Great Wood School

"Aim high... and make a difference"

Beaufort Road, Morecambe, LA4 6UB
01524 416971
office@greatwood.lancs.sch.uk

EYFS

The EYFS Curriculum at Great Wood covers all seven areas of learning and development set out in the Statutory Framework. It is shaped by our children’s individual needs and aims to offer a wide range of activities and experiences. Based around quality texts to encourage language development and a love of reading, there is also the flexibility to cater for children’s interests and current events. We bring learning alive, making it exciting and stimulating. We want to give our children a thirst for learning that continues with them throughout their future school experiences and lives.
There are three prime areas and four specific areas that we cover.
The prime areas are:

Communication and Language

Communication and Language is a focus throughout all areas of learning; we ensure a language-rich environment and promote quality interactions between adults and peers.
Quality texts are used to engage children, encouraging the development of new vocabulary, conversation, story-telling and role play.

                            

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

At Great Wood we value the importance of emotional wellbeing and successful PSED is crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives. We nurture positive relationships between children and adults and their peers, and with the

help of our Great Wood Values, children learn how to understand their own feelings and the feelings of others. We promote healthy living, learning how to look after our bodies, manage our needs independently and stay safe. These attributes provide a secure platform from which children can achieve at school and in later life.

Physical Development
We ensure children are involved in physical activities to develop fine and gross motor skills, and emphasise how they contribute to a happy body and mind. Children are supported to develop their core strength, stability, balance, spatial awareness, co-ordination and agility through physical play outdoors and PE lessons.

Fine motor skills help with control and hand-eye co-ordination and are closely linked to handwriting and literacy. Regular ‘Funky Fingers’ activities provide opportunities for children to develop the strength and confidence they need to use a range of tools and equipment.

English

As a school we want children to develop a life-long love of reading. We use a wide variety of stories and non-fiction texts to help children develop language comprehension and word reading. Children are encouraged to read a wide range of books, enjoy rhymes and poems and engage in storytelling. Daily phonics helps children develop the decoding skills they need to become independent readers.
Alongside phonics, a wide range of writing opportunities are provided to stimulate and engage children in learning to write.

Mathematics

The children develop a strong grounding in number and lay the foundations for their future maths learning. Children learn to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers. A wide range of opportunities are provided, both indoors and outdoors, for children to build and apply this understanding. We also link our learning about shape, space and measures to real life experiences. Children are encouraged to ‘have a go’ and talk about their ideas and thinking.

                                   

Understanding the World

Understanding the world is about making sense of the physical world and communities; it encompasses Science, History, Geography and Religious Education. Various experiences and learning opportunities are planned to help broaden the children’s knowledge and sense of the world around them.   



Expressive Arts and Design

This area is all about developing children’s imagination and creativity. Regular opportunities are provided to allow children explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. They are encouraged to think creatively, express their ideas, talk about what they have done and review their work. As well as developing art and design skills, the children also learn about some famous artists so that they can begin to interpret and appreciate the art of others.

 

 

Our yearly overview gives a general indication of how we plan for the children’s learning over the year. Our curriculum is delivered through a combination of direct, whole class teaching, adult led activities and continuous provision, both indoors and outdoors. Children are supported to develop their learning through a range of guided and child-initiated activities. Next step plans are produced regularly for children’s physical development and English and Maths progress, to ensure that all staff know where children are currently at with their learning and how to move them forwards.

Reception Yearly Overview 2022-23