In the Foundation Stage we teach, plan and assess using "Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage" published by the DfE. 

The 7 areas of learning are set of as follows:

Prime areas:

• Communication and Language
• Physical development
• Personal, Social and Emotional development

These areas are not taught in isolation but taught within the following specific areas.

Specific areas:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Knowledge of the world
• Expressive Arts and Design.

The Early Years Foundation Stage makes a crucial contribution to children’s early development and learning. We provide children with a rich variety of teaching and learning experiences that are appropriate to their needs.

The Foundation Stage is all about developing key learning skills such as speaking and listening, concentration, and attitudes to learning, including the social and emotional aspects of learning.

At Houghton, we provide a safe, happy and nurturing learning environment. We offer exciting areas for independent child-initiated activities and high-quality teaching and learning both indoors and outdoors, and creative development is constantly extended with a variety of creative and imaginative play.

Characteristics of Effective Learning 

We believe that nurturing positive attitudes towards learning is fundamental to every child's success. The Characteristics of Effective Learning, identified within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), describe how children learn rather than what they learn.  

Through a rich, engaging and inclusive curriculum, we provide opportunities for children to develop curiosity, resilience, independence, and creativity skills. These characteristics are embedded throughout our Early Years provision and underpin all aspects of teaching and learning. 

Parent Guide to the Characteristics of Effective Learning 

Characteristic	What This Means for Your Child
Playing and Exploring	Developing confidence and curiosity and is willing to explore, investigate, and try new experiences.
Active Learning	Learning to persevere, remain motivated, and take pride in their achievements.
Creating and Thinking Critically	Developing the ability to think independently, solve problems, make connections, and generate their own ideas.

 

Much of this earlier learning is achieved through carefully structured play. Our activities are carefully planned to encourage children to become active learners by playing, exploring and creating.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage, children are developing good attitudes for future learning.

We encourage children to improve reading, communication and mathematical skills from the very beginning, using a ‘Mastery Approach.’

Phonics is taught daily using the ‘Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds’ programme. The ‘Little Wandle’ keep up programme is also used alongside our daily phonics lessons to help close the gaps in learning for focus pupils.

 

The maths curriculum is taught through daily ‘Mastery in Number’ sessions. These sessions are carefully planned to promote early number sense using the fours C’s: counting, comparison, cardinality and composition. This starts with mastering numbers 0–5 and then progresses through to 0-10. We want our children to become confident mathematicians who can problem-solve and apply what they have learnt as they progress through school. This enables our children to use the skills learnt with small numbers when they encounter larger number calculations, as they can see patterns in number e.g. 5 and 5 make 10, 50 and 50 make 100 and 500 and 500 make 1000.

We follow topics throughout the year in Foundation to inspire children to learn through excitement and curiosity, often sparking children’s individual interests.

 

Unit 1		Unit 2		Unit 3
Rhyme Time and Traditional Tales	Pets and Festivals	Space	Superheroes	Mini Beasts	Around the World