Early Years
At Thomas Whitehead CE Academy we are early adopters of the revised EYFS framework, 2020-21
| EYFS early adopter framework |
What is the Early Years Foundation Stage?
Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which is how the Government and early years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5. This is a very important stage as it helps your child become ‘school ready’, as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes. At Thomas Whitehead we believe that the early years experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; whilst supporting the Children’s development, care and learning needs.
How my child will be learning?
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework explains how and what your child will be learning to support their healthy development. They will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.
There are three prime areas of learning which are:
These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.
As children grow, these prime areas of learning help them to develop skills in four specific areas. These are:
Welcome to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which is how the Government and early years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5. This is a very important stage as it helps your child become ‘school ready’, as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes. At Thomas Whitehead we believe that the early years experience should be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure; whilst supporting the Children’s development, care and learning needs.
How my child will be learning?
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework explains how and what your child will be learning to support their healthy development. They will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.
There are three prime areas of learning which are:
- Communication and language
- Physical development
- Personal, social and emotional development
These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.
As children grow, these prime areas of learning help them to develop skills in four specific areas. These are:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive arts and design
Phonics
We use the ‘Letter and Sounds’ programme to teach phonics whilst also drawing on a variety of other resources from other schemes such as ‘Phonics Play’ and ‘Jolly Phonics’. It aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills.
We use the ‘Letter and Sounds’ programme to teach phonics whilst also drawing on a variety of other resources from other schemes such as ‘Phonics Play’ and ‘Jolly Phonics’. It aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills.
- Pre-school teaches Phase 1 phonics for 10-15 minutes, every day, to all pupils through active and engaging activities and songs.
- Nursery teaches Phase 1 and 2 phonics for 20 minutes a day, on alternate weeks, to all pupils. This consists of interactive and engaging activities to support the children’s developing basic phonic knowledge.
- Reception teaches Phase 3 and 4 phonics for 20 minutes daily, to all pupils. Active and engaging activities are used to support the student’s developing phonics knowledge. By the end of Reception, we aim to ensure that all our children are secure in their Phase 2, 3 and 4 phonetic knowledge. As a result, identified children also participate in phonic interventions to support their individual needs and to meet this target.
