage, ensuring they meet age-related expectations and make excellent academic and social progress.

Our successful transitions into Year 1 demonstrate our impact. EYFS staff understand how Early Learning Goals (ELGs) link to the National Curriculum, and through robust planning and delivery across all subjects. Our young learners will appreciate and understand the world by experiencing and learning about different cultures, celebrations, music, dance, art, and history. They will actively ask questions about their surroundings and learning experiences, taking risks as opportunities to learn. We also help children make sense of the world through our school values of kindness, love, faithfulness, and understanding of their rights and the rights of others. They will fulfil our mission: Love God, Love One Another.