Early Years
In the Early Years at St Margaret Ward, the children are at the centre of all that we do. We are passionate about helping the children in our care develop their potential as we strive to find the key to unlock what makes them unique.
We recognise that all children have had many different experiences before coming to our school and that these experiences will have shaped their development and interests. Our aim is to create a happy, secure, language rich environment which enables all children to achieve well. We foster strong links with parents or carers so that we can encourage two-way communication and better outcomes for the children.
Our early years setting follows the curriculum as outlined in the latest version of the EYFS statutory framework that applied from September 2021. The EYFS framework includes seven areas of learning and development that are equally important and inter-connected. However, 3 areas - known as the 'prime areas' - are seen as particularly important for igniting curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building children’s capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive.
Each day, we aim to develop the children’s learning in a range of ways through a mixture of adult-led and child-led activities while also valuing the importance of the children having time to explore their own interests. We follow certain themes each half-term which provide a guide for learning. However, we are flexible to the changing nature of children’s needs and interests and therefore also adopt a planning in the moment approach. This way, when we engage with children in provision, we are able to identify an area for development and work with the child in that moment to help them to develop or progress further.
We know that communication and language are key to the children’s achievements in all areas and the wider school, so we always plan that at the heart of what we do. We work hard to enhance areas within the classroom to promote language development as much as possible. As a team, we observe, support, challenge and teach continually acknowledging the importance of quality adult interaction and the modelling of language across all seven areas of learning.
Our EYFS Policy (click on the link) gives more details about our approach.