Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
Children develop increasing independence and readiness for their next stage of education.
The 7 Areas of Learning
Our curriculum covers all seven areas of learning, ensuring a holistic education for every child. Please find the overviews at the bottom of this page.
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Communication & Language: This is where we build Confident Communicators. We prioritise back-and-forth exchanges and vocabulary building through Language Link assessments and the EEF SHREC interaction model, ensuring every child’s unique speech and language journey is supported.
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Personal, Social & Emotional Development (PSED): We focus on helping children become Fantastic Friends who show empathy and respect. Through our focus on wellbeing and the Colour Monster framework, children learn to manage their feelings, build self-confidence, and develop the resilience and "can-do" attitude needed to face new challenges.
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Physical Development: We aim for every child to be a Super Sports Person. This includes gross motor mastery through riding bikes, trikes, and using hall equipment safely, as well as fine motor precision developed through "Dough Gym," cutting, and threading to support early writing.
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Literacy: We develop Brilliant Bookworms and Sentence Superstars. By combining the magic of Drawing Club with the rigour of Read Write Inc. Phonics, children learn to love stories while gaining the skills to form letters correctly and write their own words and sentences.
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Mathematics: To create Maths Masters, we use the Mastering Number program and White Rose Maths. Children build "numerical fluency" through daily subitising, exploring the composition of numbers 1–10, and spotting mathematical patterns in the world around them.
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Understanding the World: Our Exceptional Explorers investigate the local High Wycombe area using Google Earth, participate in Forest School sessions, and observe seasonal changes. We celebrate our diverse community by learning about different traditions and exploring our school environment.
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Expressive Arts & Design: We nurture Amazing Artists and Confident Cooks. Children explore colour mixing, junk modelling, and textiles while studying the techniques of Kandinsky, Klee, Picasso, and Gormley. In our cooking sessions, they follow simple recipes and observe the science of changing states of matter.
By the end of Reception we aim for children to become ...
Core Learning Programs
Drawing Club:
We introduce Drawing Club starting in Week 4 of the Autumn term. This brings storytelling to life in our classroom. We use captivating stories and animations to inspire children to draw and write while introducing "extraordinary" new vocabulary. By turning literacy into an adventure, children naturally develop the skills to become Sentence Superstars who can write letters correctly, as well as words and simple sentences that others can read.
Read Write Inc. (Phonics)
To help our children become Brilliant Bookworms, we follow the Read Write Inc. (RWI) phonics program. In Autumn 1, children begin by learning Set 1 speed sounds and start blending them together to read words. As the year progresses, they move on to Set 2 and Set 3 sounds, learning "special friends" (digraphs like sh, th, ch) and recognising "Tricky Words" that cannot be sounded out by phonics alone. By the end of Reception, our goal is for children to read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, with increasing fluency and understanding.
Mastering Number
To ensure our children become Maths Masters, we follow the Mastering Number program alongside White Rose Maths. We focus on a deep understanding of numbers 1–10, including the composition of each number. Your child will learn to subitise (recognise quantities up to 5 without counting), recall number bonds to 5 and 10, and identify patterns like odds and evens. We begin with subitising within 3 during the baseline weeks, moving toward solving number problems and verbally counting beyond 20 by the end of the year.