Our EYFS team follows four principles which underpin the care, development and learning of young children.
Uniqueness
Children embrace learning and development in different ways and at different rates.
Personal skills
Every child is a unique child who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
Interpersonal skills
Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
Parent-Teacher Collaboration
Children learn and develop well in an enabling environment in which their experiences correspond to their individual needs, and where there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents
The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is a broad and exciting framework that comprises seven main Areas of Learning.
These are:
• Communication and Language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design
All learning is aligned with the BCA approach to High Quality Learning and the research-informed characteristics of effective teaching and learning in the EYFS:
• playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
• active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
• creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things
Teachers observe this play carefully to enhance the learning whenever we spot a ‘teachable’ moment. From an untrained eye, it would appear that children spend all day playing! Yes, they do! Play is the fundamental process for children to learn. We take a child's natural curiosity to explore, couple this with a teacher's solid understanding of early child development, add the right amount of challenge and thought-provoking questions, and the level of play and learning is deepened.
After Reception, students then proceed into Year 1 of Primary. English is the language of instruction, but learning in an international EYFS setting is typically multilingual, using the students' home language (L1) as the foundation for further cognitive development. Our staff constantly reflect and review the teaching curriculum and environment, ensuring that it is purposeful, inviting and provides a balance of adult-led and child-initiated learning. The children are active, autonomous and free to follow their own interests using both the indoor classroom and outside learning area.