Early Years Foundation Stage
Early Years at Richard Taylor Primary School provide a nurturing environment where curiosity, confidence, and a lifelong love of learning can flourish.
Through a balance of child-led exploration and carefully planned adult-led activities, children develop essential early skills in communication, social interaction and independent thinking.
In the EYFS, we value the power of play and take time to play alongside our children. High-quality interactions, language modelling, and engaging, exploratory experiences are at the heart of our day. Our learning environment is thoughtfully designed to ensure that play is purposeful and meaningful, supporting each child’s individual interests and helping them become deeply engaged in their learning. Learning takes place both inside and outside and each plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s learning and development.
Alongside child-initiated play, children take part in whole-class phonics and maths sessions, as well as adult-led group and 1:1 activities. We use the Rocket Phonics scheme to support early reading and writing, Drawing Club to develop children’s writing skills and enrich their vocabulary, and the NCETM Mastering Number programme to develop strong foundations in number fluency and mathematical understanding.
Areas of Learning
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is organised into seven interconnected areas of learning and development. These areas provide a broad and balanced foundation for every child as they begin their school journey.
Three Prime Areas:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
Four Specific Areas:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
Central to our approach are the prime areas, which form the essential building blocks for every child’s future success. These areas are deeply embedded in day-to-day experiences and underpin all other learning. Alongside them, we develop foundational
skills in early literacy and maths, supporting children to explore, investigate and grow into confident, independent and enthusiastic learners.
Our Approach
We aim to create a warm, supportive atmosphere that celebrates each child’s uniqueness, helping them feel safe, valued and excited about discovering the world around them.
We place a strong emphasis on developing children’s oracy skills and nurturing their natural curiosity. Through purposeful talk, storytelling, questioning and collaborative play, children learn to communicate with confidence and listen with understanding.
Our learning environment is designed to spark wonder, encourage exploration and inspire children to ask questions, make discoveries and think creatively. By valuing children as curious learners and skilled communicators, we help them build strong, secure foundations for the future.
Working With Families
We work closely with our families to ensure every child has the strongest possible start to their educational journey. From the first meeting onwards, we place great importance on building positive relationships. Throughout the year, families are invited into school for stay-and-play sessions, worship times, phonics drop-ins and reading events.
Families in EYFS receive regular updates, photos and learning information through Tapestry, helping you stay connected with your child’s experiences and progress.
