EYFS / Foundation Stage (Year Reception)

Learning in our Early Years classes is a joyous journey of discovery. Children are active participants in their learning, acquiring new knowledge and skills, developing their thinking, taking and managing risks and working independently and in groups. Our aim is for pupils to become happy, independent, kind and confident learners. At Manby Lodge children learn through self-initiated play and adult led play based activities.

Play is essential for children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, to think about problems, and relate to others. – (Practice Guidance for Early Years Foundation Stage 2012)

Play can help children to develop positive attitudes towards learning such as:

  • finding an interest
  • being willing to explore, experiment and try things out
  • knowing how and where to seek help
  • being inventive-creating problems and finding solutions
  • being engaged and preserving with a task
  • making choice and decisions
  • playing and working collaboratively with peers and adults.

The best outcomes for children’s learning occur indoor and outdoor, when most of the
activity in a child’s day is a 50:50 balance of;

  • Child initiated play, actively supported by adults.
  • Adult led learning, with adults guiding the learning through playful activities.

At Manby Lodge we are fortunate that we have a large outdoor area, some of which is covered by all-weather canopies. Children move freely between the indoor and outdoor environments, engaging in variety of playful learning experiences. In addition we encourage children to venture into all three Reception classrooms, enabling them to maximise their learning opportunities.

Alongside long periods of time in exploratory play, children have a daily structured phonics, maths and circle time session or topic based play which teaches new skills and knowledge. Within our continuous provision children have many opportunities to embed these skills and knowledge within their play.

Each week, children engage in a PSHE session as well as attending a Multi Sports session that is supported by sports coaches.

Carefully planned experiences across the curriculum capture the children’s imagination and build on their developing skills across the year. We follow a loose curriculum guide to ensure pupils have access to new experiences.

Phonics and reading
Phonics and reading is paramount in EYFS and is taught from day one in Reception.The Scheme we follow is Essential Letters and Sounds – Oxford University Press. For more information about Phonics at Manby Lodge click here.

Click here for the ELS Progression Map

Book sessions that include stories, rhymes, non-fiction and poems, with the whole class happens daily, sometimes more. The teaching of writing is also woven into the daily practice. For further information please click here for the English Long Term Planner.

Maths
Maths is also taught daily in EYFS. We use NCETM ‘Mastery Number’ as a scheme and we add to this with planning inspired by White Rose to prepare children for learning about ‘shape, space and measure’ in Year 1.

For the Maths Long Term Plan click here.

Please see our Calculation Progression Guide for more details.

This Subject Overview Grid shows how the learning in all other areas progresses from Reception through to the end of Year 2.