Intent

At Milstead and Frinsted C of E Primary School we have designed a knowledge based early years curriculum around our Christian values of stewardship, inquiry, resilience and compassion. This ensures that children’s learning isn't limited by a specific set of activities but instead allows children to be leaders of their own active learning. In the environment adults nurture, guide and support our youngest children to develop an intrinsic love for learning with our Christian values at the heart of everything they do. The adults guide children to think critically and creatively. Children develop their natural inquisitive minds in a space where they feel loved, nurtured and safe to ensure that they can    develop resilience throughout their time at Milstead and Frinsted.  Our curriculum offers time and space for children to play and explore to allow them to build knowledge in a progressive and contextualised way.

Implementation

Children are able to access the curriculum through a vocabulary rich environment where adults purposefully engage with the children in order to scaffold and develop children's learning through play. Adults engage in a range of ways including modelling, observation and discussion, this leads to sustained shared thinking. The curriculum is delivered through core themes which take into account children’s interests through core-texts. The core texts are used to expose children to new and varied vocabulary which provides a vehicle for sparking inquiry in our children. This is framed within the seven areas of learning and accessed through the characteristics of effective learning. 

In the Early Years children access learning at their own level and pace. They have adult-directed sessions in phonics, following our fully synthetic phonics programme (Little Wandle Letters and Sounds), White Rose Maths and learning sports through physical education sessions. Children engage with the Religious Education curriculum in a playful and purposeful way with the Year 1 children through ‘Understanding Christianity’. We place language and communication at the heart of everything we do.

Impact

Our Early Years pupils will become confident learners and show mastery of the characteristics of effective learning by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage. They will show a passion for inquiry and will be able to draw on knowledge that they have acquired confidently. By the end of the Early Years at Milstead and Frinsted our youngest children will have the skills not only to succeed through the rest of their school years at Milstead and Frinsted and beyond. We aim to ensure that our ambitious vision and curriculum is met through robust monitoring, professional development and coaching to ensure the best outcomes for all of our learners.