At William Booth, we offer early years education for children aged 3-5. We have a nursery class and a reception class who are taught separately but join together as a unit during independent learning.  This is where the children lead their own learning and access resources independently with adults supporting and extending the play as well as developing language.

The Characteristics of Effective Learning form the foundation for all learning. These are:

1. Playing and Exploring
2. Active Learning
3. Creating and Thinking Critically

We provide opportunities for children to develop knowledge, skills and understanding across the seven areas of learning.  These are split into the Prime areas; Communication and Language, Physical Development, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and the Specific areas; Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design.

The committed and passionate EYFS team all work together in Unit 1 to ensure all children have an enjoyable start to school life. They continually strive to develop and improve in ways that enhance the learning and progress of the children.

Our curriculum is two fold. Firstly, we want our children to acquire knowledge in line with the whole school curriculum, providing a foundation for subsequent learning to take place. We follow a whole class teaching model to allow all children to be given the same opportunities to progress together. All children’s experiences over their time in EYFS are arranged to build knowledge and skills they will need for their future learning as they move through school.

The second part of our curriculum is a child led curriculum where children follow their own fascinations and interests. During this time children are developing their speech, vocabulary and conversation skills, learning how to interact with their friends and adults, negotiating and taking turns, resolving conflicts, practicing their GEMS, learning how to be kind, learning how to follow rules and routines and developing their fine motor and gross motor skills.

Our curriculum is also implemented through an enabling environment that encourages children to be curious, independent and to follow their own interests. Our physical environment is beautifully presented, open ended and enticing with resources that are freely accessible to the children. Our emotional environment is nurturing, safe, and happy for children and adults. Integral to our continuous provision are high quality adult interactions, which contribute to delivering our curriculum intent.

At William Booth we pride ourselves in the relationships we build with our families throughout their child’s school life.  We begin by visiting children in their homes in order to meet them in their own environment where they feel comfortable and safe. We then welcome all parents and children to visit the foundation unit together prior to starting, to allow them to get to know the school and develop confidence in exploring our environment together.  We then work closely with parents to tailor a staggered entry into school depending on the needs of their child.  As the children move up through EYFS and into the rest of school we continue to value the role parents have in their child’s development and we hold regular parents meeting, to learn valuable information about the children and to inform parents of the progress their children are making at school.