“Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high-quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.” (Early Years Foundation Statutory Framework, 2021)

The three characteristics are:

• Playing and Exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
• Active Learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
• Creating and Thinking Critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things

Seven Areas of Learning

The EYFS framework includes seven areas of learning and development, all of which are seen as important and interconnected but three areas are seen as particularly important for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, for building their capacity to learn and form relationships and thrive. They support children’s learning in all other areas and are known as the prime areas.

Prime Areas

• Communication and Language – Listening, Attention and Understanding and Speaking
• Physical Development – Gross Motor and Fine Motor Skills
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development – Self-regulation, Managing Self and Building Relationships

Specific Areas

The specific areas of learning develop essential skills and knowledge for children to participate successfully in society. The specific areas are:

• Literacy – Comprehension, Word Reading and Writing
• Mathematics – Numbers and Numerical Patterns
• Understanding the World – Past and Present, People, Culture and Communities and The Natural World
• Expressive Arts and Design – Creating with Materials and Being Imaginative and Expressive

Our Curriculum

We believe many children need to be given a starting point to learn new things and find topics are a great way to fire imagination. Our topics are flexible to ensure we also follow the children’s interests, school themes and local or national events. Every half term, staff plan the next topic, and book visits and visitors that will enhance the learning of our children. Staff plan in more detail on a weekly basis using daily notes, observations and interactions with children to inform where the learning journey should move to.

Enabling Environments

Our learning environments are engaging and exciting but most importantly relevant to the needs of our children. Our indoor and outdoor environments are designed to allow children to access resources and learning opportunities independently. All environments are adapted on a regular basis to support and challenge all children.

Working with Parents

We believe that parents and carers are a child’s first educator and therefore work very closely to ensure they are involved in what we do with their child at school. Tapestry (an online learning journal) supports school and parents in sharing learning with each other. Parents can upload photographs of the experiences they are sharing with their child at home. We want parents to feel they can speak to us about their child at any time and feel comfortable in our setting. Our door is always open!

Parents are invited to ‘Parent Events’ every half term. These events have a focus to show parents what type of activities children complete in school. For example, a phonics, mathematics or a healthy eating parent event.

Below are some useful websites that you can access to support your child’s learning at home.

At Airedale Infant Academy we are proud to be ‘50 Things Champions’. 50 Things provides a local offer to families, guiding them to places to visit, and fun things to do on their doorstep. Parents are shown how to make best use of their local libraries, museums, parks and wild spaces – helping to promote community cohesion at the same time.

In school 50 Things activities are carefully selected and children participate in a several activities each half-term. At home parents/carers are directed to activities to complete as part of a homework challenge.

Enrichment

Throughout EYFS your child will have the opportunity to be involved in a range of activities to enhance their life experiences. Children have the opportunity to experience a wide range of activities, designed to encourage co-operative working and good social skills. We are pleased to be able to provide a range of opportunities through small group work, creative art and music as well as sport. Children have many opportunities to work with visitors in school and go on visits into the community and further afield.

Impact – By end of Early Year Foundation Stage, all children will have achieved their best. We strive for children to achieve a Good Level of Development and achieve at least good progress across all areas of learning.
Our assessment judgements are moderated both in school and with other schools in our trust. We also partake in local authority moderation which has validated our school judgements.
EYFS work closely with subject leaders to ensure staff have good knowledge and understanding of how the Early Learning Goals link to the National Curriculum.

Impact – By end of Early Year Foundation Stage, all children will have achieved their best. We strive for children to achieve a Good Level of Development and achieve at least good progress across all areas of learning.

Our assessment judgements are moderated both in school and with other schools in our trust. We also partake in local authority moderation which has validated our school judgements.

EYFS work closely with subject leaders to ensure staff have good knowledge and understanding of how the Early Learning Goals link to the National Curriculum.

For more information about EYFS please follow the link to read our nursery brochure.

If you would like to apply for a place at Airedale Infant Academy’s Nursery please complete the Admissions form and return to school.