Early Years

At Upton St Leonards C of E Primary School, we recognise the importance of children making a positive start to their formal education.

Welcome to Reception

“Wonder is that magical spark that opens up a child’s heart to learn. This is the true curriculum” – Sally Haughey – EYFS Consultant

At Upton St Leonards Primary School, we recognise the fundamental importance of creating joyful, inclusive and inspirational learning environments and opportunities to allow our children to become lifelong learners. Our mission is to enable all of our children to embrace a love of life, a love of learning and a love of one another; allowing them to achieve a positive start to their formal education.

We have a broad and balanced curriculum that encourages curiosity, love and excitement which promotes high levels of engagement with child-initiated learning at the heart of our provision. We have high expectations for all our children to be the best that they can be and we want your children to achieve their full potential from their starting point.

Our learning environments are an inclusive, safe and stimulating place to be both indoors and outdoors with clearly defined learning opportunities. We want our children to be able to take risks along with knowing how to be safe, particularly in our outdoor environment.

We care very much for each and every child in our classes, and we champion all they set out to do. ‘Love of one another’ is at the heart of all that we do, and we create learners who celebrate and embrace our differences. Our staff have an excellent knowledge of child development which informs the planning and decisions we make.

Our Early Years curriculum is rooted in high quality inclusive texts where our children develop a love of reading from day one. Children are immersed in high quality vocabulary every day to support their language development. High quality adult interactions aid this when they children are engaging in child-initiated learning in our continuous provision.

Take a further look at what our children learn at Upton St Leonards Primary school using the links below.

What do children learn in Reception?

Our learning experiences in our learning environments are driven by the seven areas of leanring and development of the statutory EYFS Framework. These areas are split into three prime areas and four specific areas.

For further information about the seven areas of learning, please see the full statutory  EYFS Framework document below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2

In order for our children to succeed and develop their knowledge, skills and understanding in these seven areas of learning and as they move to Year 1 and beyond, they need to develop the following important learning behaviours which are based upon the ‘Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning’

Please see our Early Years Foundation Stage Policy and current Action Plan below:

Click here to view our Early Years Foundation Stage Policy - USL

EYFS Action Plan 23-24