Our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) class is a small and nurturing space for children in their Reception year. We have a large classroom and outdoor space which mean that children can access continuous provision independently as well as learning through teacher-led sessions. In the Early Years we follow the CUSP Early Foundations curriculum. This has three levels… Foundational Knowledge – this sets out what the children should know and be able to do throughout EYFS to ensure they have the strongest possible foundations for success in Key Stage 1. Opportunities & Experiences – these offer different ways for children to learn foundational knowledge through their play and guided activities. We want children to explore, experiment and think hard about new and important concepts. Structured Story Time – Fun, engaging story sessions which use core texts to introduce key language and themes which help children to access the foundational knowledge. This is based on everything we know about effective Literacy teaching. We use the texts from the structured story times as a basis for topics which help to immerse the children in their learning and to make connections. We have high expectations in terms of the vocabulary children will hear and use and know that this will help them to be successful as they move through the school. As well as the CUSP curriculum, we also use Read Write Inc. to teach children synthetic phonics. More information about this can be found below. For maths we use the White Rose scheme as a basis for our maths teaching. We use the mastery approach, to support our children to acquire a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of mathematics. Workshops on phonics and maths are offered at the start of the school year to support parents in helping their children in these areas. Our EYFS provision allows children to access all areas of the National Curriculum and also meets the requirements of the Early Learning Goals. We have discrete lessons for RE and PSHE for which we use diocesan planning documents and the Jigsaw approach.