The EYFS Unit

Welcome to The Early Years at Riverside School! 

This page provides information about our Early Years Unit. There are also lots of key documents for you to view/download at the end of this page including:

• Nursery (F1) and Reception (F2) new starter information
• Nursery admissions form
• Parental agreement forms
• Funding information
• Charges for Nursery and Playplace
• Intimate Care Policy
• EYFS Policy

If you need any other information or want to book a tour, please call the school office on 01937 832899 or email schooloffice@rs.starmat.uk

Our ethos

Our aim is to support our children to develop into creative, independent learners through meaningful adult interactions, sparking curiosity and inspiring imagination through their play.

Our Intent (what we do)

The characteristics of effective learning in Early Years

The three characteristics of effective learning describe the behaviours children use in order to learn.

Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and build the resilience to ‘have a go’

Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achieving 

Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

The Areas of Learning and Development

The three prime areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships, and thriving, underpinning the specific areas of learning.

The Prime areas:
Communication and Language
Personal, social and Emotional Development
Physical Development

There are four specific areas through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied. 

The specific areas:
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design

Our Curriculum

What we learn and how we learn:

The grid below details the umbrella topics/themes which are then linked to our medium term plans and weekly plans. 

Download the EYFS framework from the DFE here. 

This is the basis of our curriculum, informing us what the children should be learning in Early Years nationally. We have long term plans for the year with themes, topics and book links which we adapt each week according to interests and needs. Most weeks we have a book (fiction and non-fiction) that forms the basis for our reading and writing as well as some of the activities that the children can explore as part of their learning. 

The children in F2 are given weekly challenges to ensure they access all 6 areas of the unit with the support of high quality adult-led interactions we can ensure the children are developing as independent and curios learners.

We also refer to Development Matters, a document produced by the DfE to guide practitioners about how to help our children meet their developmental needs according to the EYFS Framework. 

Our approach to reading at Riverside

Phonics is taught in Reception and KS1 through the Little Wandle programme which is a systematic and highly effective approach used for  the teaching of early reading and writing. Nursery phonics concentrates on developing children’s speaking and listening skills through their ability to respond to sounds, play with sounds, songs and rhymes. These are all important skills for listening to others, understanding questions and developing concepts of things and lays the foundations for the phonic work which starts at the beginning of Reception. This early stage of phonics, supports children in getting attuned to sounds, preparing them for hearing sounds in words (segmenting). It also prepares children with putting these sounds together (oral blending). 

Please visit the Little Wandle website and navigate to the 'For parents' section for more information. 

Our approach to writing at Riverside

We use a wonderful approach to writing called Drawing Club, created by educationalist Greg Botterill. He believes, "young children need to feel three things when they write and mark make: joy, purpose and magic." Drawing Club brings early writing to life by tapping in to each child's individual ideas and imagination. Children begin by drawing based on the book of the week, making secret codes and as they start to learn their sounds in phonics they begin to annotate the drawings, which leads on to writing in more detail. Find out more here: 

https://www.canigoandplaynow.com/

By the end of Reception, the aim is for our children to be able to hold a pencil using a good pencil grip, to have good letter formation, to know and understand what makes a good sentence using a capital letter and full stop and to have developed a love of writing that stems from their own ideas and imagination. This prepares them for the transition into Year 1. 

Our Planning

Attached below is an example of our medium term plan which shows how we map out each area of learning across F1 and F2 based on our long term plans and using Development Matters as a guide. We then use this as a basis for our weekly planning which is flexible and often changes in the moment as per the childrens' interests. needs and any gaps in development identified in our formative assessment. 

Our Implementation (how we do what we do)

 Our provision 

We have 2 mixed age (F1 and F2) classes in our unit - Stars and Rainbows. 

Our Early Years is a unit with children from 3-5 years old accessing our inspiring learning environment which consists of 6 learning zones:

-The Imagination Station (writing, reading, phonics. a stage, music)

-The Creative Corner (arts and crafts, junk modelling, mark making on a bigger scale)

-STEM space ( science, technology, engineering and maths exploration)

-Builder's Yard (big scale construction, mud kitchen area, water and sand play)

-Active Area (outdoor area for climbing, running, throwing, catching, planting)

-Sensory Space (Play-Doh, sand, water, loose parts) 

Our learning environment follows the Curiosity Approach and the learning environment is inspired by aspects of the Reggio Emilio and Early Excellence which both encourage the use of natural resources and calming colours. Following aspects of these approaches, the learning environment is intended to be the third teacher and aesthetically pleasing with purposeful, real-life resources, giving the children opportunities to learn and grow in their own way.

Our Staff

There are 12 staff who work in the unit at various times during the week. Staff in the team are highly skilled and experience to meet the needs of all our children. Our role is to offer the children the best opportunities to develop and make progress at their own pace by ensuring we offer high quality interactions as part of our exploring in the unit every day.

Children with any additional needs are given additional support to ensure we can meet their specific needs. This includes speech and language interventions, physical development support, communication and interaction development through wellbeing sessions and support from NYCC SEND teams for more specific needs. If you want to find out more about how we can support your child, contact our Inclusion Manager via the school office schooloffice@rs.starmat.uk .

We are part of an EYFS network of highly skilled and experienced staff across The STARmat Trust. We meet every half term to share ideas, information and to collaborate on key policies and documents. More information on our Trust can be found at The STAR Multi Academy Trust website. 

Our Impact (the results of what we do)

Our assessment of your child's learning

How do we measure progress?

Have you ever wondered how we know our children are making progress in Early Years?

This document is a really useful visual to show progression in areas such as mark making (early writing).

Riverside Progression EYFS.pdf

We track each child against the 17 areas of learning every half term which feeds into our curriculum planning. We talk about the children as a team in weekly planning meetings and share WOW moments with parents via ClassDojo, the online journal. 

Children are assessed in phonics every 5/6 weeks and this then enables us to deliver interventions to support those children who are not on track and need some additional support. We report the phonics results to parents every term. 

How do I know how my child is getting on?

It is important to keep talking and sharing information about your child with us. We like to speak to parents and carers regularly to get a holisitic view of each child. Sometimes children can be very different at home compared to in a school setting. If you have any concerns or just want to know something specifc about your child, please speak to the class teacher or a member of the EYFS team.

Each week we will send home a summary of what we have done that week in F1 and F2 via ClassDojo. You will be given access to this when your child starts with us in school. We will also include a collection of photos from the week. If there is anything specific to share we will send you an individual notification such as a wow moment. A wow moment might be learning to write their own name, zipping up their coat independently or making new friends when they have been struggling to settle.

We offer parents meetings every term as well as an end of year report as a more formal way of updating you on your child's progress. However, this should be a summary and nothing should ever be a shock to you during these meetings. 

There will also be invitations to welcome meetings before your child starts school in Reception (F2) and for children starting in F1 we invite you to come and explore before your child is due to start to familiarise yourselves with the setting and staff. You can attend as many times as you need to and we will be on hand to answer any questions you may have and to help to gather as much information about your child as we can. 

Here is an example of our weekly summary sent home to all parents in F1 and F2:

Our open door policy

As well as parent meetings, we also invite you to come and visit your child in school for stay and play. We have chosen a range of days and times to cater for different working patterns of parents/carers. 

Stay and Play sessions

We welcome visits into our EYFS Unit. Contact the school office to arrange a tour: call 01937 832899 or email schooloffice@rs.starmat.uk

We will also be opening our doors for stay and play sessions every half term. 

The dates for 2024/2025 are:

Key documents: