EYFS Literacy Curriculum
EYFS Literacy Curriculum
In the EYFS we plan literacy sessions to ensure children’s early reading and writing development. Core texts are used to introduce topics that encourage high quality talk, support language acquisition and spark pupils’ imaginations. We believe that an enjoyment of books is vital for the development of language and imagination.
It is our intent to ensure that all children are taught early reading through systematic, synthetic phonics, learning to read words and simple sentences accurately by the end of Reception. In line with whole-school policy, we use the Little Wandle systematic synthetic phonics programme to teach phonics. We deliver discreet phonics sessions daily and aim for the children to practise and apply these skills during real and meaningful activities. In Reception, children take part in three weekly reading practice sessions, which have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:
- Decoding
- Prosody – reading with meaning, stress and intonation
- Comprehension – understanding the text
‘Helicopter stories’ are used in Nursery, which allow children to explore early literacy and the power of words as they see their stories come to life. This inclusive, whole-class approach values every child’s contribution. It develops from a teacher scribing a child’s story, then the child acting it out with their friends, leading to children writing their own stories.
Literacy opportunities are promoted in many of the continuous provision activities available to children during the week. Our outdoor provision includes phonic resources with which children are able to word-build using giant grapheme tiles, write with chalk on sound logs and dig for sound stones hidden in the sand and soil. Children have access to a variety of different writing resources, including shaving foam and sand. Our outdoor ‘Reading bench’ in Reception is a cosy area with blankets, cushions and teddies where children can experience reading outside the classroom. The children visit the library once a week to choose a reading for pleasure book to share with parents and their reading buddies from Year Six. Story telling activities also take place during Forest School sessions, and children have access to puppets, role play areas and story baskets. Parents are encouraged to take part in ‘secret reader’ sessions.
We use the Tapestry online learning journal to record and share the children’s learning with their parents. Differentiated literacy home learning challenges are set weekly for Reception children via Tapestry.
Staff meet regularly to discuss observations made and use them to plan the next steps in learning. The Insight system is used to tracks pupil’s progress internally. All Reception children have individual literacy books to record teacher focus tasks. The WellComm Early Years toolkit is used to enable staff to identify areas of concern in language, communication and interaction development, in order to ensure targeted early intervention. ‘Time to Talk’ interventions also take place to target attention, listening skills and vocabulary development.