EYFS

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) at Langdon Academy is a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment where children aged 4-5 are supported to develop into confident, curious, and happy learners. We believe that every child is unique and deserves a high-quality education that meets their individual needs to help them achieve their full potential. 

Key features: 

• A well-resourced learning environment with a wide range of activities and resources; 
• A dedicated team of qualified and experienced staff; 
• Strong partnerships with families and the wider community; 
• A focus on outdoor learning and play; 
• A commitment to providing a high-quality education for all children. 

 Our Aims: 

• To provide a safe, secure, and stimulating environment where children feel happy and confident; 
• To support children's development in all areas of learning, including communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development, literacy, and mathematics; 
• To foster children's curiosity, energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and problem-solving skills; 
• To ensure children develop positive relationships with their peers and all adults; 
• To prepare children for the next stage of their education, while ensuring they have a positive experience of learning.

Key Principles: 

• Play-based learning: We recognise the importance of play in children's development and provide meaningful opportunities for children to explore, experiment, and learn through play; 
• Child-centred approach: We value each child's voice and interests, and create an inspiring indoor and outdoor learning environment that is responsive to their individual needs and supports them in their learning; 
• Development of Communication and Language: Language acquisition, communication skills, vocabulary and literacy development are essential for early childhood development.  We help children understand the world around them, express their needs and feelings, and build relationships with others. 
• Partnership with families: We work closely with families to support their children's learning and development at home and at school.  Good parenting and high-quality learning provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up. ocus on the whole child: We recognise that children's development is holistic, and we support their physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development.  We want them to be resilient, capable and successful in all that they do. 

  Our Curriculum 

  We follow the Early Excellence Curriculum Model:

  The Continuous Provision provides the basis for a rich and meaningful curriculum.  It consists of a well-planned and carefully organised indoor and outdoor learning environment, which support children’s predictable interests, developmental schemas and innate curiosity.   

  The Enhanced Provision is used to complement and extend opportunities.  These two aspects work in tandem to provide a clear structure for active learning.  Together, they support children’s self-initiate play and provide the basis for more focused investigations and adult directed activities.    

  Directed Activities are well planned and are part of the whole school curriculum to ensure that the children have the key skills and knowledge that they need so that they make a successful transition into year 1 and beyond. 

  Characteristics of Effective Learning describe the behaviours children use in order to learn.  

  Playing and Exploring	Active Learning	Creative and Critical Learning
  ENGAGEMENT Finding out and Exploring  Playing with what they know  Being Willing to ‘have a go’	MOTIVATION Being involved and concentrating  Keep Trying  Enjoying achieving what they set out to do	THINKING Having their own ideas  Making links  Working with idea
  We support children to understand that sometimes learning can be challenging, but if we keep trying, we can achieve our goals.	We support children to understand that learning isn’t just about listening or reading.  It is about being involved and doing things.  This could mean experimenting, building or creating.	We support children to understand that when we connect new information to things we already know, it helps us to understand it better.    We support children to understand that learning how to solve problems is a valuable skill.  It helps us figure things out to come up with new ideas.

  Directed Activities	Enhanced Provision	Continuous Provision
  Curriculum through focused discussion and group activities    Read to Write (Literacy)  Little Wandle Letters and Sounds (Literacy)  Big Cat (Literacy)  White Rose Maths/Number Sense (Mathematics)  Cornerstones Curriculum/Charanga (Expressive Arts and Design/ Understanding the World)  Jigsaw (Personal, Social and Emotional Language)  PEPro – (Physical Development)  Communication and Language is planned throughout    Adult focus  Leading discussion, shaping ideas. Listening and responding to children, direct teaching if concepts, skills or knowledge	Curriculum through resource stimulus, interactive display, visits and visitors.    Enhanced provision extends learning by enabling children to further develop their ideas and interests.    New resources, books, equipment or artefacts are made available for a fixed period of time, often for a few weeks, in response to what practitioners have observed children need next.     Enhancements build on:  Predictable or emerging interests  Seasonal themes or ‘topics’  Local events or news that the children can relate to   Story ideas and themes  Linked to directed activities     Adult Focus  Introducing new ideas and resources, role modelling possibilities, setting a clear framework for children’s use, providing time for exploration etc.	Curriculum through high quality indoor and outdoor learning environment  Continuous provision is the solid foundation for learning and teaching, underpinning and giving contest to all other activities.   We use the term continuous provision to describe the provision areas available to children every day in the classroom.      In each of these areas is a core range of resources that children can access all the time.    The resources and the way they are organised remains constant throughout the year, offering children a familiar environment in which they can develop sustained play, practise new skills and extend their ideas over time.      Each area is enriched appropriately across the year to support progression.    Planned well and with effective adult interaction this provision ensures that learning can be both enjoyable and challenging.   Adult Focus  Following not leading.  Playing alongside to observe and identify interest/learning sensitive interaction and supportive intervention involving conversation, role-modelling, responding to and suggesting ideas, making links to previous experiences, wondering out loud, asking questions