Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

At Denton, we strive to provide a high quality education to all children to ensure they feel happy, safe and make strong progress throughout their school life. This starts within the EYFS where we provide an enriching learning environment that encourages children to develop the three ‘characteristics of effective learning’ set out in the EYFS Framework. Alongside this, we are committed to providing high quality interactions with the children to ensure quality first teaching across all seven areas of the EYFS curriculum. The balance between adult led and child-initiated learning throughout the day enables children to become independent learners and active critical thinkers. The EYFS inspires children to become kind and respectful individuals alongside fostering a resilient approach to their learning. This sets an essential foundation and provides them with the key skills to succeed through their school journey.

Throughout nursery and reception, we are committed to developing children’s love for reading and develop their language and vocabulary. We immerse the children into a world of storytelling and provide opportunities for them to become aspiring authors and create their own stories. This widens their breadth of vocabulary and provides an excellent foundation for children to become creative writers. We start teaching phonics as soon as children start in nursery using our phonics scheme ‘Bug Club’. This is focused on the children’s early listening skills and as they move into reception they begin learning the Phase 2 and 3 sounds and Tricky words.

We recognise the importance of purposeful planning to provide a challenging and inclusive learning environment where children can build upon their learning and enhance their critical thinking. We follow the NCETM mastery approach to teaching Mathematics. The children gain a deep understanding of number and have begin to see numerical patterns. We support the children to use resources to continually develop their skill in number and challenge their thinking.

We deliver our curriculum through topics such as ‘All at Sea’ where we can become creative and provide engaging learning for the children to develop their understanding of the world. Where possible, we aim to provide real life experiences for the children to become immersed in the learning and experience the wider community. From local fire service visits to trips further afield, the children are taken on a journey to facilitate exciting opportunities to build upon their learning.