Early Years Foundation Stage

(EYFS)

Timberley Academy has Nursery 1 for 2-3 year olds, Nursery 2 for 3-4 year olds and three Reception classes (4-5 year olds).

Nursery 1 

We offer 15 free hours each week available for eligible 2 year olds.
Session times are Monday to Friday 8.30am to 11.30am or 12.30pm to 3.30pm, term time only.
Children are eligible for their free hours starting from the term after their 2nd birthday.

Take a look at our admissions policy under the key information tab for our admissions criteria.

If your child is not eligible for a funded place, sessions are available at a cost of £8.50 per session.

In Nursery 1, we do not offer 30 hours or full time places.

Nursery 2

15 hours free for all 3 and 4 year olds.
Session times are Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 11.30am or 12.30pm to 3.30pm, term time only.
Children are eligible for their free hours starting from the term after their 3rd birthday.
Take a look at our admissions policy under the key information tab for our admissions criteria.

In Nursery 2, we do not offer 30 hours, full time places or any paid childcare.

At Timberley, we believe good attendance is essential if children are to be settled and take full advantage of the learning and development opportunities available to them whilst at nursery. At a young age, continuity and consistency are important contributors to a child’s well-being and progress. Regular and punctual attendance is paramount so that all children have full access to the curriculum. Valuable learning time is lost when children are persistently absent or late.

Our Curriculum Statement

Intent

At Timberley Academy, we work hard to deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework which sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to five years. This gives children a secure foundation and enables them to be thoughtful, independent, resilient citizens, giving them the knowledge and skills needed for a successful future in our diverse world. We intend on developing a curriculum, which appropriate for the children in our care and ambitious.

It is our intention that children experience the seven areas of learning, reach the Early Learning Goals at the end of the Foundation Stage and make good progress from their starting points. Learning is planned to support communication and language development, personal, social and emotional development and physical development as well as literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and expressive arts and design.

Implementation

Learning takes place through a balance of whole class/group teaching and play based learning. This is through the children’s interests, themes, continuous provision and the direct teaching of reading, writing and maths. The broad and balanced curriculum is designed to meet the needs of individual pupils including SEND, EAL and disadvantaged, and small groups of children within the environment of high quality first teaching supported by targeted interventions where appropriate. We endeavour for pupils to be ready for the next phase of their education.

We focus on promoting the more general concepts of Fundamental British Values within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and understand that the children’s development within these areas is key to promoting the values in the long term. We believe that Cultural Capital is about giving children the best possible start in life and their early education. We know that some children arrive to us with different experiences from others, in their learning and play. We tap into children’s interests in order to build on their knowledge and skills, and introduce them to new experiences.

Impact

Our curriculum and its delivery ensure that children make good progress. Children in our early years, on average, arrive with much lower starting points than national expectation for their age and some arrive with complex needs. As such, we prioritise personal, social and emotional development and communication and language in the Nursery curriculum. As children move on into Reception, we invest time and energy into helping them set and reflect on their own goals by aiming high and developing a love of reading, writing and number. During their time in our EYFS, children make rapid progress so that we are closer to the national expectation for GLD at the end of the year. Children also make good progress toward their age-related expectations before transitioning into Year One. 

Fundamental British Values and Cultural Capital in the EYFS

There are four British Values that we promote: Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Democracy, Mutual tolerance and respect. These four values all fit within the categories of Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSE) and Understanding of the World (UtW).We focus on promoting the more general concepts within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and understand that the children’s development within these areas is key to promoting the values in the long term.

Rule of Law (understanding rules): links to PSE - self-regulation, managing self and building relationships

• Help children understand boundaries and acceptable behaviour
• Help children think about keeping safe away from danger
• Ensure that children understand their own and other’s behaviour and the consequences and learn to distinguish right from wrong
• Collaborate with children to create the rules and the codes of behaviours e.g. the rules about tidying up and that children understand rules apply to everyone.

Individual Liberty (freedom for all): links to PSE - self-regulation, managing self, UtW - people and communities

• Help children understand that they have the right to feel safe and not frightened
• Help children to understand feelings and teach the language of feelings
• Teach children to say ‘no’ if they don’t like/want to do something
• Encourage a range of experiences that allow children to explore the language of feelings and responsibility, reflect on their differences and understand that we are free to have different opinions
• Develop a positive sense of themselves. Provide opportunities for children to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem, and increase their confidence in their own abilities

Democracy (making decisions together): links to PSE - self-regulation and building relationships

• Build children’s self-esteem, self-awareness and self confidence
• Build children’s ability and willingness to say what they want/need and to speak up for themselves knowing they will be listened to
• Support the decisions that children make and provide opportunities that allow taking turns, sharing and collaboration
• Respect each other’s views and values and talk about their feelings e.g. when they need/don’t need help

Mutal tolerance and respect (treat others as you want to be treated): links to PSE - building relationships, self-regulation, managing self, UtW - people and communities

• Help children deal with conflicts by talking, explaining their motives and negotiating e.g. help with sharing toys
• Teach children to treat others as they would want to be treated themselves
• Share stories that reflect and value the diversity of children’s experiences and providing resources, activities and trips that challenge gender, cultural and racial stereotyping
• Teach the children about cultural events and festivals

Cultural capital

We believe that Cultural Capital is about giving children the best possible start in life and their early education. We know that some children arrive to us with different experiences from others, in their learning and play. We aim to tap into children’s interests in order to build on their knowledge and skills, and introduce them to new experiences. This may include; finding books on a child’s favourite topic, creating role-play activities that further their interest in a particular idea, taking trips in the local area, or organising visits from community figures such as the police. It is up to us and in partnership with parents that children experience the awe and wonder of the world in which they live, through the seven areas of learning.

Statutory assessment in the EYFS

Two year old progress check

When a child is aged between two and three, practitioners must review their progress, and provide parents and/or carers with a short written summary of their child’s development in the prime areas. This progress check must identify the child’s strengths, and any areas where the child’s progress is less than expected.

If there are significant emerging concerns, or an identified special educational need or disability, practitioners should develop a targeted plan to support the child’s future learning and development involving parents and/or carers and other professionals, for example, the provider’s Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator

(SENC0) or health professionals as appropriate.

Reception Baseline Assessment: Information for Parents

Overview

The reception baseline assessment (RBA) is a short, task-based assessment of your child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school. It is statutory for all schools from September 2021.

The assessment can take place at any point in the first 6 weeks of your child starting reception. The assessment will form the start of a new measure of how schools are helping their pupils to progress between reception and year 6.

Your child does not need to prepare. There is no pass mark or score and your child should not realise they’re doing an assessment.

What the assessment involves

During a short one-to-one session with their teacher or teaching assistant, your child will do a number of practical and interactive tasks.

Your child can answer questions verbally or by pointing or moving objects. The assessment has been designed to be inclusive and there are modified materials available – this means it is also accessible to children with special educational needs or disability (SEND) or English as an additional language (EAL). The teacher may pause the assessment at any time, for example, if a child needs a break.

What the assessment measures

The tasks are carefully designed to assess early mathematics, literacy, communication and language skills.

What you need to do

You do not need to do anything. Your child is unlikely to even know that they are doing an assessment when they are completing the tasks.

Why the assessment is being introduced

The assessment provides a better starting point to measure the progress a school makes with their pupils throughout their whole time at primary school, between reception and year 6.

How the data will be used?

Children will not ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ the assessment; it will provide a snapshot of where they are when they start school in the reception year. The results of the assessment will not be used by government to track or label individual pupils, or to judge the performance of early years’ settings.

The data from the assessment will only be used at school level to measure the progress of the year group from reception to year 6. The data from the assessment, including numerical scores, will not be shared with parents, pupils, teachers, or external bodies, including schools. There will be no published score.

The RBA privacy notices explain what personal data is collected and how this is processed, including your child’s data.

What will be reported to you

Teachers will receive narrative statements on how your child did, which will tell them how your child performed in the assessment. Schools are not obliged to report the narrative statements to you as a matter of course. However, schools must share the narrative statements with you upon your request.

Early Years Foundation Stage Profile 

In June of their Reception year, teachers make a summative assessment of children and report whether they are Emerging or Expected against each of the 17 Early Learning Goals. These judgements are moderated within school. Staff also attend moderation meetings organised by the Local Authority. The judgements for this are made using a ‘best-fit’ approach. The information is shared with you via the end of year school report and is shared with Year 1 teachers who use this to inform their planning in Year 1.

 If you would like your child to attend our Nursery setting, please complete an application form and return it to the school office.