Our Philosophies and Aims
We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Curriculum, using the DfE Development Matters document to inform weekly planning.
At Whitemoor Academy our philosophy "Learning for Life" is introduced right at the start of the school journey during Nursery and the Reception years. We embed a shared vision for our pupils to develop a love of learning that will carry them through the rest of their lives.
We have developed a carefully planned, sequential and challenging Early Years curriculum, which allows all of our pupils to become independent and confident learners. We balance a child initiated approach through our Continuous Provision and discrete adult taught sessions to ensure that children learn the knowledge and skills needed in preparation for Key Stage 1. Each half termly topic begins with an enquiry based question and we start by gathering the children's prior knowledge and initial thoughts for starting points.
EYFS staff use the ShREC Approach to engage with children during child-led learning to help develop communication and language skills and support children's personal, social and emotional development.
We believe that children should be involved in making decisions about their own learning and so we bring their fascinations and interests into our planning, which promotes high levels of engagement and wellbeing.
Scroll the photos below to see the children in Whitemoor's Nursery and Reception class enjoying their learning.
Continuous Provision
Our Continuous Provision is carefully planned to ensure that we provide an environment that allows children time, space and opportunity to embed and refine their learning. We use a high quality core set of resources which are built up throughout the year as children develop their skills. We include enhancements for a hook into our current enquiry question for our new topics of learning. You can find our more about our curriculum in the Class 1 Curriculum map linked below.
The Areas of Learning and Development
The Early Years Foundation Stage consists of seven areas of learning and development that shape our EYFS curriculum, they are all important and inter-connected:
- Communication and Language
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
- Playing and Exploring - Children investigate and experience things, and 'have a go'
- Active Learning - Children concentrate keep on trying and enjoy achievements
- Creating and Thinking Critically - Children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas and develop strategies for doing things
