Foundation Stage
At St. Andrew’s C.E. Infants’ School we value the importance of the Foundation Stage to a child’s development. We endeavour to build relationships based on care, trust and mutual respect, within a caring and supportive Christian environment.
Our curriculum is based around the principles of the Development Matters in the Early Years document. This sets out the 7 curriculum areas that we plan for daily and supports us in making judgements that cover the 3 Characteristics of Effective Learning.
The 7 curriculum areas are:
Prime Area
- Personal, Social & Emotional Development
- Physical Development
- Language & Communication
Specific Areas
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Art & Design
The 3 Characteristics of Effective Learning are:
- Playing & Exploring – Engagement
- Active Learning – Motivation
- Creating & Thinking Critically – Thinking
The prime areas underpin everything we do, with the specific areas allowing us to ensure the children have a wide range of experiences and learning opportunities. The curriculum is planned for in termly topics; we try to use a book as the way into each topic and plan for adult lead activities as well as independently chosen activities that allow the children to further their learning with minimal adult support. We also encourage the children to do their best and strongly believe that it is the role of an adult to demonstrate and model good practise to the children.
The Foundation Stage at St Andrew’s C.E. Infants’ School is effective because we have practitioners who understand the curriculum and are able to implement the curriculum requirements. They have high expectations of the children and understand that children develop rapidly during the early years – physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially and that all areas of learning and development are equally important and inter – connected.
Learning outdoors is a key part of the Foundation Stage curriculum and at St. Andrew’s we try to ensure that the children have daily acces to an outdoor space. During each week there are set times when classes are able to use the Foundation Stage play space as a learning environment.
By the end of the Foundation Stage we would like to see that all of our children are independent and highly motivated learners, that have acquired the skill needed to support them on the rest of their school journey.
Foundation Years | From pregnancy to children aged 5
The Foundation Years website is the best place to find information and support if you work in the early years and childcare delivering services for children and families. The broad range of information accessible on this site is developed by government, professionals and the voluntary and community sector and is continually updated with the latest news, information and resources.