Early Years FOUNDATION STAGE

Our Vision

At Chillingham Road, we believe a quality Early Years education should focus on the development of the ‘whole child’. We enable this through a child-centred, play-based approach.

Our rich learning environment, paired with quality-first teaching ensure that each child experiences daily learning opportunities through:

• playing and exploring
• active learning and
• creating and thinking critically.

At Chillingham Road, we foster the needs of the ‘unique child’ through enabling children to develop positive relationships, independence and skills for life-long learning. Our children’s interests are central to their overall  development and we actively plan these into our curriculum.

We also actively promote children’s well-being so all children become happy, confident, and reflective learners.

Our Intent 

It is our intent to ensure that our ‘Chillizens’ make the transition to the next stage of their education fully equipped for the  challenges ahead and confident in their own ability to overcome them.       Our curriculum’s purpose is to:

• Spark young imaginations, allowing our children to discover new interests and passions that capture their unique minds.
• Stimulate high levels of curiosity and discussion through open-ended questioning and high-quality interactions allowing children to question ideas and seek challenge.
• Strengthen existing knowledge and skills through regular, active practise and using this as a foundation for developing abilities.
• ...and Succeed as they transition into the next stage of their education.

Our Implementation

 Our EYFS curriculum has been carefully tailored to our children, their immediate environment and our vibrant local area and  community. The curriculum we offer is engaging, accessible and well designed to ensure children take the incremental steps needed to  achieve the end of year Early Learning Goals

We ensure that our practice meets all of the requirements detailed in the updated Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (2024), whilst implementing all safeguarding and welfare requirements laid out in the document.

The Four Principles of the EYFS

 Within the EYFS Statutory Framework are four fundamental principles that guide and inform our daily practice:

The Seven Areas of Learning and Development 

Our curriculum is build around seven defined areas of learning. Each area is important and plays an important part in each child’s early education. The areas are interdependent and often connect through activities and  experiences.

Three of the areas are defined as being Prime Area and describe universal core aspects of early child development.

The other four areas are known as the Specific Areas that help to reinforce and apply the Prime Areas.

  The Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning

Our EYFS curriculum is further strengthened through the careful consideration of The Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning, a set of overarching principles that describe effective behaviours that children use in order to learn. Much like the Seven Areas of Learning, these characteristics are interconnected and often can be observed working together in the play of children in the EYFS.

Impact

 Our Curriculum, delivered through an effective combination of a well resourced continuous provision, adult-led learning and lots of child-initiated learning, will ensure that our children are equipped with the fundamental skills needed to succeed throughout their education. It provides a foundational base of knowledge and  understanding that unlocks future learning and eases transitions between key stages. To guarantee that our Intent and Implementation is having an Impact, we assess children in the following ways:

The Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) is a statutory, activity based assessment to gather information on children’s starting points in language, communication and literacy and mathematics on starting their Reception year. The assessment is completed in the first six weeks of Reception and takes around 25 minutes to deliver.

We employ an ongoing cycle of observation, planning and assessment at Chillingham Road that actively involves children’s activities and interests in the future planning of activities and experiences. Through this tailored approach we can more effectively meet our children's emerging needs with careful consideration of their existing knowledge and skills, building proficiency step by step.

 Assessment in the Early Years

We also assess our children’s progress in more concrete ways:

• We use ‘Evidence Me’ to capture the children’s daily interactions with the learning environment through photos and videos, noting their efforts when working within the continuous provision.
• We also record ‘WOW Moments’ via ‘Evidence Me’ when a child has made considerable progress in one or more area of learning. Both the daily posts, and children’s ‘WOW Moments’ are shared with parents through the app.
• We use floorbooks in certain areas of learning, such as PSED and Understanding The World to record children’s thoughts and feelings on a range of subjects and add photos and drawings to capture taught sessions and enhancements in the continuous provision.
• At the end of the Reception Year we complete the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile, and report children’s attainment across the Seven Areas of Learning to parents, carers and share the resulting data with the child’s year 1 teacher. The EYFSP provides a comprehensive, informed measure of a child’s      progress at the end of the EYFS. The breakdown of each Early Learning Goal is detailed on the following page.

Early Learning Goals

The EYFS Core Canon

 Our EYFS Core Canon is a selection of engaging, high-quality children’s books that are read and enjoyed by our children throughout the year. Each book has been carefully selected by its content, themes, characters and narratives to ensure that they can be enjoyed time and time again. The Core Canon contains classics from the past, contemporary authors and is representative of the diverse community that we are a part of. By the end of each year, our children will know these stories inside out!

Our School has 30 places per year group with a 26 place Nursery and a 24 place play group.

For all admissions whether for the start of the school year or during the school year the same admission criteria, outlined below, will be applied.

•  Having a child in the play group is no guarantee they will gain a place in the Nursery.
• Having a child in the Nursery is no guarantee they will get a place in the Reception class.
• Places for the Nursery and Reception classes must be applied for each year separately.
• Families should apply to the school for places in the Playgroup and the Nursery Class.
• Families should apply to the Local Authority for places in the Reception Class.

Playgroup

Chillingham Road has a full time (term time only) Playgroup.

Children are admitted three times a year at the start of each term (September, January and May). Applications for Playgroup need to be made directly to the School. Admissions forms are available from the school office or from our website. Details of the admission policy and process can be found in> Our School > Admissions.

Big Playgroup

Chillingham Road has a part time Big Playgroup.

This offers children in Nursery the opportunity to take 30 hours if required and can provide a step up towards Nursery for our older playgroup children. Children are admitted three times a year at the start of each term (September, January and May). Applications for Big Playgroup need to be made directly to the School. Admissions forms are available from the school office or from our website.

Nursery

Chillingham Road has a 26 place part time (15 hours) Nursery.

Children attend all day Monday, Tuesday and on the Wednesday morning.  Children are admitted each September. Applications for the Nursery need to be made directly to the School. Admissions forms are available from the school office.

Chillingham Road has a 30 place Reception Class.

Applications for reception places need to be made to Newcastle City Council. Unfortunately, a place in Nursery does not guarantee a place in reception. Families will receive information from the Council regarding the application process.