Early Years Curriculum Overview

The Early Years at The Pines is an exciting place to be, full of joy, creativity and amazing learning from the youngest children in our school. 

The overarching principles, a unique child, positive relationships, enabling environments and learning and development (as outlined in the EYFS statutory framework) are central to everything that we do, including our curriculum design. Throughout the year, planning and teaching will be sharply focused on individual children’s next steps, using Development Matters and whole school skills progressions to inform these next steps. We are moving towards a ‘planning in the moment’ approach to working across the whole of the Early Years Foundation Stage.  

Each half term, children’s learning is anchored in a high-quality text (in Reception) or theme (in Nursery), which will provide a rich variety of opportunities for life-experiences; vocabulary and language development; real-life publishing of writing; as well as enjoying a wide range of linked stories, poems, songs and non-fiction texts. It is important to note that in Nursery, the Prime Areas of Learning take forefront in all planning.

We strive to provide every child with the BEST chance at achieving the Early Learning Goals by the end of the Reception Year. 

Learning Environment

At the Pines, we are privileged to have a spacious, exciting and well-resourced EYFS. Both the Nursery and Reception classrooms and outdoor spaces are set up for independent access of resources, enabling children to pursue their own fascinations. Children free flow between the inside and outside spaces giving them the freedom to learn in a way that best suits their needs and interests. We are continually updating and improving our environments based on the needs and interests of each cohort but just some of the things you would find set up at the moment are: sandpits, water trays, sensory tuff trays, mark making and writing opportunities, junk modelling and creative areas, gross motor equipment such as balancing beams, large tyres, crates and blocks, small world resources, roleplay areas, snack tables stages and musical instruments, maths areas, investigation areas, playdough tables and more!

Weekly Learning Letters

To keep parents and carers fully updated about the current learning in the Early Years, we post weekly ‘What we are Learning’ letters to our class pages. Please find links to these pages below. Our Nursery Class is called Beech and our Reception Class is called Elm.

Development Matters

Please use the link below to access Development Matters.