Curriculum in Early Years
Our whole school curriculum stems from the foundations we lay in EYFS. Our EYFS curriculum has been crafted to work in unison with our whole school goals. Anchored by the same THRIVE values, we have an aspirational curriculum that inspires creativity, collaboration and curiosity at the roots.
Beginning with our Transition package, we spend time getting to know your children, the settings they arrive from, the experiences they have already gathered and the family values that surround them. Understanding your child's interests and passions gives us key to unlocking learning! Our curriculum is crafted using these keys. Our Mouse Transition Project has been running for many years now. We gift your child with a mouse at the start of school and this helps us to support your child to be ready for school and develop the home-school bond that is so integral for us.
With a firm foundation of interests and passions, staff carefully plan an exciting learning environment called our Learning Landscape.
This canvas of inside and outdoor activities is considered our third teacher! You can see images of this using this Learning Landscape Link.
The learning landscape and adult led activities are developed using the progression of skills. Children engaged in our Learning landscape are scaffolded in their 'play' by adults called 'Early Learning Friends' who play alongside your children and discretely introduce new vocabulary, new concepts or skills. Staff have engaged in lots of training to ensure that they are not imposing during these interactions and in the comfort of play, we find the highest quality learning takes place! Magic moments are sprinkled into each term to provide memorable experiences linked to our Enquiry Topics.
The scheme Read Write inc. is introduced in week 2. Children follow this scheme for their daily phonics sessions and this is a scheme that continues into Key Stage 1.
Our whole school PSHE Scheme called Jigsaw is also used in Reception . This scheme is explained in the whole school curriculum pages. We also ensure PSHE is covered in a variety of other ways in the day to day timetable. You can see a PSHE overview here.
We follow the principles of ‘Drawing Club’. Drawing club is not a scheme but an approach. This is used throughout the year as a precursor to Literacy Tree in KS1 (whole school writing scheme) and beyond. We decided that Drawing Club aligns with the needs of our youngest children, promoting a love of writing from a young age and reducing the formality of writing.
Drawing Club suits our children because it approaches writing in an imaginative and informal way, to maximise the number of children choosing to mark make and write about their interests and ideas. It lays the perfect foundations to lead into the whole school Literacy scheme- Literacy Tree.
Magic Wednesdays in EYFS allows us time dedicated to the Prime Areas of learning- PSED, Physical and Communication. Activities are planned in a carousel arrangement, so children access targeted, exciting tasks such as; Cookery Club, Craftanoon, Lego Club and Nature Group.
The children follow termly Enquiry topics. These topics are broad and ensure we can complete a hybrid of 'in the moment' planning and adult-directed tasks. You can see the Medium Term plans for EYFS using this Medium Term Plan Link.
As children progress to the Summer Term, staff work closely with the Year 1 teachers to ensure that children have a successful, enhanced transition into Year 1. The Year 1 teachers meet the children at their levels and the Learning Landscape continues for the first term.
At Swanwick Primary School, we are dedicated to fostering a nurturing environment where children can thrive academically, socially and emotionally.
Progression of Skill Documents
This link will take you to 7 documents matching the 7 strands of the Early Years Curriculum. We have created these using non-statutory frameworks and (most importantly) practitioner knowledge and experience.
We use these skill guides to support planning within the unit. Practitioners use these to identify the needs of the cohort, groups and individuals. The progression of skills scaffold our practice to ensure all children progress and achieve!
Swanwick Primary School
South Street, Swanwick,
Alfreton, Derbyshire, DE55 1BZ
