Welcome to Burton Green Early Years!
"Children get off to the best possible start to their education in the exceptional early years provision. They follow well-established routines and exhibit excellent behaviour." Ofsted - March 2025
Intent (What we do)
Our Curriculum
Our Early Years curriculum is unique to Burton Green, planned and developed around the specific needs of our children and our community and covers all aspects of the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage Framework (see below). It is underpinned by first-hand experience. Through this we develop speech and language, independence and self-regulated learning. These are our drivers for excellence. We focus on developing identified core knowledge and skills, starting with those needed by our youngest learners, moving through to our FS2 children so that they are creative and adventurous learners fully prepared for Year One, with all the tools needed to achieve and exceed in life. In order to do this we work closely with our KS1 colleagues. We make sure that our curriculum evolves and develops alongside our children. We ensure that flexibility is built into our curriculum so that our children can follow their own interests and that their individual talents, interests and needs are always nurtured.
The EYFS Statutory Framework
- sets the standards that all early year’s providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well
- ensures children are kept healthy and safe
- ensures that children have the knowledge and skills they need to start school
The three characteristics of effective learning describe the behaviours children use in order to learn:
Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and build the resilience to ‘have a go’
Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achieving
Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things
The three prime areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships, and thriving, underpinning the specific areas of learning.
The Prime Areas
- Communication and Language
- Personal, social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development
There are four specific areas through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied.
The Specific Areas
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive arts and design
Phonics is taught in Reception and Key Stage One through the Read Write Inc programme which is a systematic synthetic phonics programme and a highly effective approach used for the teaching of early reading and writing.
Our Nursery phonics teaching consists of developing children’s listening and attention skills and their phonological awareness. This is taught through daily phase 1 activities, incorporating the aspects of: environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body percussion, voice sounds, rhyme and alliteration. Children listen to and join in with songs and rhymes, sound games and syllable clapping activities. This early stage of phonics supports children to develop the listening and attention skills and sound awareness, ready to begin the Read Write Inc programme. In the summer term prior to beginning the Reception year, our Nursery children play ‘Fred games’ from RWI which develops oral blending skills in preparation for learning the letter sounds.
Implementation (How we do what we do)
Our meticulously planned learning environment promotes calmness, is purposeful and develops children’s natural curiosity, offering progression as they grow.
We offer a beautiful learning environment at Burton Green that is calm, communication-rich and promotes a feeling of homeliness. This ensures our children feel safe and secure. Carefully planned progression of routines and behavioural expectations ensures that our children develop high levels of respect and care. Our outdoor area enables our children to explore, be curious and develop important gross motor skills. Our wide range of learning activities engage and inspire and provide challenge, both mentally and physically. We access our Forest Schools area weekly to build dens, pond dip, enjoy songs and stories around the campfire and to learn about nature and the world around us. We believe in offering our children first-hand experiences and opportunities to broaden their knowledge and understanding of the world through visits and visitors.
At Burton Green, we have a skilled and dedicated team of staff in Early Years who have an absolute commitment to excellence and to ensuring our children exceed expectations, and feel a genuine sense of belonging.
We communicate with our parents in a variety of ways, first and foremost in person. Our Early Years staff are on the door to greet children each morning and to say goodbye each afternoon. Our staff are committed to developing and sustaining positive relationships with our families. We use an online tool called Tapestry through which we share photographs and information about children with parents who can also contribute through the app. Our Early Years classes Tweet regularly to share the learning and experiences that are happening during the week and our termly newsletter shares information about the knowledge and skills the children will be learning each term, the key books, rhymes and poems we are focussing on and visits and visitors planned. Our classes have Curriculum Books that showcase the ‘beyond the curriculum’ experiences that happen, these are shared with both parents and children. We hold a variety of meetings and workshops for and with our parents about starting school, teaching and learning phonics and mathematics, book breakfasts and stay and play sessions.
Impact (The result of what we do)
The impact of our vibrant curriculum, language-rich environment combined with skilful, dedicated practitioners will be the successful development of our children as unique learners. Our children will feel valued for their uniqueness and will in turn value and Respect differences in others. Our children will understand the importance of Kindness and will know that this begins with themselves and extends to friends, family, community and our world. They will be Creative thinkers and learners who are bold and resilient. Strong personal, social and emotional skills will enable them to engage fully in Teamwork valuing all contributions, confident to talk to a range of people due to the strength of their language and vocabulary skills. Our children leave Early Years fully prepared for their transition to Key Stage One, able to remember and apply vital knowledge and skills with the motivation and resilience to Succeed.
Our Outcomes
We strive to ensure that all of our children make good progress in all areas, with the ability to self regulate and self motivate. At Burton Green, we have high expectations of children and our curriculum and provision are matched to our children’s starting points and developmental needs. Our children are set personalised and meaningful next step targets based on individual needs. These next steps ensure that we are providing differentiated learning outcomes that are holistic, culturally and experientially relevant for all children.
