Intent

At Lethbridge Primary School, our Early Years puts the child at the very centre. Our carefully planned curriculum is guided by the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and Development Matters. We give equal importance to every area of learning. This holistic approach lets us support, develop and nurture each child, so that they secure the basic skills that are the foundation for learning and for life.

Our Early Years curriculum is where our motto, Firm Foundations, Bright Futures, begins. In Reception, children build firm foundations in communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, physical development, early reading and early maths. These foundations give every child the confidence, resilience and independence they need for Year 1 and for the bright futures ahead of them.

Putting the child at the centre lets us build positive relationships with each and every child. In turn, children develop resilience and independence, especially when solving problems. We want every child to feel valued, safe, happy and secure, and to know that they belong to the Lethbridge family.

What children learn

Our curriculum covers all seven areas of learning in the EYFS framework. The three prime areas are communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; and physical development. They underpin the four specific areas: literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, and expressive arts and design. Each half term, learning is planned around a topic that sparks children’s curiosity, and our progression of knowledge and skills builds steadily towards the early learning goals by the end of the year.

Half term and topic	Themes may include	Enrichment
Autumn 1: Marvellous Me!	Ourselves and our families; people who help us; our class and Early Years area; self portraits; our school and local area; harvest; describing change; exploring sounds	Exploring our Early Years area, the school and meeting staff; whole school harvest celebration; oral health workshop; road safety workshop; bread tasting linked to The Little Red Hen story; parent stay and play
Autumn 2: Let’s Celebrate	Autumn; Diwali; Bonfire Night; Remembrance Day; Christmas; birthdays; friendship; winter; ordering and comparing (past and present); our school from above and building maps; celebration music	Forest School; Diwali visitor, art, food and music; Nativity performance; Anti-Bullying Week; threading with different materials
Spring 1: Once Upon a Time…	Traditional tales; Chinese New Year; family tree; wearing the crown - kings and queens; Investigating and map making; musical stories	Old Town Library visit; Forest School; World Book Day; STEM Week and junk modelling; Chinese New Year food, dance and art; musical stories
Spring 2: Nature Detectives	Spring; planting and growing; life cycles; minibeasts; recycling; Easter and Eid; healthy eating; sense in nature and exploring weather; sculpture; music and movement	Forest School minibeast hunt and nature art; planting seeds; Easter bonnet parade; Make a Noise Festival; Jonathan’s Jungle roadshow;
Summer 1: Dinosaurs	Palaeontologists; prehistoric animals and their habitats; big animals; around the world UK and beyond; adventure though time	Fossil hunt in Old Town Gardens; giant nest, egg and footprint discoveries; junk-model dinosaurs; class assembly to parents;
Summer 2: Pirates	The sea and sea animals; looking after the ocean; floating and sinking; adventure through time and significant people; transport through time; exploring world landscape; comparing and contrasting	Pirate Day; junk-model pirate boats; Early Years trip; Sports Day; pizza making; Year 1 class visits

Topics are a starting point, not a script. Themes are adapted each year to follow children’s own interests and to mark the festivals and events that matter to our families.

The areas of learning

• Communication and language. Language is developed all day, every day, through high-quality interactions, group discussions, circle times, stories, singing, rhymes and storytelling. New vocabulary is taught both formally and informally, with a particular focus on ambitious words that children will meet in books and in later learning. Children who need it receive speech and language support.
  
  
• Personal, social and emotional development. Children learn to understand their feelings, follow routines, take turns and make friends. This is taught through circle times, social stories, diversity stories, our school values and the Jigsaw scheme, with support from our ELSA when children need it.
  
  
• Physical development. Fine motor skills are built every day through threading, cutting, weaving, playdough, construction, drawing and mark making, together with Dough Disco and Squiggle While You Wriggle. Children are also supported through targeted interventions to develop an effective position, pencil grip and the pencil control needed for mark making and then writing. Gross motor skills grow through climbing, large equipment, scooters, bikes through daily access to our outside area and weekly PE sessions.
  
  
• Literacy. Adults model a love of reading, sharing a wide range of stories, rhymes, poems and non-fiction every day. Children learn to read through daily phonics and take home books matched to the sounds they know. They write for real purposes, with enthusiasm sparked by our topics and enhancements to continuous provision. Adults teach letter formation alongside the introduction of each letter sound during phonics sessions and handwriting sessions. It is revisited and reinforced within the provision allowing children to consolidate and embed their letter formation skills through purposeful play.
  
  
• Mathematics. Children develop a deep understanding of numbers to 10, including how each number is made, and begin to recall number bonds. They also explore pattern, shape, space and measure, supported by number songs, rhymes and maths-rich play.
  
  
• Understanding the world. Children talk about their own lives and families, explore past and present, learn about different cultures and celebrations, and investigate the natural world through Forest School, welly walks and hands-on science. These experiences lay the foundations for history, geography, science and RE in key stage 1.
  
  
• Expressive arts and design. Children explore art materials, construction, music and role play, and perform on our outdoor stage. Singing is part of every day. Children meet significant artists and different genres of music through the year.

Early reading and maths

Early reading and maths are at the heart of our Reception year. Phonics is taught every day through a systematic synthetic phonics programme, so that children quickly learn to blend sounds to read words and to segment words to spell them.

Half term	Phonics	Number and Number Pattern
Autumn 1	Listening and sound awareness; books without words; first sounds s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d	Develop a deep understanding of numbers to 3.  Say which group has more or fewer.
Autumn 2	Continue with sounds g, o, c, k, e, u, r, ck,  h, b, f, l, ff, ll, ss and first tricky words; reading captions	Develop a deep understanding of numbers to 5.  Comparing equal and unequal groups.
Spring 1	Phase 3 sounds  j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu   Digraphs and trigraphs such as ch, sh, th, ng, ai, ee, igh and oa	Develop a deep understanding of numbers 0 - 8.  Explore odd and even numbers.
Spring 2	Further digraphs and trigraphs such as ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air and ure	Develop a deep understanding of numbers to 0-10.        Adding and subtracting.
Summer 1	Recap and apply; words with adjacent consonants and polysyllabic word	Number bonds to 5.  Sharing quantities equally.
Summer 2	Notation.  Reading and writing longer words and simple sentences with growing fluency	Number bonds to 10, including doubles. Counting up to 20 and higher.

Children read phonics-based books with growing confidence, at home and in school, and their progress is celebrated through praise, WOW displays and class recognition time.

How children learn

Our large Early Years unit and outdoor area give children a rich and varied environment to explore and grow in through their Reception year. Enhanced continuous provision reflects our topic focus and children’s own needs and interests. Children also use the wider school, including the playgrounds, the school forest area and the hall, which helps them to feel part of the Lethbridge family.

Children engage in freely chosen play and in playful activities guided by adults, who understand when to sensitively step in and when to step back. We help children to learn by:

• encouraging them to choose their own play, in a rich and stimulating environment
  
  
• encouraging them to solve problems independently, setting new challenges in a sensitive way
  
  
• providing adult-led times, when new ideas are introduced and adults explain how to do things
  
  
• encouraging them to work together as a team, and to watch and learn from each other
  
  
• supporting them to develop through their own play, using questions and comments to challenge their thinking in a playful yet purposeful way.

As the year goes on, the balance shifts towards more adult-led and small-group learning, so that children are ready for the structure of Year 1.

Our Early Years staff have secure, in-depth knowledge of child development, practical experience and a real passion for working with young children. A high ratio of adults to children means every child gets individual attention, with focused support for language, early reading, maths and personal development. .

Learning beyond the classroom

We are fortunate to be based in such an inspiring part of Swindon, and we use the wider environment and community to bring our topics to life. From fossil hunts and welly walks in the Old Town Gardens and visits to the Old Town Library at the Arts Centre, to Forest School, visits from community police officers and talks from the dentist, these real experiences engage children with the people and places in our local community. They also build cultural capital and widen children’s horizons from the very start of school.

Partnership with parents

Partnership with parents is truly valued at Lethbridge. We begin to build this relationship as early as we can, before children start school, through visits to pre-schools, transition visits to school and phone calls home.

We build on it throughout the year through:

• welcome meetings, new starter coffee mornings and stay-and-play sessions
  
  
• parents’ evenings and an end-of-year report
  
  
• workshops on early reading, phonics and maths
  
  
• open afternoons, performances, festivals and class assemblies
  
  
• WOW moments shared from home, and Me, My Family and My World books
  
  
• reading at home, and an ‘open door’ at the start and end of each day, so that parents can talk to staff at any time.

All staff value what parents bring to their child’s learning and development, and we always make time for parents to be involved in their child’s first year at school.

Inclusion

Every child is entitled to the full Early Years curriculum, including disadvantaged children, children with SEND and children who speak English as an additional language.

• Regular, precise assessment means additional needs are spotted early, and support is put in place quickly.
  
  
• Explicit teaching of ambitious vocabulary supports children whose language is less developed, including those learning English as an additional language.
  
  
• Children who are not keeping up in phonics or number receive extra practice, so that they catch up quickly.
  
  
• Enrichment, visits and visitors give every child, whatever their background, a wide range of real experiences.

Assessment and impact

We measure impact by how well children are developing across every area of learning, and by how ready they are for Year 1.

• Starting points: staff get to know each child before and as they start school, and the Reception Baseline Assessment is completed in the first weeks.
  
  
• Day to day: adults observe children in their play and in adult-led learning, and use what they see to plan each child’s next steps.
  
  
• Phonics and number: children’s progress is checked regularly, so that anyone who needs extra help gets it quickly.
  
  
• End of Reception: teachers judge each child against the early learning goals in the EYFS profile and share this with parents in the end-of-year report.
  
  
• Moderation: judgements are moderated regularly within school and with other schools, so that they are accurate and consistent.

By the end of Reception, our children are confident, curious and independent learners. They have made strong progress from their starting points, are well prepared for Year 1, and have the firm foundations they need for their bright futures at Lethbridge and beyond.