Curriculum

Early Years Foundation Stage

Curriculum intent, implementation, and impact

Intent

‘Finding our voices, learning through play’

The Early Years marks the beginning of your child’s very exciting journey at HLC. It is filled with exciting, playful and enjoyable learning opportunities, where children will develop a strong sense of belonging and grow into active, independent, imaginative, and creative learners who are ready to embrace school life at HLC Primary.

Throughout the Early Years, our staff will support children to build confidence, treat others with respect and help provide them with the skills they need to thrive in the wider world, all whilst fostering a love of learning that inspires them to reach their full potential.

In our Early Years, our school values are at the very heart of our curriculum offer. We are committed to:

BELONG: Creating an inclusive environment where every child feels valued, supported, and part of our school community.
RESPECT: Encouraging children to appreciate and celebrate cultural diversity, fostering kindness and understanding as they develop into respectful and caring individuals.
INSPIRE: Providing ambitious and engaging learning experiences that spark curiosity, creativity, and a lifelong thirst for knowledge.
SUCCEED: Equipping children with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to achieve their best at school and beyond.
ENJOY: Nurturing a love of learning in a stimulating, language-rich environment where children feel happy, safe, and excited to explore the world around them.

Our curriculum is bespoke with our school and community at the front of our mind. We work closely with our families and the wider community to ensure every child’s start to school is a positive one, promoting their health, happiness, and enthusiasm for learning. By the end of the Early Years, we aim for all children to leave with a strong sense of belonging, be equipped the skills they need to succeed, and be inspired to continue their learning and development.

As an Early Years Team, we are proud to provide our children with the opportunities to thrive and become strong and independent here with us at HLC!

Implementation

At HLC Primary, children start their Early Years Foundation Stage journey in Nursery, at 3 years old and leave at the end of Reception, at 5 years old. Our approach in the Foundation Stage reflects our HLC values of Belong, Respect, Inspire, Succeed, and Enjoy and our ethos ‘Finding our voices, Learning through play.’ We implement our intent through:

Creating a welcoming environment where all children feel part of our learning community. Our classrooms are equipped with a wide range of resources to support the development of all seven areas of the EYFS curriculum, ensuring every child has access to the tools they need to grow and thrive.
Offering an outstanding outside facility, where children are challenged daily and are allowed to follow their own interests. We provide water and sand play, a mud kitchen and café, a large construction area and plenty opportunity to develop our core physical skills through balancing and den making. We also have bikes and scooters to hand to enhance our gross motor development.
Ensuring strong communication with our parents and carers through effective communication, for example, being available every morning on the classroom door, our weekly newsletter and fortnightly Family Friday’s where parents and carers are invited in to join in and celebrate our learning.

Through our bespoke, spiralised curriculum, we cover a wide range of topics, themes, through a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts which progress from Nursery to Reception. This allows us to extend children’s experiences vocabulary and cultural capital, ensuring their individuality and unique contributions are valued. We have daily Learning Through Play which allows children to follow their interests holistically and challenge themselves in a language rich, supportive environment.
Believing in every child’s potential to succeed at HLC. Through ongoing assessments, we swiftly identify children who may need additional support or challenge, ensuring that all children make progress. Our teaching inspires curiosity and excitement by using engaging, high-quality interactions that promote strong communication and language skills, affording children opportunities to keep up rather than catch-up with their peers. Trained adults deliver regular, targeted support, such as TalkBoost, Attention Bucket, Racing to English and Contrastive Pairs, to ignite a passion for learning in every child and allowing all learners to feel successful and integral to the HLC family. Regular pupil progress meetings help us track their development and set meaningful next steps for continued growth. We also work closely with the SENDCo to provide targeted interventions when needed.
Aiming to make learning a joyful experience. By offering daily phonics sessions through our bespoke phonics curriculum, children will learn life skills such as fine motor control, fundamental literacy skills and foster a love of reading for pleasure. Engaging maths sessions using both Mastering Number and White Rose Maths schemes, ensure learners develop practical problem-solving skills, initially through concrete resources, moving to pictorial representations and finally to abstract concepts, in readiness for Year 1.

At the end of their Reception year, children will develop a love for learning that will last a lifetime and prepare them to be self-sufficient and successful. Each child is assessed against our HLC Reception exit points and the early learning goals to provide a profile of their achievements and abilities. These profiles are shared with the next class teacher to ensure that these foundations are built upon in Year 1. Through these approaches, we embody the values of Belong, Respect, Inspire, Succeed, and Enjoy to support every child’s journey at HLC Primary.

Impact

At HLC Primary, we have designed a bespoke Early Years curriculum tailored to support the needs of the children in our community. This was developed with the aim of ensuring all children make progress and leave the EYFS Stage with good communication and language, emotional literacy and a love of learning. Children will leave our EYFS Stage with:

A deep understanding of our school values—Belong, Respect, Inspire, Succeed, and Enjoy—and how these shape their behaviours, relationships, and experiences.
Improved communication skills, with a strong emphasis on vocabulary and finding their voices and expressing themselves with confidence.
A rich knowledge of stories and language, developing a love of storytelling and early literacy.
The ability to blend and read with increasing fluency and automaticity, providing a strong foundation for future learning.
Strengthened gross and fine motor skills, supporting physical development and school readiness.
Growing mathematical understanding appropriate for their age, helping them approach problem-solving with confidence. A strong foundation of number knowledge and understanding of how numbers are made.
Able to be independent throughout their day by accessing resources, getting themselves ready and thinking about what they might need.
Express themselves through creativity, imagination, and exploration.
Taking on challenges and demonstrating resilience.

With this strong foundation in place, children will leave Reception ready to embrace their next steps with resilience, self-belief, and enthusiasm. They will belong to a nurturing and inclusive school community, respect themselves and others, feel inspired to learn and grow, strive to succeed, and truly enjoy their early learning experiences.