Early Years Curriculum

Early Years Intent Statement

Bruner argues that ‘any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development’.

This quote underpins our commitment to a community of learners that embraces challenge through the HighScope approach. We firmly believe that our play-based Early Phase approach supports children’s limitless capacity to learn. Being child-led, it is as broad, challenging and wide-ranging as the unique qualities of each child.

Curiosity: Our child-led ethos utilises the natural curiosity that young children are born with. Children are free to follow and plan their own unique interests and passions grounded in their own experiences of their cultures and communities. Our learning environment is the central part of our curriculum; prompting, provoking, challenging and sparking curiosity. We give children long periods of time for uninterrupted play, allowing them to follow their curiosity and giving them the freedom to sustain their purposeful play for significant periods of time.

Creativity: We place great importance on creative thinking, making use of the language and creative approach of the statutory Characteristics of Effective Learning. We incorporate problem-solving across a range of disciplines, encouraging children to develop their independent play skills in a high-quality, purposeful way. Our environment is convergent and divergent in equal measures, which allows children to think broadly, providing multifaceted viewpoints and experiences.

Confidence: We enable children to develop organised and flexible thinking as part of our ‘plan do review’ approach, ensuring they are confident in core skills, in order to become independent learners. Shared, sustained thinking and high-quality interactions amongst adults and peers also support this. Children develop a healthy relationship with mistakes, and the resilience to cope with the challenges which life may present. The environment promotes iterative learning to support children to be confident and develop a positive self-image. Review is integral to HighScope and children rapidly become confident in assessing their learning behaviours and studies, which gives children the intrinsic motivation to move their learning forward.

Our Early Phase Curriculum

We follow a structured curriculum that supports rather than leads children on their learning journey.

Reception Curriculum Maps for terms 1 and 2:

At Sefton Park, we follow the 'Success for All' sequence for our phonics teaching and learning. Whilst using this as a structured framework for our youngest readers and writers, our excellent Early Years and Key Stage 1 practitioners enhance this with songs, rhymes and rhythm games to help children to embed their learning. Children are given meaningful opportunities to utilise their reading and writing skills, and reading for pleasure is actively celebrated! Parents are supported to read with their children at home through phonics and literacy evenings; the school and children's families work collaboratively to ensure children's progress.