EYFS
“Play is the highest form of research.”
Albert Einstein
“Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play.”
Henri Matisse
The staff and children here at Holy Cross Primary School are very proud of our Early Years Foundation Stage and the children love coming to school to learn. We work closely with parents and our local community and believe that all children, including EYFS should have an inspiring educational experience filled with fun stimulating opportunities to learn and succeed. We want our children to develop their curiosity and have a life-long love of learning. We understand the importance of fostering the knowledge and skills that are necessary as the foundations for their future education. We enjoy extending children’s learning through focusing on their interests and weaving that into their daily curriculum to create a rich and entertaining learning environment, both indoors and outdoors, with children having first hand experiences.
Our aim for our EYFS environment is to be highly creative and dynamic on a day-to-day basis. Our EYFS staff like to join in with the games with the children in their play to extend their learning deeper. You will often see us having fun dressing-up, joining them cooking in the mud kitchen or stimulating their curiosity through their chosen activity. By putting ourselves into the narrative of their role-play and involving ourselves in their play, children in the EYFS learn most successfully through this way and can create their own learning experiences with our support and guidance. This helps them to develop their strengths and build on their knowledge and understanding. Our aim is for every child to reach their academic potential, which has led us to create an environment which doesn’t limit the children’s thinking but gives them open-ended stimuli.
Our EYFS team promotes inclusive strategies within our teaching environment. These strategies include using a step-by-step approach, teaching in small and short sessions with lots of practice and repetition. We provide opportunities for success to build self-esteem and know that children learn in a variety of ways. We therefore vary our types of instruction; including verbal, non-verbal and visual, and most importantly we get to know the individual and what works for them.
Our commitment to the safeguarding and welfare of all pupils is demonstrated through the creation of a safe environment in our classrooms where all pupils feel valued and have a voice. It is our belief that children need to feel comfortable, happy and have the ability to self-regulate before they can even begin to learn.