Our EYFS is staffed by qualified teachers and support staff. Practitioners take time to listen to the children and their interests, which often results in both the children and staff going on their own learning journey together. Practitioners plan opportunities and new experiences to provoke curiosity, which supports the development of new interests and ideas. Practitioners know the importance of early experiences and skillfully provide the foundations for lifelong learning. 

Every child is important to us and we celebrate diversity. At Central Primary, there is a great emphasis on the learning environment to maximise learning opportunities.  Practitioners often use new, real or interesting objects as provocations for the children to explore and investigate, which helps to deepen their knowledge and understanding. They also plan learning sequences carefully and provide the tools children need to retrieve prior knowledge in a range of situations and experiences. As a result, the children know and remember more.  Our aim is for every child to flourish and become the best they can be; leaving EYFS with independence, confidence, and as caring, responsible young learners who are ready for Key Stage 1 with a real love of learning.    

As each child makes their journey through the EYFS, they will engage in a carefully selected range of key texts. The high quality texts drive our curriculum; they are selected to enthuse, motivate, reflect and extend interests. Practitioners ensure the learning environments reflect the key text and previous key texts.Across the phase, story maps are developed with the children and as a result, the children build up a familiar bank of stories that they are able to retell using great expression. ‘Book hooks’ in each learning space are used to promote excitement and curiosity amongst our learners, and expose them to a repertoire of literature.    

Our calming and focused learning spaces are language rich and are carefully designed to support children to:  

*Plan, predict and speculate Investigate, explore and use information 

*Solve problems, work things out and find solutions 

*Reason, use logic and make connections 

*Create, imagine and fantasise 

*Reflect, recall and encounter new experiences 

*Interact socially and evolve flourishing friendships 

*Develop independence in selection of resources  

*Retell key texts and develop oracy  

Nursery  

Our Nursery environment comprises indoor and outdoor learning spaces, accessed by each key group. The spaces are designed to promote independence and to provide children a plethora of opportunities through a delicately balanced, play-based approach. Children regularly engage in sensory activities as well as activities which help develop their personal, social and emotional skills, their communication and language skills and physical development; these are known as the prime areas within the Early Years Foundation Stage. Children are given opportunities at every turn to build relationships with other children and staff. We give children real experiences where possible; for example, cutting up fruit, using real sized resources and caring for animals.  We encourage children to manage and take risks, and ensure the environment is set up to allow for this. We support children in their ideas and theories and in their exploration and experimentation.     

Developing language and communication is a key focus for us in Nursery. Our practitioners provide targeted language enrichment by systematically adding and modelling the next steps in each child's language journey to improve sentence length, vocabulary, use of verbs and tenses and conceptual understanding.  Early literacy skills are developed at every opportunity, ensuring children are ready to access phonics in Reception.  A concrete, pictorial approach to Mathematics is continued in Nursery with daily planned opportunities to develop mathematical knowledge and skills. The mathematics sequences of learning in Nursery provide children a fundamental mathematical understanding, ready to begin their NCETM Mastering Number Programme journey as they move into Reception. 

Reception

The following spaces have been created to ignite excitement, provide rich experiences, maximise opportunities to develop Mathematics and Literacy kills and to develop rich vocabulary.

The Theatre inspires imagination, allows children to learn about themselves and the world around them, and to step into new make believe worlds. Children engage in dramatic play, where they learn to accept and assign roles, and then act them out. It is a time when they break through the walls of reality, pretend to be someone or something different from themselves, and dramatize situations and actions to go along with the roles they have chosen to play.  The Theatre offers many realms of expression from story telling, small world, performing, singing, dancing, and role playing. 

The Studio is a place for artistic exploration, a laboratory for trying out ideas and playing with different media and materials. It is a space where children can design, play creatively and follow their own interests and curiosities. The rich range of resources provided inspire creativity, expression, imagination, a sense of identity and enable children to develop rich vocabulary in meaningful contexts. Many learning opportunities are provided through resources such as clay, textiles, a sandpit, painting, drawing and a STEM centre. 

The Learning Hive is a space for focused learning activities, with emphasis on developing early Maths and Literacy knowledge and skills.  Practitioners plan with a clear outcome in mind and are skilful in sequencing learning effectively for learners.  Children are given daily opportunities to learn phonics and maths in small groups and follow the Read Write Inc programme and NCETM Mastering Number Programme. In addition, Launch Pad for Literacy is used as our approach to develop the skills needed for Reading and Writing. The hive also includes a science lab where children are able to conduct scientific investigations. The children gain first-hand experiences by performing experiments that support their understanding on scientific concepts. 

The central space in Reception includes an artefact area with real life objects from the past. Handling artefacts allows the children to use their senses to promote curiosity. The area provokes questions and supports the children to develop understanding and make connections between past and present. It evokes opportunities to talk about similarities and differences and allows the children to begin to imagine life in the past, before they were born.

The central space also includes story areas. It provides a relaxing space to revisit key texts in small groups. The Areas are carefully planned using displays and storytelling props to create multi-sensory experiences.