"Love God, Love Learning, Love Life"

Corvedale Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School & Nursery

Early Years Policy

The Early Years Foundation Stage at Corvedale Nursery represents the education and care of the children in the Nursery.

Nursery children have a key person allocated to them as they start Nursery. These Key people will support and form a strong attachment with the child, to ease transition from another setting or the home environment. The key person will be responsible for working with their children one to one and will become a crucial element to the child’s learning

and development. All members of staff are suitably qualified to work with the

children.

Appropriate staff-pupil ratios for under-fives and 2 year olds are maintained. The Early Years staff plan and organise teaching, learning and resourcing the curriculum both independently and as a team.

Admissions

Nursery accepts children from the age of 2 years. Each child eligible for Two4U funding is eligible to 15 hours funded sessions. Children aged 3 and over are also eligible for 15 hours funded sessions and if they wish to attend more sessions, they will be charged at £3.90 per hour, term time only.

New children are encouraged and invited to attend Nursery to come and play, with their parents accompanying them, on a number of occasions. As children feel happy and begin to settle, they are able to spend extended periods of time away from their parents/ carers. The settling in procedure will be tailored to meet the unique and individual needs of each child at their home to help this process.

Children will start at school in September if their birthday falls on or before 31^st August. Deferment from school is an option if a parent wishes so and this will be negotiated with school and parents and Shropshire Council.

In preparation for the transfer to Reception (Class 1), there is encouragement for all nursery children to visit school for taster sessions in the term before they start school. The Early Years teacher, Mrs Rook, visits Nursery regularly to familiarise herself with the children and ‘child initiated’ play sessions’ with reception class are frequent.

Nursery children spend a considerable amount of time throughout the academic year, within main school, be it school dinners, P.E, forest school and sharing assemblies and are therefore able to have a smooth transition to school life.

Mission Statement

Here in the Nursery at Corvedale, we seek to create an environment that is engaging, responsive and stimulating and caring; this encourages and nurtures a child’s natural curiosity and ability, developing active and creative minds. Empowering each child to realise their full potential to become a unique independent individual is achieved through a sense of understanding, building self-esteem and positive learning experiences and relationships.

Our mission is best accomplished by:

• Providing a curriculum adhering to holistic teaching methods and the Early Years Foundation Stage, informed by current thinking, research on child development and learning
• Dedicated team of staff keen to embrace their own professional development for the benefit of Corvedale Nursery
• Provide a safe, orderly, caring and stimulating environment.
• Fostering a love of learning
• Recognising that personal growth includes a responsibility to others.
• Admiration and respect for each child’s unique qualities
• Developing and maintaining a respectful partnership with parents/carers, family, guardians, early year’s professionals, teachers, students and the wider community, with the best interests of the child at heart
• Inclusion of diverse perspectives and cultures
• Nurturing every child’s natural curiosity for learning and support full holistic development of each child, through compassion and kindness
• encouraging independence and confidence
• Providing a personalised learning journey document for each child’s experiences within our setting in close partnership with families

We consider the Early Years is extremely important, both in its own right and in preparing children for later schooling. The Early Years team at Corvedale build upon the children’s current and previous life experiences. We provide a stimulating multi-sensory learning environment to enable children to develop to their potential in all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage. The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (revised September 2021) builds on other Early Years education. There are seven areas of learning

within the curriculum and they are divided into Prime and Specific areas of learning.

The three Prime Areas are:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development

The three Specific Areas are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding of the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

Within the seven areas of learning the children will participate in activities that allow children to play and explore, to be active learners, to be creative and to think critically.

The Early years Foundation Stage curriculum provides exciting, broad and balanced learning opportunities in a safe, secure, creative and happy environment for all children.

Aims

• Provide a stimulating, enjoyable, warm, caring and secure environment where pupils feel valued and develop respect for others
• Provide a curriculum and a learning and teaching environment which is appropriate and meaningful, and which enable pupils to develop creative thinking and independent learning
• Create a happy and caring community by fostering secure relationships and sensitivity towards others and their views, ‘share, care and be fair’, and understand to understand the importance of working in a team
• Create an environment where pupils continue to be curious, inquisitive and creative learners
• Create an environment where the pupils have opportunities to learn about other cultures and communities
• Provide a broad and balanced curriculum where pupils have opportunities to consolidate their knowledge and understanding and to succeed in all areas of learning
• Foster children’s increasing independence and sense of responsibility for their own belongings and for their learning
• Celebrate achievement by praise and encouragement, promoting self-esteem and self-motivation
• Assess continually what pupils already know and can do, then plan to build on this
• Involve parents in their children’s learning, by forming strong partnerships between home and school life
• Provide staff with professional development

Social, Emotional and Personal Development

The Early Years staff considers that the physical and emotional needs of children must be addressed if they are to learn effectively. We believe that learning is maximised in a low-stress, but appropriately challenging environment. The aim is to develop children’s emotional literacy and self-esteem through regular circle time activities, exploring emotions through stories, role-play and games. In the Early Years, fostering positive partnerships with parents is particularly important in order to achieve these aims.

Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunities

The aim is to meet the needs of all children, including those who are more able and those with special educational needs through planning opportunities that builds upon and extends children’s knowledge, experiences and interests by:

• using a range of teaching strategies based on children’s learning needs
• providing a supportive learning environment in which the contribution of children is valued
• Individual Education Plans or their equivalent, where appropriate, that have short term focused objectives and which are reviewed regularly
• using resources which portray positive images of specific and differing needs and diversity, and are free from discrimination and stereotyping
• using festivals, cooking, stories and music to reflect, celebrate and extend awareness of diversity

Corvedale Primary School’s Special Educational Needs coordinator acts as SENCo for Nursery as well and may liaise with outside agencies including the local authority. (See

SEN policy) Likewise the School’s Designated Safeguarding Lead acts on behalf of the Nursery.

Learning, Teaching and the Curriculum

Learning and teaching in the Early Years involves a balance of adult led, adult – directed and child-led and child-initiated approaches to learning through the EYFS curriculum. The EYFS provides a broad and balanced framework to meet the needs of new-born babies to five year olds. A wide range of learning and teaching approaches are used in the Nursery. Some work is topic based and some is directly planned as a result of a child’s special interest.

There is long term planning which covers all 7 areas of learning, and plans and direction is taken from a theme, country or special interest observed. Long term planning is an overview for staff to meet the learning goals and learning objectives of the EYFS. Medium planning links the broad overview of the long term plan and the more detailed short-term plans.

Short term planning focuses on suggested activities for daily planning for all areas of learning. These allow for flexibility, modification and revision of learning activities that are formed by ongoing assessments and observations, as well as spontaneous events and child initiated learning through creativity and independent learning. Nursery planning is kept on the kitchen wall and is used to inform the next steps in each child’s learning and development.

Teaching and learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage takes account of the spontaneous and integrated nature of children’s learning. It acknowledges that such learning is not necessarily sequential and that young children need time and opportunities to consolidate and extend their learning in their own way.

Time is provided for adults to listen to children and for observational assessment of this incidental learning, which contributes to pupil tracking, assessment for learning and future planning.

The Indoor and Outdoor Learning Environment

The learning environment in the Early Years reflects the need for physical space in children of this age and is arranged to meet the needs of individuals, groups and the curriculum. Resources are of good quality and quantity. Additional resources may be provided and the environment may be reorganised to enhance pupils’ play and learning. Opportunities are provided for children to choose resources independently and to engage in extended periods of play. They also have the opportunity to choose whether they would like to play inside or outside or have ‘free-flow’. Use is made of the extensive opportunities offered by the whole school environment. The on-going development of the ‘garden area’, (mud kitchen & kitchen garden, forest school area) further enhances outdoor learning, encompassing all areas of the curriculum.

Play and Creativity

We consider that play is the means through which children make sense of the world, exploring and developing their learning experiences. We believe that young children do not distinguish between ‘work’ and ‘play’ and that play provides opportunities for children to think creatively, practise ideas, communicate with others and understand the need for rules. Storytelling, drama and music, creative weeks and activities and independent learning are areas we are particularly focussing on.

Continuity and Progression

All members of the nursery work together closely as one team. Staff meetings provide the opportunity for staff to discuss policy, practice, pupils and performance. Early Years children are encouraged to take increasing responsibility for their needs and to begin to think about their own learning and understandings, with adult support. Children learn and play together regularly throughout the year, for sessions including charity fund raising events, creative days and weeks and performances for parents.

The Early Years Leader and the Early Years staff meet regularly to discuss pupils, pupil transfers and curriculum issues regarding the children.

Observations, Annotations and Assessment

Continual assessment takes place using evidence from observations both planned and unplanned from all areas of learning, assessing attitudes, responses and learning. This informs future planning and provides an indication of progress. Written observations of progress contribute to regular updates of children’s progress and the ‘next steps’ are automatically identified.

The EYFS records are transferred from Nursery and other settings, to inform the Early Years teacher of how each child has progressed and their next steps in their all-round learning. EYFS records for Nursery children are continually updated throughout the year, alongside the children’s Tapestry records, which contain numerous photographs and observations. These records contain important information about each child’s learning, progress and activities completed at nursery; parents are encouraged to comment on Tapestry and share news and photos. Staff add observations, details of activities and evidence of EYFS learning.

Home-Nursery and Community Partnerships

We value parents’ role in their children’s learning and we have the commitment to work together. Apart from daily and weekly communication, both verbally and through Tapestry, we are always available to talk to parents, both in the Nursery room and if more privacy is required, then in the office. Other regular communication to support their children’s settling into school and continuing progress, includes regular newsletters.

Qualifications, Monitoring and Evaluating

Early Years staff are well qualified and experienced in this distinctive phase of learning. They are enthusiastic and reflective practitioners, whose continual professional development and training needs are supported through school and Shropshire Council run, early years courses. All Early Years members of staff take part in annual reviews allowing for reflection of practice and consideration of future training needs.