Intent 

At Luddington and Garthorpe Primary School we believe that all children deserve an education rich in wonder and memorable experiences that allows children’s natural creativity and curiosity to flourish, alongside the purposeful acquisition of skills and knowledge. We believe that an education that does all of this gives children the best chance to become well-rounded, happy individuals, ready to succeed in an ever-changing world. At Luddington and Garthorpe Primary School we recognise the importance of giving our children the best possible start to their education by planning and implementing teaching and learning opportunities that supports them in reaching their full potential. We know that our children enter the Nursery and Reception classes with varied life experiences and we aim to plan teaching and learning opportunities accordingly to address this. 

The Development Matters document (2021) along with the Foundation Stage Early Learning Goals (2021) set out end of reception year expectations for children by the end of the Foundation Stage. Luddington and Garthorpe Primary School recognises the crucial role that Early Year’s education has to play in providing firm foundations upon which the rest of a child’s education is successfully based. Our curriculum is the cultural capital we know our pupils need so that they can gain the knowledge, skills and understanding they require for success. They can only do that if we embed the right habits for learning through the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning – Play and Exploration, Active Learning and Creative and Critical Thinking.  

It is our intention to provide, within the context of our school Mission Statement, a broadly enriched, rounded and stimulating learning environment where children can work with adults and peers in a climate of mutual respect to develop: 

• The social skills necessary to learn. 
• The emotional capabilities to enable them to understand their feelings and to solve problems. 

• A unique child 
• Respect for themselves and others 
• Confidence and self-belief 
• Make and take well considered risks 
• High expectations of themselves 

As the children who enter our Nursery have varied experiences, we aim to prioritise personal, social and emotional development and communication and language in the Nursery curriculum, as well as promoting physical development through everyday activities and challenges.   Our enabling environment and warm, skilful adult interactions support the children as they begin to link learning to their play and exploration. As the pupils move into Reception, we invest time and energy into helping pupils set and reflect on their own goals by aiming high and developing a love of reading, writing and number.  This is delivered through a curriculum which maximises opportunities for meaningful cross-curricular links and learning experiences as well as promoting the unique child by offering extended periods of play and sustained thinking following children’s interests and ideas.  We value imagination and creativity and seek to create a sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning through a vibrant continuous indoor and outdoor provision, alongside trips, visits and forest school sessions.  

Implementation 

At Luddington and Garthorpe Primary School we meet the welfare requirements laid down in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2021). We actively safeguard and promote the welfare of all of our children. We recognise that children will learn most effectively when they are healthy, safe and secure, when their individual needs are met and when they have positive relationships with the adults who care for them. We aim to provide a setting that encompasses a safe and stimulating environment where children are able to enjoy learning and grow in confidence that helps them to achieve their fullest potential. 

We meet the legal requirements for: 

• Safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare. 
• Providing suitable adults with appropriate qualifications, training, skills and knowledge. 
• Maintaining records, policies and procedures for the safe and efficient management of the setting and to meet the needs of the children. 
• Planning and organisation to ensure that every child receives an enjoyable and challenging learning and developmental experience tailored to meet their individual needs. 

The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2021) reflects the three prime areas and four specific areas of learning identified in the Early Learning Goals, all of which are equally valued at Luddington and Garthorpe Primary School. These experiences our children meet through a healthy diet of both adult initiated and adult directed activities, child initiated and a problem solving approach to learning, enabling them to develop a number of competences across all areas of learning. The Early Learning Goals are in line with the National Curriculum and provide the basis for planning throughout the Foundation Stage.  

Pupils learn through a balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities.  The timetable is carefully structured so that children have rigorous directed teaching in maths and phonics everyday with communication and language as well as PSED threaded throughout all our sessions. These sessions are followed by group work where children work with a member of staff to further develop their understanding and interests.  This focused group time means the teacher can systematically check for understanding, identify and respond to misconceptions quickly and provide real-time verbal feedback which results in a strong impact on the acquisition of new learning.    

Children are provided with plenty of time to engage in ‘exploration’ throughout the variety of experiences carefully planned to engage and challenge them in the provision. The curriculum is planned for the inside and outside classrooms and equal importance is given to learning in both areas. The curriculum is planned in a cross-curricular way to enable all aspects of the children’s development including understanding the world and expressive art and design as well as to promote sustained thinking and active learning. 

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum.  New to this year, children will follow Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds with fidelity and all children will be blending words by Christmas. At Luddington and Garthorpe Primary School, we use a variety of high quality texts to link in with our ‘I wonder’ topics each half term. These texts are then enhanced with additional texts to support children’s love of books, stories and information and are used to develop familiarity and comprehension. Communication and Language plays an incredible role in all children’s learning, and we want children to develop a wealth of vocabulary through reading, communication with peers, communication with adults and music. At Luddington and Garthorpe School, we recognise nursery rhymes provide bite-sized learning opportunities for young children to develop key developmental skills and can often be the trigger for hours of creative and open-ended play. They are a powerful learning source in early literacy and enable children to become interested in the rhythm and patterns of language. Therefore, we focus on a key nursery rhyme each week to support this. 

We follow the White Rose Maths Scheme in Reception with an emphasis on studying key skills of number, calculation and spatial awareness so that pupils develop deep understanding and the acquisition of mathematical language.  Pupils learn through games and tasks using concrete manipulatives which are then rehearsed and applied to their own learning during exploration. Nursery pupils begin to develop these key skills during daily maths meetings where they explore cardinality and counting, comparison, patterns, measures, shapes and early composition. These early mathematical experiences are carefully designed to help pupils remember the content they have been taught and to support them with integrating their new knowledge across the breadth of their experiences and into larger concepts.  

Our inclusive approach means that all children learn together but we have a range of additional intervention and support to enhance and scaffold children who may not be reaching their potential or moving on children who are doing very well. This includes, for example, Project NELI; our communication and language intervention group for children who have been identified as ‘not on track’ or additional ‘keep-up’ sessions in phonics, whether this be groups sessions or 1:1 sessions.   

Luddington and Garthorpe Primary School provides a safe, stimulating outdoor learning environment in order to enhance teaching and learning in engaging, problem solving, investigative and explorative ways. Children have daily opportunities to access the outdoor environment which also enables them to increase their levels of physical activity. Children also have the opportunity for a weekly adult directed physical development activity and have the opportunity to access the Forest School adjacent to the outdoor environment. Children’s learning is enabled within the outdoor learning environment which is seen as an extension of the classroom within which children are encouraged to use and apply their newly acquired knowledge and skills through outdoor learning opportunities that also engages all pupils in a positive way with their local, natural environment. 

Throughout the Nursery and Reception years as part of the learning and teaching process, children will be assessed in relation to their progress towards Development Matters (2021) and the Early Learning Goals. These judgements are made on the basis of accumulative observations and in depth knowledge of the children acquired through ongoing assessment. These ongoing assessments are used to inform planning and next steps in teaching and learning for all children throughout the year. End of year assessments are finalised during the summer term, summarising each child’s development at that point against the Early Learning Goals and Development Matters.  

We use Tapestry to make note of observations which inform our planning and next steps and also ‘flag’ children who we may need to identify as having an area of concern. This allows us to monitor the progress of children over time and provides opportunities to make reflections on children. All EYFS staff members can see and concerns and reflections which enables them to skilfully move the children forward in the best way possible.  

Impact 

Our curriculum needs to meet the needs of our children, including our disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND, so we spend time looking at and evaluating how children are learning.  This is achieved through talking to children, looking at their work, observing their learning experiences and analysing data and progress by class, groups and individuals. Every member of staff uses ongoing observational assessment to identify children’s starting points and plan experiences which ensure progress. 

With the successful implementation of both an enriched, rounded and balanced curriculum and a well-structured, safe, active and challenging learning environment, both indoors and outdoors; children will be able to develop the skills, knowledge and understanding that enables them to be successful learners.  

Children will be actively engaged in learning and their enjoyment of this learning will be apparent to all.  All children will have experienced a curriculum that provides, exciting and enriching learning experiences and opportunities for children to learn through educational visits and hands on experiences. Children will more fully appreciate and understand the world around them, experiencing and learning about different cultures, music, dance, art, history, geography and science. Children will actively ask questions about the world around them and their learning experiences and they will never fear making a mistake but instead see this as an opportunity to learn.  Children will be able to make links with their learning develop their skills as they are able to use and apply skills learnt within their learning across the curriculum. Children will also be skilful at solving problems and they will have effectively developed their personal levels of resilience and independent learning skills. Children will be successful learners and fully prepared for the next stage of their education as they transition from Foundation Stage to Year One. We also aim to help children to make sense of the world around them, to develop tolerance, compassion and an understanding of their rights and the rights of others in an ever evolving world. Children at the end of Foundation stage will have developed essential knowledge and skills required for everyday life and lifelong learning.  

Children at Luddington and Garthorpe School will be well rounded, happy, inquisitive and successful learners.