‘Working together to believe and achieve’
At Ashwood we believe the Early Years lays the foundations for future learning. We recognise that children have the right to feel safe and secure, whilst becoming confident, respectful and independent individuals with an enthusiasm for life-long learning.
Children learn best when they are challenged, engaged, happy and confident. In our Early Years Foundation Stage it is our mission to create an environment where children flourish and develop the Characteristics of a Good Learner. Each classroom has areas and resources which allow them to progress these skills and extend their own learning through carefully planned opportunities, resources and activities which are tailored to the children. We have a shared outdoor area for the children to explore, socialise and develop their skills. The children gain independence through choosing their own learning, taking risks and cultivating their interests.
All of the children in EYFS are working towards the Early Learning Goals and our staff are committed to supporting everyone in achieving their full potential in all areas of their development. Structured sessions to embed Reading, Writing and Maths knowledge are delivered alongside times when the children will develop these new skills, with their peers, during enquiry based learning.
Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn. – Fred Donaldson
We offer provision which supports children’s learning and is based around the latest research; supporting a play based curriculum with a focus on learning through purposeful play.
Our curriculum is carefully planned in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage. We draw on what we know engages and motivates our children, their own fascinations and predictable interests as well as our observations and assessment of their individual stages of development.
Focusing on the children’s fascinations and interests enables them to build and develop skills such as curiosity, concentration, collaboration, creativity and problem solving.
As well as adapting our Enhanced Provision weekly, we use a mixture of adult led and objective led planning which focuses on the child’s individual next steps.
Our team are passionate about promoting the Characteristics of Effective Learning which support our children in becoming self-motivated learners who embrace challenge and are inspired by the adventure of learning. This is used in conjunction with the Early Years Prime and Specific areas of development to ensure that each child is exposed to a bespoke, broad and balanced curriculum.
The Characteristics of Effective Learning are:
Playing and exploring
- Finding out and exploring
- Using what they know in their play
- Being willing to have a go Active learning
- Being involved and concentrating
- Keeping on trying
- Enjoying achieving what they set out to do
Creating and thinking critically
- Having their own ideas
- Using what they already know to learn new things
- Choosing ways to do things and finding new ways
Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum
Our curriculum covers 7 areas of learning. Within these areas of learning, there are three prime areas:
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
…and four specific areas:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
The children have the opportunity to access all areas of learning through an engaging indoor and outdoor learning environment on a daily basis.
Our staff are committed to supporting all our children and provide high quality teaching and learning for all. Our team work hard to ensure the children are safe, happy and make excellent progress during their time with us.
We develop positive relationships with parents through our transition meetings, workshops, parent afternoons as well as communicating regularly through Tapestry, Class Dojo and Twitter. We value our parents as partners and recognise they are the most important people in a child’s life.
Tapestry
Tapestry is an online Learning Journal to securely record photos, videos, observations and comments in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. It allows us to work with parents and carers to view work from school and build up a record of your child’s experiences during their time with us. It also enables parents and carers to share pictures and videos with school in order to inform our planning and assessments of children.