Thomas Hall Curriculum | EYFS

Curriculum

The Ark at Thomas Hall

What Is the Early Years Foundation Stage?

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the stage of education for children from birth to the end of the reception year. It sets the standards for the learning, development, and care of your child from birth to 5 years old and ensure that your child will learn and develop well and be kept healthy and safe. It is based on the recognition that children learn best through play and active learning and is the same curriculum as in reception classes in school.

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework

a document that sets the standards for learning, development and care of children from birth to five years of age.

Highest Quality Childcare

The EYFS framework outlines seven areas of learning and development and educational programmes. There are three prime areas of learning, which are particularly important for your child’s development and future learning:

Communication and language
Personal, Social, and emotional development
Physical development

There are four specific areas of learning, through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied:

Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design

There are also three characteristics of effective teaching and learning:

Playing and exploring
Active learning
Creating and thinking critically

These tell us about how each child learns not what they are learning

The Ark at Thomas Hall

Our Curriculum

Our curriulum is based on the individual child. Our practitioners will take time to observe and get to know your child. They will then plan specific activities to meet the interests of your child and help them to move on to the next stage of their development.

What can you do to help your child?

Chat, play and read to and with them
• Encourage them to be independent
• Play board games with them
• Teach them about their own environment and community
• Teach them to be creative with craft and Role play experiences.

Early Language & Extending Vocabulary

There is a big focus on early language and extending vocabulary. You can help us do this by:

Having quality learning conversations and interactions with your child
Reading a range of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction texts
Teaching your child new words and vocabulary
Sharing what you are doing with your child at home

Extra Activities

Cooking

Each day the children are involved in chopping fruit and preparing their meals and snacks. This helps children to develop their fine motor skills which will be used later when learning to hold a pencil.