Early Years Foundation Stage 

A Welcome From Us!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us via Tapestry.

The Early Years Foundation Stage is a very special place, being the first link between home and school. Our aim is to build upon the experience provided by you as parents and to set the fundamental foundations which allow your children to thrive through their primary education.  We aim to create a happy, secure and stimulating environment, encouraging independence, confidence and growth in all areas of child development. 

Parental involvement and strong home-school relationships are viewed as an integral part of early years education in our setting. Our staff will gladly and readily discuss your children, their progress and what they have been learning during whilst in school.  Our staff are also always keen to find out about what children are interested in and what they have been doing at home. This can be discussed with staff in person, or photos and comments can be uploaded through Tapestry. 

Key Information:

• All children should wear the correct school uniform which is clearly labelled with their name.
• All children should bring their coat and water bottle into school every day.
• Children are encouraged to bring wellies when it is wet and sun cream and
  sunhats when it is sunny.
• We are a NUT AWARE setting. Children are not allowed to bring food into school that contains nuts or has traces of nuts.
• Drop-off/ pick up times vary depending on the child’s year group. All drop off and pick ups will use the Foundation Stage entrance. 

Nursery full day sessions: 8.55am-3.10pm
(half day session on Wednesdays 8.55am-11.25am/12.40pm-3.10pm)
Reception: 8.45am-3.20pm

Key Policies for The Early Years Foundation Stage

Documents – Early Years Foundation Stage

Early Years Foundation Stage Policies & Documents	Download
EYFS Policy 2025-27	Download
Intimate Care Policy EYFS 25-26	Download
Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement- EYFS	Download
Mobile Phones and Electronic Devices Policy 2025-2027	Download

Click to view our Foundation Stage Prospectus

Highlights From Ofsted 2024

‘Children make a flying start to their education in the early years. They settle quickly into the school’s routines. Adults are very skilled practitioners. They model speaking and listening skills with expertise. They encourage the children to join in. This helps children, including those with SEND, to make particularly good progress from their starting points. Adults plan classroom activities to inspire children with awe and wonder. Activities such as ‘stay and play’ help build positive relationships with parents and carers from the start.’

What do we offer in EYFS?

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum

Throughout their early years, all children at Clapgate will experience a rich, ambitious, knowledge and skills-based curriculum designed in a sequential way to ensure progress towards the end-of-year group expectations. Please see our curriculum documents below. 

The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is based on the premise that children learn through practical play-based activities. Play is a vehicle for learning that enables children to explore and learn about the world around them. 

Our Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum focuses on the overall development of each individual child.  It encourages children to become more independent, and it fosters their natural curiosity through exploration and investigation.  We focus on helping children develop positive attitudes to learning as well as ensuring they gain the skills and competencies that form the foundations for future learning.  The curriculum is mainly planned based on the children’s interests, however, we incorporate a range of key themes and non-negotiable learning experiences for all our children. We begin each theme by finding out what the children already know and then we find out what they would like to learn to ensure that the learning matches their interests and needs. Activities are planned for both indoors and outdoors to ensure children have a range of different experiences.  We hugely value the need for child-led learning, which is reflected in our daily timetable, and all children in the Early Years have free flow access to their own outdoor environment, all day, in all weathers.  Each half term, we arrange visits/ experiences out of school to support learning through a practical, hands-on approach.

Underpinning all the teaching within EYFS curriculum is the ‘Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning’.  The focus of these characteristics is about how children learn rather than what they learn.  A child’s individual characteristics when learning will determine the way they respond to both the teaching and learning.  There are three characteristics of effective teaching and learning that will define how children learn.

1. Playing and Exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go.’
2. Active Learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties and they celebrate their achievements and learning.
3. Creating and Thinking Critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

As part of our curriculum, we have also carefully planned out which key stories, rhymes, and poems our children will know and love by the time they leave Reception. Each half term the children in the early years are exposed to a selection of books/ rhymes which they read continuously over the half term. This repetition allows for our children to understand the story structures, characters, vocabulary and key themes as well as learning to love well-known children’s stories. Please see below. 

Please see use the tabs below to find out more information about our approaches to Reading, Writing and Maths. 

Please see below for an example of the our day for both our Nursery and Reception. 

Take a sneak peek at our amazing classroom environments!