Every child deserves the best start in life. St. Gregory’s Curriculum for Early Years has been formulated with the intention of all children, regardless of starting point, believes that they have the power to determine their own lives and to make a positive change in the world. Our Early Years teaching resources take children beyond the limits of their personal experiences and the classroom to ensure that no child is left behind, and every child knows and grows in God's love and the wonder of creation.

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. St. Gregory’s EYFS Curriculum teaching materials have been carefully written to spark pupils’ curiosity and to develop their oral language, communication and comprehension through engaging, high-quality teaching resources. 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.

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

St. Gregory’s Early Years Curriculum materials have a strong focus on the specific area of Understanding the World (UW), as this ELG lends itself for greater transition into Key Stage 1. History (Past and Present), Geography (People, Culture and Communities) and Science (The Natural World) are interwoven within UW 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.

St. Gregory’s Early Years Curriculum fit into our whole-school approach to curriculum design and provide children with both the substantive and disciplinary knowledge that they need to become confident, powerful and inquisitive learners. Our materials support staff in building a strong foundation of learning for our youngest pupils and encourage a seamless transition to Key Stage 1 and into Key Stage 2.

High-Quality Teaching
Within Early Years, it is vital that children receive effective teaching and develop characteristics of effective learning that form a firm foundation for their future learning. The EYFS Framework identifies the following characteristics of effective teaching learning that are embedded in our vision for our early years' curriculum:

• • playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
  • active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
  • creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things

Within Early Years, children are taught through a range of approaches in our teachers’ repertoire, in example - storytelling, role play, exploration and discussion. At the beginning of every lesson, pupils are given time to orally rehearse the key vocabulary that the teacher has identified from the plans and from their knowledge of the children. There are multiple opportunities within the lesson for partner talk, where children are encouraged and praised for use of the key vocabulary. Pupils’ learning, vocabulary and understanding of the world is enriched through exposure to poems, stories, non-fiction texts, maps, external trips, and visitors.

EYFS Provision & Continuous Provision
St. Gregory’s EYFS curriculum has a mixture of teacher-led provision and quality resources and environmental organisation for continuous provision. These are the activities and resources that children have access to consistently throughout the week, term or year. During child-directed time, they may choose to engage with the provision that has been carefully selected and prepared by staff who know the curriculum and the children well. Resources are selected for the wealth of learning opportunities they provide, and provision is designed to help children to develop the characteristics of effective learning.