Every child deserves the best start in life.
When your child attends Thornborough, their first year is in the Reception class. The children follow the EYFS curriculum, brought life through our Knowledge Rich Curriculum approach. Learning is both adult led, with quality input, positive relationships and language rich conversations; and child initiated, though meaningful play, pupil voice and interests. The teaching and learning in our Early Years class is knowledge rich to ensure our children get the best start to their learning to fulfil their potential.
Our Knowledge-Rich Curriculum has been written with the intention of ensuring that regardless of pupils' entry points to school,, every child believes that they have the power to determine their own lives and to make a positive change in the world. Our Curriculum is designed to take children beyond the limits of their personal experiences and the classroom to ensure that no child is left behind.
Our aim is to provide our youngest pupils with the tools that they need to establish a strong sense of identity and to feel empowered by the knowledge they have of the world around them. Our learning experiences have been carefully designed to spark pupils’ curiosity and to develop their oral language, communication and comprehension through engaging, high-quality teaching. We want to enrich and widen their vocabulary, so that they can confidently and effectively think, reason, argue, and participate in the important conversations in life.
Our Early Years approach fits into the whole-school approach to curriculum design and provides children with both the substantive and disciplinary knowledge that they need to become confident, powerful and inquisitive learners, to encouraging a seamless transition to Key Stage 1 and beyond.
The EYFS Framework
In Early Years, learning and development is split into seven inter-connected areas:
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design
Our Early Years Curriculum has a strong focus on Understanding the World (UW), as this ELG underpins aspects of learning as children move into Key Stage 1. History (Past and Present), Geography (People, Culture and Communities) and Science (The Natural World) are interwoven within Understanding the World as children are encouraged to observe and explore the physical world, communities and life both past and present. Pupils are encouraged to think about scientists, historians and geographers and consider what they do, what they think about and how they find out what they know. This foundational knowledge helps children to develop disciplinary understanding over time.
Our Curriculum will take children on a journey from their local area to outer space, from the fascinating world of dinosaurs to the ancient stories of Greek Gods. Children will encounter interesting people such as George Stephenson, known for his steam train ‘The Rocket’, and Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. They will explore captivating places such as The North Pole and Mount Everest. They will grow plants, study maps, look closely at fallen leaves, observe ice melting, design floating boats and much more. Importantly, they will be learning and using new vocabulary in a wide range of contexts. Children will learn more and remember more as they progress through their early years, enriching their play and their conversations with the powerful knowledge in our curriculum. We have specified powerful knowledge content, vocabulary, supporting texts and ideas for continuous provision to ensure children achieve their potential.
Supporting children with Special Education Needs
We have high aspirations for all our pupils but we understand that those with special educational needs may make progress at different rates. We support their learning through a carefully structured curriculum complemented by strong teacher subject knowledge, where core learning that supports progression is identified and prioritised, where teaching is adapted in a responsive way to meet pupil needs and through ensuring all staff have accessed appropriate continuing professional development to meet the needs of their pupils.