EYFS
‘Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood’ – Fred Rogers
Welcome to our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). This is the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5 and we think it is the most important stage of their development, as it helps your child become ‘school ready’ as well as preparing them for their future learning and successes.
We are extremely proud of our Early Years Foundation Stage here at Illogan Primary School. We understand what makes children successful learners and make sure that we provide the children with endless opportunities to develop these skills. Our qualified and experienced staff are strongly committed to the development of language, physical and social skills alongside the development of early reading, phonics, writing and maths. The children are enabled to learn these skills rapidly through high quality, meaningful play experiences which make learning fun!
It is our priority that children develop a positive self-awareness, an understanding and respect of themselves and others regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender. We also believe that children should receive a broad, deep and balanced curriculum. At Illogan, we have developed a bespoke curriculum that is inspiring and creative for all our learners as well as taking into account National Curriculum requirements. As a result, we teach all of the foundation subjects in a context (where possible) and each topic is rich in experiences, opportunities for educational visits, drama, art, RE, music and P.E.
Every half-term there is a new topic for the children to learn about and explore. These topics are carefully planned and take into account the children’s interests and schemas of learning. The topic usually begins with an educational visit or experience in school. The reason for this is to excite and inspire the children, whilst providing a real experience where children can see, make, handle artefacts, gather information and take part in role-play, in order to learn and understand as much as possible. These visits also help the child with their understanding and will deepen and broaden their learning across the curriculum.
Each topic reaches its conclusion with a memorable event. This can take many forms including opening a minibeast hotel, rock pooling at the beach or even staging a superhero day. These are all designed to showcase the learning that has taken place and the curriculum skills they have learned. Where possible, we invite parent and carers to join in the celebration and share their children’s learning journey.
Below is our EYFS Illogan Heart which summarises our intent and vision for our Early Years at Illogan:
Here is our curriculum overview:
EYFS Leader: Mrs Bright