Foundation Stage Curriculum

 Our Curriculum 'Starting from Stories' highlights how we help children to develop a love of reading through different stories and texts in order to engage and motivate them to learn. Stories and books are carefully chosen to ignite and motivate children to ask questions in relation to new themes and deepen learning in respect of others. Key texts are supplemented with a range of different supporting texts on similar themes and this helps children to widen their knowledge and understanding of different themes as well as read a range of different texts in relation to a theme. Through these quality texts, children are rapidly extending their vocabulary which is a key priority.  'Starting from Stories' enables staff to develop children’s confidence in their oral skills and widen their vocabulary from assessed starting points. Our teaching of an oracy rich curriculum enables our children to begin discovering  and extending their knowledge and understanding of a range of different cultures and the world. Our indoor and outdoor learning environments in turn support quality learning and inquiry skills in relation to the different themes across the year and allow children to rehearse the new vocabulary through their own inquiries and play. 

Married carefully with engagement in quality texts, children are explicitly taught the skills to become a reader and writer throughout the Foundation Stage, with greater instruction on the craft of these skills as children move through into Foundation Stage 2.  Children enjoy seeing themselves as a reader and writer as their journey progresses and are proud of their developing achievements. Alongside learning the skills needed for early reading and writing, children catch a love of composition and story-telling through the Drawing Club programme, which allows children to have belief and pride in their own abilities as a storywriter.  

. The Foundation Stage curriculum, both planned and spontaneous, provides the strong foundations and readiness for the Year 1 curriculum. Children learn that they are part of a team and belong to a bigger world, they explore countries and places through books and first hand visits within Sheffield and their local area, they learn new vocabulary and develop structures for talk and acquire the early reading and phonics skills required to access the expectations for reading in Year 1.  The curriculum is shared with parents in order that they can support learning, including key vocabulary also  sent out in home languages for our EAL learners. In Foundation Stage 2 opportunities for parents to celebrate the learning from the term are created through the Curriculum Showcase termly events where a sample of children's work and learning is displayed and celebrated with families. 

We facilitate a balance of  interests and curiosity that children bring with them from their own experiences and passions, whilst offering opportunities for personal development by broadening their knowledge, skills and experiences.  Practitioners support and encourage the children to use all of their senses to explore their learning environment with curiosity and to pose questions of their learning. Our school sits in beautiful grounds with on-site growing facilities and established polytunnel, expansive green space to explore, a key Life Skills house to enable children to experience first-hand different skills needed as they grow into young people and a community teaching kitchen where children and parents can work together on developing their choices around nutrition and food. We also have a dedicated Artist in Residence who has worked with the school for over 18 years to develop language at the point of learning through an arts rich curriculum, bringing families together to experience communication through the medium of the arts. 

Curriculum Map and End Points - Foundation Stage 1

Curriculum Map and End Points - Foundation Stage 2