Foundation Stage Curriculum

Our Foundation Stage curriculum is designed to meet the areas of need for our community via our Arbourthorne Connected curriculum goals. These connect and build on children's home experiences and help prepare them for Key Stage One. The curriculum is designed to emphasise these goals.

Our Connected curriculum Goals:

 Belonging

Communicating

Performing 

Growing

Creating

Solving

Moving

Preparing 

 Each of these aspects is underpinned by our eight school core values: We are respectful, We have a voice, We have self-belief, We aim high, We care, We are a team, We are determined and We are thoughtful. The Foundation Stage curriculum, both planned and spontaneous, provides the firm 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 (communicating) and acquire the early reading and phonics skills required to access the expectations for reading in Year 1. With these skills, they grow in confidence, allowing them to plan and perform poems and songs they have learned and  their own Helicopter stories. They learn to grow fruit and vegetables and explore our polytunnel and understand the early stages of sustainable living, they learn skills which they can apply to creative learning, they solve problems, paint and make on a large scale and tinker through a Maker curriculum, they have opportunities to be physically active, learn how to ride a balance bike, scooters and trikes and move safely and with enjoyment in our extensive grounds and in the local park. These are skills and experiences which prepare them for the next stages of their education.

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.  

One of our key aims is to develop children’s confidence in their oral skills and widen their vocabulary from assessed starting points. Our teaching of an oracy rich curriculum, first hand visits to extend cultural capital and the use of carefully chosen high quality key texts support this ambition, as well as introducing children to a rich culture of traditional tales and more modern texts and those that celebrate and extend our children’s knowledge of cultures and the world. 

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, expansive green space to explore and a variety of trees. Children engage in environmental first hand experiences to utilise this space.  We have a dedicated artist in residence who develops language at the point of learning through an arts rich curriculum.

Long Term Planning Overview Foundation Stage 1 and 2