Early Years Foundation Stage
If parents should require paper copies of any documents, please email the school office your request.
Information about our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
A very warm welcome to Cedar Park School and the Early Years Foundation Stage.
Starting school can raise many questions for children and parents alike, and to try and answer some of your queries we have put together various information below to help you. However, if you do have anything that you would like to know that has not already been addressed, please feel free to contact us via the school office.
The Early Years Team are looking forward to working with you and your child/children and if you have any worries or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us.
General Information:
Our Philosophy
At Cedar Park School, our philosophy is to value every child as a unique individual, who enjoys learning and thinking for him or herself. Our aim within the Early Years Foundation Stage is to provide a happy, safe and stimulating environment, which allows all children to feel secure and valued and therefore ready and eager to learn. We provide a supportive and secure environment in which every child can flourish and learn at their own pace and in their own individual way. Our role is to stimulate and encourage their development and enjoyment of learning through a variety of different activities, both adult directed and child initiated in secure indoor and outdoor situations.
We believe the relationships which the children develop in the Early Years, with each other and with our staff, are central to their happiness and will lay the best possible foundation for them to become independent lifelong learners.
Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum Intent
At Cedar Park School, we believe that our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is crucial to developing firm foundations to be built upon throughout our school journey and beyond. It is our intent that the children who enter our EYFS develop physically, verbally, emotionally, creatively, intellectually, and spiritually whilst embedding a positive attitude to school and learning. We believe that all children deserve to be valued as an individual and we are passionate in supporting all children to achieve their full, unique potential.
Characteristics of Effective Learning
The characteristics of effective learning underpin our pupils learning within the Early Years Foundation Stage. The ways in which they engage with others and their environment – playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically – underpin learning and development across all areas and support children to remain effective and motivated learners. We make judgements about a child's demonstration of the Characteristics of Effective Learning at their particular age / stage of development and whether or not the learning behaviours defined within these characteristics describes the child.
Leuven Scales of Well Being and Involvement and Well Being
The Leuven Scales acknowledge the critical importance of a child’s emotional well-being on the quality and depth of learning. We use the Leuven Scales to indicate a child's level of Well-Being and Involvement at the time of assessment (low, medium or high level).
Well-being is defined as ‘the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy’. Involvement is defined as ‘the fact of being involved with or participating in something’. The Leuven Scales support accurate and authentic summative assessment of a child’s knowledge, skills, understanding and learning behaviours.
Tapestry
We use Tapestry to record children’s knowledge, skills and learning dispositions in individual learning journals, and to assess the characteristics of effective learning. It is a consistent and reliable way of demonstrating progress through the EYFS.
Through daily observation and interaction, we can build a rich and accurate understanding of each child across all aspects of learning and development. Observations are shared with families. You can share all the wonderful things you do with your child at home using Tapestry, by uploading via the website or App.
Whilst we would love to show you all the wonderful things your child has been doing throughout the day, it is not practical as we value the importance of being with the children and not always having a tablet in between us. Therefore, some weeks you will have more observations than others because we have been engaging and playing and didn’t want to stop the flow to take a photograph or video clip. Our observations are then used to support our ongoing assessments on Target Tracker.
Assessments are meaningful and impact on our children’s learning and development as we use them to inform next steps, which are personalised and challenging.
At the end of Reception, learning journals can be downloaded for you to keep and treasure.
Mrs Susan Franek (Early Years Lead)
EYFS Information
Additional information
Useful tips and resources for parents to help support children's learning at home
Below are presentations and resources aimed at supporting children in English and Maths.