• Language

Westover Green Community School and Autism Centre

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

What is the Early Years Foundation Stage?

The Early Years Foundation Stage(EYFS) is the period of education from birth to five years old. At Westover Green, EYFS pupils are taught in our two Reception classes – Plum and Mulberry Classes.

The Early Years Curriculum at Westover Green

Our Intent

We believe that the EYFS is the foundation for future learning and life. We aim to provide a safe, stimulating, and nurturing environment where children can explore, play, and learn. Every child is recognised as a unique individual and we celebrate and welcome differences within our school community. We strive to provide a curriculum which is inclusive, responsive and meaningful and allows all pupils the opportunity to succeed and make progress from their own starting points. We recognise the need to follow children’s interests while providing the structure to develop key knowledge and skills and enabling the children to be ready to move on to Key Stage 1 with curiosity, resilience and a genuine love of learning.

Our implementation

Our curriculum is structured around the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage Framework (EYFS) (updated September 2025). We focus on the holistic development of the child through the three Prime Areas and four Specific Areas, underpinned by the Characteristics of Effective Learning:

  • Playing and Exploring: Children investigate, experience, and 'have a go'.
  • Active Learning: Children concentrate, keep trying, and enjoy achievements.
  • Creating and Thinking Critically: Children have their own ideas, make links, and develop strategies.

Core Areas of Learning

The Prime Areas (Foundation for success):

  • Communication and Language: Developing listening, attention, and speaking skills.
  • Physical Development: Building gross and fine motor skills through active play.
  • Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Fostering self-regulation, independence, and strong relationships.

The Specific Areas (Broadening knowledge):

  • Literacy: Fostering a love of reading and early writing skills.
  • Mathematics: Developing numerical patterns and problem-solving.
  • Understanding the World: Exploring communities, the natural world, and technology.
  • Expressive Arts and Design: Nurturing creativity through art, music, and imaginative play.

Our Approach

  • Play-Based Learning: We blend child-initiated play with adult supported learning challenges and small group or whole class direct teaching to provide breadth and balance and enable the children to build strong foundations across all areas of development. Progress is monitored through daily and on-going observations by the teaching team which inform planning and provision and enable us to meet the needs of individual pupils. This means that timely interventions can be implemented to challenge or support and secure to progress across all areas of learning.
  • Outdoor Learning: In addition to our weekly Forest School sessions, our outdoor environment is used daily to encourage problem solving, exploration and physical activity. Outdoor play and break times offer further learning opportunities with older pupils helping to facilitate a range of play activities and foster a sense of belonging.
  • Partnership with Parents: We work closely with families, recognising them as the child's first educators and ensuring a strong home-school connection. We value the contribution that parents and carers make to support their child’s learning and use parent meetings and workshops to share information and advice as well as celebrating progress and achievement.
  • High-Quality Interactions We place a strong focus on developing language and communication skills, ensuring every child is listened to and supported to develop their vocabulary and confidence as speakers. Staff use scaffolding and questioning to challenge thinking and extend learning and aim to build language rich classrooms where talk, curiosity and high quality interactions are at the heart of every day. Direct teaching may include small groups, whole class or supporting pupils in one to one learning sessions.

Our Impact

By the end of the EYFS , the children at Westover Green are increasingly confident, curious and independent learners who demonstrate a sense of belonging and being valued in our school community. They make strong progress from their starting points, with gaps and SEND needs addressed early.

We strive for children to achieve a Good Level of Development and the Early Learning Goals at the end of Reception and to be in line with National Expectations.

Class teachers use observations to make formative assessment which informs planning and ensures that all children build upon their current knowledge and skills. We monitor the progress of pupils towards achieving age related expectations throughout the academic year, and put supportive intervention in place if and when needed. This allows us to track children each term to ensure that children are making strong progress, including vulnerable groups such as those with SEND, disadvantaged, EAL or summer born children. Progress is monitored by senior leaders at termly pupil progress meetings and we participate in Trust wide moderation to validate our teacher assessments.