We aim to provide the highest quality of care and education for all children, giving them a strong foundation for their future learning. We create a safe and happy environment with motivating, tactile, and enjoyable learning experiences that enable children to become confident and independent learners. We value the individual child and work alongside all stakeholders to meet their needs and help every child to reach their full potential. We follow the Statutory Framework of the EYFS/ECCE (Early Years Foundation Stage from birth to age 5) and the four guiding principles that shape practice within kindergarten settings.

• Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident, and self-assured.
• Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
• Children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents.
• Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates.

We plan an exciting and challenging curriculum based on our observation of children’s needs, interests, and stages of development across the seven areas of learning to enable the children to achieve and exceed the early learning goals.

Children are also supported through the four specific areas, strengthening and applying the three primes areas. The specific areas are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

‘Play is the work of the young child’.

The Learning Environment

The learning environment will be organized to ensure that children have the opportunity to:

Differentiation and Assessment

Every lesson will be carefully planned with a differentiation of tasks to suit all ability levels. This may be achieved by:

• varying tasks
• varying outcomes
• varying time constraints
• varying amount of work give
• offering extra support/extension activities
• questioning

Informal assessment will be ongoing, using a variety of learning styles to allow each child to demonstrate what they have learned.

EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE- EYFS

The ethos of DWPS and our Kindergarten department encourages respect towards every member of the school community. Teachers strive to create a challenging, secure, and happy environment in which all children can explore ideas and experience success in a learning situation.

Children are encouraged to:

• Realise their full potential through a school policy of differentiation in planning and teaching the kindergarten curriculum.
• Develop a positive attitude towards their own learning and that of others, learn from mistakes, and value others’ contributions.
• Take responsibility for their actions and prepare themselves to become responsible for their own learning as a self-motivated and disciplined individuals. We recognize the importance of parents and the community as contributors to the child’s education and aim to work together with parents and the community to ensure that children’s needs are met. Regular communication between school and home is encouraged and is recognized as essential to the well-being of the child. Experiences and sensations are learning. Sensations form the base understanding from which concepts and thinking develop. A rich sensory environment, both outdoors and indoors, freedom to explore the environment with few restrictions, and the encouragement to ask and answer questions while they explore form the basis of our Kindergarten department. We will provide children with choices and opportunities to experience messy play and believe that learning first comes in through our senses. As we explore and experience our material world, initial sensory patterns will be laid down on elaborate nerve networks. These initial sensory patterns will become the core of our free-form information system which is updated and becomes more elegant with each new, novel experience. These initial sensory patterns become our reference points and give us the context for all learning, thought, and creativity. We will add emotions and movement from this sensory base in our life-long learning dance. These are the foundations of learning and this starts from the child’s very first experience in KG1.

Assessment in Kindergarten

Assessment is comprehensive and continuous throughout the year. Children are baseline using the EYFS curriculum profile in term one. From this staff have a clear idea of the child’s milestones, current skills and abilities, and next steps of progression. Throughout the year children are assessed and their progress is tracked using the EYFS profile. Observations, children’s work, photographs, and audio clips inform progress made. Significant learning is recorded using ‘2simple Build a Profile’. This program links directly with the EYFS curriculum and allows teachers to monitor and evaluate the child’s learning weekly.

These assessments are used to inform weekly planning to ensure all children are being appropriately challenged or supported. Throughout the year moderation of assessment takes place. This provides teachers with opportunities to share evidence and engage in professional dialogue about progression within the EYFS profile. At the end of the academic year, these records of assessments and progression show a clear learning journey for each child. Learning journeys are shared with parents as part of our reporting process.