Early Years Foundation Stage at

St Mary's

At St Mary’s Catholic Primary School we have a fundamental belief that good Early Years education is essential for all future learning. 

At the core of our approach is the belief that children learn best when they are immersed in self directed or facilitated play and exploration. This approach forms the foundation and roots of what continues in Key Stages One and Two through our inquiry approach to learning.

To enable this approach, we work hard to create a stimulating environment that provides exciting opportunities, promotes spiritual exploration, adventure and a real love of learning. We believe that it is important to encourage a sense of global citizenship and responsibility by teaching and promoting care for our immediate environment, our friends and in a wider context our community and planet.
It is our intention that all children develop physically, verbally, cognitively, spiritually and emotionally in an environment which values all cultures, communities and people. We aim for all children to feel safe, be confident and independent, to believe in themselves and interact positively with others.

We believe that play is the foundation to learning and exploration and as such this is at the heart of our Early Years curriculum. We aim to achieve this through a mix of adult directed and uninterrupted child-initiated play that we hope ensures the best outcomes for all pupils.

This is achieved through warm and positive relationships between staff and children, consistent routines and strong relationships with parents.

Enabling learning

Our progression map details how we intend to make sure that all learning is developmentally layered and tailored to meet each child’s individual needs. Planning is changeable and is viewed as the adult-led starting point or discussion starter whereas continuous provision in the EYFS environment facilitates and encourages children’s own ideas or schemas and is always child-led. Planning such as that detailed below ensures that all practitioners can clearly access a selection of potential ‘next steps’ in order to scaffold children’s learning.

Our Progression Map is a large document so we have created a bullet point 'summary' of our intent (see uploaded document below). 

The school's Lead Early Years Explorer or Early Years Leader is Lucy Smith.

The Early Years team is made up of other key adults who support and facilitate learning in Foundation Stages One and Two. These adults are:

Emma McQuinn

Tanya Streatfield

Alison Purslow

Inno Lawther