All Saints' C of E Primary School

The All Saints’ Way…

Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum Intent... 

At All Saints’ Church of England Primary School, our EYFS curriculum is rooted in a holistic approach that nurtures the whole child—academically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. We believe that every child is unique, and through our inclusive, high-quality first teaching, we create an environment where all children feel valued, supported, and inspired to flourish.

Our school vision—"Discovering God, Learning Together, Achieving Our Best"—is the golden thread that runs through everything we do. In the Early Years, this means fostering a deep sense of curiosity, joy, and love for learning in a setting that reflects our Christian ethos. Through rich experiences, purposeful play, and meaningful interactions, we lay the foundations for lifelong learning, ensuring that every child develops the confidence and skills they need to thrive.

Our core values—Respect, Kindness, Courageous Determination, Curiosity, and Joyfulness—shape our EYFS provision and underpin every aspect of school life. We encourage children to explore the world with wonder, build strong and positive relationships, and develop resilience and independence. Through a carefully planned curriculum that balances child-led discovery with structured teaching, we empower our youngest learners to become confident, capable, and compassionate individuals.

We have a relentless dedication to the promotion of early language skills, recognising the vital role that communication plays in all aspects of learning and development. Through a language-rich environment, high-quality interactions, and explicit teaching of vocabulary, we promote strong oracy skills that enable children to express themselves with confidence. Our approach ensures that children are not only prepared for the next stage of their academic journey but are also equipped with the strong foundation skills needed for life.

With an emphasis on inclusive practice, we ensure that all children, regardless of background or need, are given the best possible start to their learning journey. Our commitment to high-quality early education enables every child to develop a strong foundation in communication, language, physical development, and personal, social, and emotional growth, setting them up for future success.

At All Saints’, we deeply believe that the Early Years are not just about preparation for school but about fostering a love of learning that will last a lifetime.

Implementation

At All Saints’ Primary we follow the guidelines of Development Matters (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/development-matters--2) to underpin the teaching and sequential progression of learning in the early years combined with a curriculum tailored to the needs and interests of each of the children in our school. Our approach is a combination of explicit teaching to introduce new knowledge which is encouraged to be explored and built on through purposeful play. Alongside a balance of skilfully planned, adult led activities and highly valued child initiated learning.

During our supportive transition process, we identify previous knowledge a child has, possible needs to support their learning going forward to start interventions immediately in order for all children to ‘keep up’ and most importantly, learn about their interests to enable us to create a learning environment that every child can access and succeed in.  

At All Saints’ we believe that the three prime areas (communication and language, physical development and personal, social and emotional development) are particularly important for igniting curiosity and courageous determination for learning. We promote vocabulary and oracy with a daily diet of quality literacy planning together with many cross curricular opportunities to explore new language.  In addition, adults model and enhance vocabulary through quality interactions in provision areas with children.  We develop social and emotional learning through Jigsaw and the Think Equal programme and we have recently achieved the award of ‘Physical Development Champions’ for our dedication to supporting children’s physical development as well as the Gold Tooth Safety Award for our commitment to this key area of dental hygiene. 

As recently awarded, ‘Physical Development Champions’ we place vital emphasis on the preparation for writing by developing fine motor and gross motor skills.  Our fantastic daily Dough Disco’s hugely support this key area.  The children have access to the outdoor environment all the year round to encourage free movement with a highlight being our Wednesday Welly Wellbeing Walks. We also receive high quality coaching from a professional PE coach every week.

Reading is at the core of everything we do in our school. We know reading is the key that ignites creativity, sparks curiosity, and stimulates the imagination in young children.  Children follow a highly engaging synthetic systematic phonics programme called ‘Read Write Inc.’  to support them in meeting expected age related outcomes for reading. We ensure to model a passion for reading to encourage children to not only learn the skills to read but to learn to love it as a pleasurable activity also. Stories, storytelling (helicopter stories) rhymes and songs permeate throughout the day in our classroom so the children are immersed in a language rich environment.

In line with the whole school, we implement the ‘White Rose’ Maths Mastery approach. This is an all-inclusive whole class approach. The sequential progression delivered by this scheme ensures that the children gain the mathematical knowledge and vocabulary needed to continue their journey through KS1.

EYFS Curriculum Impact

The impact of our EYFS curriculum is evident in watching joyful, engaged, motivated independent and confident children who are secure in our routines and the All Saints’ Way (rules and values) ready to flourish in Year 1.

We observe and interact with children in daily activities to understand their level of achievement, interests and learning styles. We identify ‘embedded learning’ by assessing what a child can do consistently and independently through ongoing formative and summative assessment in a range of everyday situations. We use Development Matters checkpoints, Tapestry, class floor books, and pupil voice, to inform our decision of where a child is at and how to plan their next steps. Parents are encouraged to share their child’s achievements in home learning so we can build a picture of the whole child. Children’s reading attainment is assessed every half term and gaps are addressed quickly and effectively. At the end of EYFS, staff complete the EYFS profile for each child. Pupils are assessed against the 17 early learning goals.

The EYFS team are committed to raising standards by attending relevant ‘Continuing Professional Development’ (CPD) (e.g. DEAL – Drama Engagement Active Learning, regular visits from the Stockport Early Years Team) and ensuring each child at our school has the best start on their school journey. We meet with SLT and the Year 1 staff regularly to celebrate the achievements of all pupils and to ensure progress is being made for each individual child.

At All Saints’ in the Early Years, we have a true passion, dedication and enthusiasm to build a curriculum with firm foundations so that every child can begin their journey happily and successfully, to shape their future pathway for life and lifelong love of learning!