EYFS Curriculum Intent Statement

At Charlestown Community Primary School, we believe that ‘Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential’ (EYFS Framework ’21). Our Early Years curriculum has been designed to give our children just this. We aim to provide opportunities to create ambitious, curious and aspirational learners who, at the end of Reception, are ready and prepared to succeed in Key Stage One and beyond.

Our main curriculum goal is to provide our children with language rich opportunities and give them the cultural capital they need so they can unlock the knowledge, skills and understanding that they require for a successful future. We believe it is essential that our children have opportunities to embed and develop the best habits and behaviours for learning. To ensure this takes place, we plan and teach with the Characteristics of Learning first and foremost. We want our children to be able to:

• Play and explore
• Learn actively
• Create and think critically

Here at Charlestown, we live in an exceptionally diverse community. Many of our children arrive from low starting points for their age, with a high proportion coming from disadvantaged backgrounds and complex needs. For this very reason, we have designed and implemented our own ‘Charlestown Curriculum.’ It is a bespoke curriculum that is designed to give our children, regardless of their starting point, the best start in life. Through the seven areas of learning we aim to plan for and deliver exciting topics that wow and engage our children. We love learning both indoors and outdoors and building on the interests of the children so wellington boots are an essential here at Charlestown!

In Nursery, nurture is the forefront of our curriculum. Our warm, welcoming adults build meaningful relationships with the children to enable them to settle into the provision. Communication and language, and learning to listen and behave in a kind and respectful way are some of the essential skills our curriculum aims to provide for our children. Over the course of the year, the curriculum teaches the children to begin to link learning to their play and exploration.

As children move into Reception, our curriculum invests in getting our children to aim high and be ambitious ready for their next stage of learning. Our curriculum has been designed to ensure connections are made in children's learning and prior learning is built upon. Communication and language and phonics is at the forefront of the children’s learning. The environment is language rich, and high expectations for reading, writing and mathematics are woven into the curriculum to ensure our children thrive and succeed in all areas of their learning.

Both our Nursery and Reception curriculum maximises opportunities for meaningful cross-curricular links. We value the uniqueness of each child and over the course curriculum, we offer periods of play and opportunities for children to learn in different ways. High quality resources and texts are used to create fascination and enjoyment in learning.