EYFS
Welcome to EYFS at Coleridge Primary School!
“All children deserve the care and support they need to have the best start in life. Children learn and develop at a faster rate from birth to five years old than at any other time in their lives, so their experiences in early years have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe, and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high-quality early learning provide the foundation children need to fulfil their potential.” – EYFS Framework, 2025
At Coleridge Primary School, we bring this vision to life by ensuring that every child aged 2 to 5 years receives care, support, and high-quality learning experiences in a safe, nurturing, and stimulating environment. We help children develop confidence, resilience, and independence as motivated and curious learners, build strong relationships with adults and peers, and achieve their potential through a balance of adult-led teaching and child-initiated play.
In EYFS at Coleridge, we provide the ideal start for children aged 2–5 years to develop as playful, motivated, and independent learners within a safe, caring, yet challenging and enriching setting.
Our school’s core values – Aspire, Desire, Believe, Achieve – are embedded in our daily routines. We encourage children to take risks, set ambitious goals, believe in themselves, and celebrate their successes when they achieve them.
We believe that when children feel valued and confident, they are happy, settled, and secure. Our child-centred approach supports holistic development at each child’s own pace. We provide an enabling environment that promotes communication and language skills while ensuring learning is engaging, meaningful, and enjoyable.
Learning happens through investigation, exploration, and immersive, hands-on experiences within our play-based curriculum. We provide children aged 2–5 years with a wide range of experiences to support their knowledge and understanding of the world. To help children achieve their goals and make outstanding progress, we maintain a strong balance of direct teaching and child-led play in a purposeful, high-quality environment. Our high expectations encourage children to try their best and take every opportunity to develop their skills and confidence.
We value the importance of the outdoor environment, giving children aged 2–5 years space to learn about the world around them in a natural and safe setting. Children are encouraged to take managed risks, which fosters critical thinking, independence, and resilience.
Finally, we prioritise staff development to ensure that all EYFS practitioners are highly trained, skilled, and passionate about children’s education and well-being. This enables us to deliver a curriculum and daily experiences that support every child aged 2–5 years to thrive and enjoy their learning journey.
EYFS Curriculum at Coleridge Primary School
Our EYFS curriculum is carefully designed to give children aged 2–5 years the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to thrive in school and beyond. It is based on the EYFS Framework (2025) and Development Matters, and ensures children develop across all 7 areas of learning.
Yearly Overviews
Here are our yearly overviews for each EYFS class, showing the topics and skills and knowledge that will be taught across the year, as well as the experiences that the children will be immersed in:
Nursery 1 (N1) Yearly Overview
Nursery 2 (N2) Yearly Overview
Reception Yearly Overview
Prime Areas
These are fundamental for children’s development and underpin all other learning:
1. Communication and Language
Children develop:
- Rich vocabulary and expressive language
- Active listening and confident speaking
- Storytelling and narrative skills
Communication and language is at the centre of everything we do in EYFS at Coleridge Primary School, but some activities include: Helicopter Stories, Babblejab, Poetry Basket, story times throughout the day, and high-quality interactions during immersive play.
View our Communication and Language Curriculum Progress Model
2. Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)
Children learn to:
- Manage feelings and emotions
- Develop empathy and respect
- Build confidence, resilience, and positive relationships
Activities include: PSED focused story times, Jigsaw lessons, role play, collaborative games, and adult-guided interactions.
View our PSED Curriculum Progression
3. Physical Development
Children develop both fine and gross motor skills:
- Coordination, control, and movement
- Fine motor skills for writing and everyday tasks
- Healthy habits and self-care
Activities include: Let’s move sessions, PE sessions, Dough Disco sessions, Wiggle whilst you squiggle sessions, outdoor play, mark-making, threading, handwriting lessons, climbing, and exploration.
View our Physical Development Curriculum Progression
Specific Areas
These build on the prime areas and prepare children for later academic learning:
4. Literacy
- Nursery focuses on pre-phonics skills (Super Sounds Programme)
- Reception children follow Read Write Inc. (RWI) for letter sounds, blending, and early reading
Activities include: Story and Rhyme Time sessions, Drawing Club sessions, daily story time and RWI lessons, as well as the opportunities to read and write in all areas of provision.
View our Literacy Curriculum Progression
5. Maths
Children develop strong foundations in number sense and reasoning:
- Counting, number recognition, and problem-solving
- Mathematical language and reasoning through discussion
- Integration into daily routines
Activities include: Maths lessons, calendar sessions, counting games, voting for story sessions and real-life maths in play, as well as maths opportunities in all areas of provision.
View our Maths Curriculum Progression
6. Understanding the World
Children explore and make sense of the world:
- History: Personal and family history, significant events
- Geography: Local and global environments
- Science: Life cycles, seasonal changes, properties of materials
- Technology: Using iPads, interactive whiteboards, and simple tools
- RE: Celebrations in different religions
Activities include: UTW focused carpet sessions, objective-led planning and opportunities for children to apply what they have learnt through play
View our Understanding the World Curriculum Progression
7. Expressive Arts and Design
Children express themselves creatively:
- Art: Drawing, painting, sculpture, and studying artists
- Music: Singing, rhythm, and instruments
- Drama & Role Play: Collaboration, storytelling, imagination
- Design & Technology: Building, designing, and evaluating
Activities include: EAD focused carpet sessions, objective-led planning and opportunities for children to apply what they have learnt through play
View our Expressive Arts and Design Curriculum Progression
How We Deliver the Curriculum
- Play-based learning alongside adult-led sessions
- Continuous provision tailored to individual needs
- Regular assessment to guide planning and provide support
- A language-rich, stimulating environment to extend thinking and independence
- Outdoor learning to explore and develop physical and social skills
- Interventions to support children who need a little extra support
Our Aim
By the end of EYFS, children at Coleridge:
- Have strong foundations in communication, social skills, literacy, maths, and the wider curriculum
- Are confident, curious, and independent learners
- Are ready for the next stage of their education
Assessment in EYFS
EYFS Baseline
What is the EYFS Baseline?
All children in Reception participate in the reception baseline assessment (RBA) within the first 6 weeks of starting Reception. The purpose of the assessment is to provide the starting point for a new measure that will help parents understand how well schools support their pupils to progress between reception and year 6.
The baseline assessment is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school, using materials that most children of your child’s age will be familiar with. It became statutory for all schools from September 2021.
The baseline assessment is not about judging or labelling the children or putting them under any pressure. Children cannot ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ the assessment. Its main purpose is to create a starting point to measure the progress schools make with their pupils.
Please see the attached leaflet for more information:
EYFS Profile
What is the EYFS profile?
The EYFS profile is sometimes known as the early years profile or EYFSP. It summarises a child’s attainment at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which is when they finish Reception. In September, the child will then move into key stage 1 as they enter year 1.
The EYFS profile summarises a child’s attainment against the early learning goals. There are seventeen early learning goals (sometimes shortened to ELGs) across all the Areas of Learning. The early learning goals are the goals or targets that children are working to achieve by the end of F2. The goals cover a range of skills that children will have been learning and practising throughout the Early Years Foundation Stage. You can see a list of the early learning goals here: How will the profile be completed?
Reception teachers will use their knowledge of what each child knows, understands and can do in order to decide the outcomes presented in the profile. They will also take into account the views of other people, including parents and carers, other members of staff and other agencies, such as childminders or speech and language teachers.
For each of the seventeen early learning goals, children will be awarded an outcome.
This will be either:
- ‘Emerging’ – meaning that the child is not yet reaching the expected level
- Expected’ – meaning the child has reached the expected level
These outcomes will be shared with the child’s parents/carers and their year 1 teacher. Remember, there is no need to worry if your child is given an emerging level for one or more of the goals. Children develop at different rates and the main purpose of the profile is to provide support for each child at the correct level as they continue through the school. The main purpose of the EYFS profile is to help create a smooth transition into year 1. The profile results will be shared and discussed with the child’s year 1 teacher to enable them to plan activities to meet the needs of all children in the class and to develop an understanding of each child’s needs.
Please see the EYFS Profile handbook for more information:
Learning to read- Phonics
In Nursery, children are taught important pre-phonics skills to ensure they have secure foundations to be ready to learn to read in Reception. We use have used the Super Sounds Programme to plan an engaging and ambitious pre-phonics skills curriculum.
In Reception, children begin learning to recognise the set 1 single letter sounds following the Read Write Inc scheme, as soon as they start Reception. They also learn how to blend these sounds together to read words and then sentences. Please see the phonics section of our website for more information (link to phonics page on our website)
Growing a love of reading
In EYFS, we know how important it is to promote and grow a love of reading. Reading and high quality books are embedded in everything that we do. Children are exposed to a variety of books throughout each day.
In EYFS, we teach Literacy using the Drawing Club approach developed by Greg Bottrill. In Drawing Club, we have a book of the week which allows children to get to know it really well. Children are taught vocabulary from the book and listen to the story each day. We also have mapped out high quality books to teach all other areas of learning including Maths, PSED, UTW and EAD.
We also have our Favourite Five books in each year group, which we use for our voting for story time each day. The children vote for which of the Favourite Five stories they would like to be read to them that day. This means that they are exposed to the same five stories during this session over a half term, which means that they get to know them really well.
Reading at home
Read Write Inc Book Bag Books
In F2, once children have been taught to recognise the sounds in school, children will begin to bring home a Read Write Inc Book Bag Book. These are books for children to read to a parent or carer to practise applying the phonics skills they are learning in school.
Dream Reads
Dream Reads are high quality stories for parents and carers to read to their children at home to expose them to a wide range of vocabulary and to continue to grow a love of reading at home. There are 30 different high quality story books for each year group, which have been carefully chosen, for children to borrow and take home so that you can snuggle up and enjoy a bedtime story! These stories are also available as a video below.
Here are the Dream Reads for F1:
Youtube Links
All in One Piece – Jill Murphy
Avocado Baby – John Burningham
Bright Stanley – Matt Buckingham
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? – Bill Martin Jr/Eric Carle
Click Clack Crocodiles Back – Kathryn White and Joelle Dreidemy
Each Peach Pear Plum – Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Giraffes Can’t Dance – Giles Andreae
Hippo has a hat – Julia Donaldson & Nick Sharratt
Snakes on a train – Kathryn Dennis
I don’t want to go to bed – Julia Sykes & Tim Warnes
Kipper’s Snowy Day – Mick Inkpen
Kitchen disco – Clare Foges & Al Murphy
Mini Monsters – Caryl Hart & Tony Neal
Mog the forgetful cat – Judith Kerr
Oi Dog – Kes & Claire Gray & Jim Field
Red Rockets and Rainbow Jelly – Sue Heap & Nick Sharratt
Slowly, slowly, said the sloth – Eric Carle
Thank you for the little things – Caryl Hart
The Wobblysaurus – Rachel Bright & Chris Chatterton
Walking through the Jungle – Julie Lacome
We’re going on a bear hunt – Michael Rosen
Where’s my teddy? – Jez Alborough
Who’s in the loo? – Jeanne Willis & Adrian Reynolds
Here are the Dream Reads for F2:
Youtube Links
Alan’s Big Scary Teeth – Jarvus
Are you there Baby Bear? – Catherine Walters
Burglar Bill – Janet & Allan Ahlberg
Can’t you sleep little bear? – Martin Waddell
Elmer and the lost teddy – David McKee
Five minutes peace – Jill Murphy
Lost and Found – Oliver Jeffers
Monkey puzzle – Julia Donaldson
Mr Gumpy’s Outing – John Burningham
Mrs Armitage on wheels – Quentin Blake
Pattan’s Pumkin – Chitra Soundar
The Crocodile who didn’t like water – Gemma Merino
The Dodos did it – Alice McKinley
The Night Pirates -Peter Harris
The rainbow fish – Marcus Pfister
We’re going to find the monster – Malorie Blackman
Winston was Worried – Pamela Duncan Edwards
Yucky worms – Vivian French
This half term our topic in EYFS is ‘What makes me special’ and ‘Let’s celebrate!’.
During this, we will be learning all about what makes us unique, our families, how people celebrate birthdays and also seasonal changes in autumn.
Here is our EYFS Learning Journey for this half term with our enquiry questions for each week:
Here are our curriculum newsletters for this half term with information about what skills and knowledge the children are learning in each class this half term:
View Nursery 1 (N1) Curriculum Newsletter
View Nursery 2 (N2) Curriculum Newsletter
View Reception Curriculum Newsletter
At the start of each half term, we will send home a curriculum newsletter where you will find details about what your child will be learning in school, so that you can support the development of these skills and knowledge at home too.
Please find this half term’s Curriculum Newsletters below:
Little Explorers- Nursery (3-4 year olds) Curriculum Newsletter
Confident Adventurers- Reception (4-5 year olds) Curriculum Newsletter
Reading Learning at Home- For more information, please see the Reading in EYFS tab
Dream Reads
In Nursery and Reception, children will bring home a Dream Reads book. Dream Reads are carefully selected, high-quality storybooks chosen to expose children to a rich variety of vocabulary while nurturing a love of reading at home. Each year group has a collection of 30 beautifully curated books that children can borrow and enjoy with their family. We encourage you to snuggle up and share these stories together, especially as a bedtime read! Video versions of these stories are also available below. Please record every time you read one of our Dream Reads books or other books that you have at home with your child in their reading record.
Ruth Miskin Portal Video Links
To further support your child’s phonics learning, we will share links on Class Dojo to Ruth Miskin video tutorials. These videos can be watched alongside your child to reinforce the phonics lessons they are receiving in school. Please record when your child has watched the videos at home in their reading record.
Read Write Inc Book Bag Books
In Reception, once children have learned to recognise key sounds in school, they will start bringing home Read Write Inc Book Bag Books. These books are designed for children to read with a parent or carer, helping them to practise and apply the phonics skills they’re developing in school. Every time your child reads their phonics book to you, please record this in their reading record.
Maths Learning at Home
Throughout the year, we will be offering Mastering Number workshops for parents and children to attend together. These sessions will introduce you to a variety of engaging maths games, specifically designed to help children reinforce the skills they’ve learned in school in a fun and interactive way.
Additionally, we recommend several websites to support your child’s learning at home:
- Tiny Talkers Rotherham: Activities to do at home to support your child’s communication and language- https://tinytalkers.co.uk/parents-carers/
- Phonics Play: Engaging phonics games for your child to enjoy- https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
- Cosmic Kids Yoga: Fun yoga sessions for children linked to storytelling- https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga
- Numberblocks: Watch episodes of Numberblocks and play educational games on the website- https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b08bzfnh/numberblocks
- Topmarks: Access a variety of fun educational games for your child- https://www.topmarks.co.uk/
We encourage you to upload photos and comments about your child’s engagement with these activities on Class Dojo, as we love to celebrate their home learning experiences. Please feel free to share any additional learning your child does at home, even if it’s not a specific task assigned by their teacher.
Thank you for your ongoing support in your child’s learning journey!
