Login


Early Years Foundation Stage

In our Early Years, we have morning and afternoon children in F1 (part timers), as well as some children who stay all day for the Government’s 30 hours eligibility scheme. Including the 30 hours children, F1 currently has a maximum of 39 children between 3 key groups (The AM Owls, PM Owls and The Hedgehogs).

In F2 there is a maximum of 60 children between 2 classes (The Moles and The Rabbits), each class is then shared into 2 key groups.

Our Intent & Implementation
At Walter Halls, the Early Years team firmly believes that the Early Years Foundation Stage is vital in securing solid foundations for all of our children, so that they can build upon them throughout their learning journey. It is our intent that the children who enter our EYFS develop physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally whilst embedding a positive attitude to school and develop good learning behaviour. We recognise and value the importance of the Characteristics of Learning, playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically and how these characteristics support the children’s desire and ability to engage, be motivated and to think. We also place high priority on the development of our children’s Communication and Language skills as we understand how vital these skills are to becoming successful learners.

From the moment the children start in The Early Years Foundation Stage at Walter Halls, we work in close partnership with parents, carers and families to encourage independent, happy learners who thrive in school.

We believe that all children deserve to be valued as individuals and we are passionate in allowing all children to achieve their full, unique potential from their varied starting points. We consider these starting points at the beginning of the year, and reassess it throughout the year, by looking at the individual needs of our children and their progress. Taking into account their different starting points, we then carefully develop our EYFS Curriculum and Environment Plan, which enables them to follow the path of their learning journey that is suitable for their unique needs, stage of development and interests. We acknowledge that the diversity of our learners must be recognised within all our teaching content, and that this content needs to recognise children’s life experiences and their differing needs.

We create interesting invitations to play, learn and explore in both our inside and outside environments. Both our indoor and outdoor provision is carefully planned and demonstrates a thorough knowledge and understanding of the way in which our children learn. We recognize the value of play-based pedagogy with a balance of child-led and adult -led learning, and support children to play an active role in their learning.

We aim to prepare our children to achieve the Early Learning Goals at the end of F2 and ensure that all children have made good or better progress from their individual starting points.

Our ultimate goal is to instil in our children a love of learning, curiosity, knowledge and skills needed for the next stage of their learning journey. We value the development of their communication and language skills, social skills and learning behaviour, as much as their mathematical and literary knowledge to optimise their chance for progress and so we can ensure their future success.