“When we give every child the best start in their early years, we give them what they need today. We also set them up with every chance of success tomorrow" Development Matters 2023

Subject Leader: Bea Roberts

The early years of a child’s life are a crucial stage where the foundations for all future development are established. In our Reception and Nursery classes at Christ Church, we foster the child’s own interests, needs and stages of development and offer activities which extend, enrich and develop potential both inside and outside the classroom. We believe that children learn best through meaningful play based experiences. Within our early years classrooms, children will experience both adult led activities with a specific learning intention, and child initiated play where they can create their own experiences using the broad range of resources available to them. Learning that takes place outdoors is as valuable as that which happens indoors, and our provision endeavors to reflect this. 

We provide a variety of trips and events throughout the year for all the children, to enrich their knowledge and understanding of the world around them and support their learning in all areas. 

Parents and carers are their children’s first educators and we appreciate and value this. We work closely with parents to create a partnership that will support your child now and throughout their school career. Staff meet regularly with the school Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) to ensure early identification of additional needs and appropriate support being implemented. 

The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is broken down into seven areas of learning. These are: 

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

We use the Government's Development Matters Guidance (2023) and Birth to Five Matters to guide our learning experiences and assessments of the children. 

Using these documents as a guide we have created an early years curriculum which is ambitious and ensures progression throughout the academic year in all subjects. 

In addition to this we follow a Systematic Synthetic Phonics scheme and the NCETM Maths scheme in Reception, which we have found to be very effective for the early teaching of phonics and maths. 

Above all, we feel that we are a happy and inclusive setting, where every child, and every family, whatever their individual abilities or needs, is equally valued, welcome and supported. We look forward to welcoming you and your children.