The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is how the Government and early years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5. For The Coppice this means children in our Nursery and Reception classes.
At The Coppice, our EYFS curriculum is built upon the EYFS Stautory Framework and our school’s values which include inclusivity, empathy, respect, emotional wellbeing, resilience, perseverance, collaboration and partnership. We are committed to providing an environment where every child is valued as unique, supported to develop socially, emotionally, and academically, and encouraged to become a kind, curious, and independent learner. This foundation reflects our wider school vision to foster excellent behaviour, tolerance and a love of learning.
The EYFS promotes teaching and learning to ensure that children receive the best start to life and gives them the broad range of knowledge and skills that are necessary to provide the right foundation for lifelong learning and future success as they transition into Key Stage 1 and then Key Stage 2.
The EYFS supports children to learn and develop in seven key areas of learning. These seven areas are used to plan your child’s learning and experiences in accordance with their unique needs and interests:
To give the children in EYFS the best start in life, our curriculum is carefully designed. Our aim is to always ensure that for every child we focus on
Our EYFS provision enables children to leave with:
At The Coppice Primary School and Nursery, our EYFS is a vibrant, inclusive foundation where children are nurtured to grow socially, emotionally, and academically. Rooted in our wider school vision, our curriculum equips pupils with the skills, values, and confidence to succeed in school and life. We are proud to provide an environment where every child can flourish, reflecting our commitment to the best education and care.
Further detail on aspects of our EYFS Curriculum can be accessed below;
Our Approach to Teaching and learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage:
At The Coppice, our approach to teaching and learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage balances child-initiated play with adult-led and adult-guided learning
Our children are given opportunities to play and explore, to investigate and to share and test out ideas during continuous provision. It is here where children can free-flow around a range of engaging and challenging activities and open-ended resources, both indoors and outdoors, that are linked to the seven learning areas. Practitioners create a language-rich, stimulating environment where children’s interests drive their learning.
During continuous provision, practitioners engage in high-quality interactions with the children in order to develop their thinking. They facilitate and move learning forward by adopting the cycle of observing, assessing and planning in the moment. Practitioners continually assess the children for the characteristics of effective learning and adapt the children’s learning accordingly, in order that individual needs are met immediately.
Learning experiences are all designed to support learning and to deepen knowledge in order that our children build firm foundations and connections that are needed for future learning.
In addition, through explicit teaching in their ‘Family Time Groups’, the children are taught the crucial foundational skills in reading, writing and number that are needed for them to be able to confidently access all areas of the curriculum as they move into Key Stage 1 and beyond.
Our Early Years curriculum emphasises:
> Quality First Teaching: Skilled adults model language, extend vocabulary, and guide learning through meaningful play and conversations.
> Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) at its Heart: Children develop emotional awareness and resilience through supportive relationships and guided social experiences.
> Indoor and Outdoor Learning: Both settings are used purposefully to inspire maximum engagement, imagination and real-life learning.
> Responsive Planning: Our curriculum responds to children’s evolving interests and needs, informed by ongoing observations and assessments.
> Family Partnership: We work closely with parents to ensure consistency and inclusion, sharing progress and supporting each child’s journey.
To learn and understand more about our approach to teaching and learning, please see our EYFS Policy below.
To view our EYFS learning environments, please view our school tour video by clicking here.
Our Curriculum documents explain exactly what we are going to teach to our children. They outline what we teach in the Early Years Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception) and how this is built upon as they move through Key stage1 (Years 1 and 2) and Key stage 2 (Years 3,4, 5 and 6).
Maths in the Early Years at The Coppice:
The Early Years approach to maths focuses on helping children develop a strong understanding of numbers, patterns, shapes, and problem-solving through play and everyday experiences. In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), maths is introduced in practical and meaningful ways, allowing children to explore concepts such as counting, sorting, measuring, and comparing through hands-on activities. Adults support this learning by using mathematical language, asking open-ended questions, and creating opportunities for children to investigate and think critically.
We use our focused family time sessions to combine bespoke learning from White Rose Maths with the requirements of the Early Learning Goals to target specific mathematical skills and ensure children are developing key concepts in a structured and engaging way. This ‘maths mastery’ approach helps build confidence, curiosity and a positive attitude towards maths from an early age, giving the children the strong foundations in maths that they will need in order to enter Key Stage 1 confidently. For further information regarding maths mastery in the Early Years, please use the following link:
https://www.ncetm.org.uk/in-the-classroom/early-years/
For further information regarding our Early Years maths at The Coppice specifically, please click on any of the documents below:
At the Coppice, we teach writing through a progressively sequenced writing curriculum developed by ESSENTIAL WRITING, from Reception through to Year 6. This is built upon the principles of writing for an authentic purpose and audience at its core. Learning revolves around stimulating texts that cover a range of genres, cultures, and authors.
Each year group’s set of units use diverse and high-quality literature as good examples of writing craft in order to help to motivate or inspire children to write.
Under EYFS ‘Curriculum content’, turn ‘EYFS Curriculum Learning Map’ into accordian structure and then add ‘Writing in EYFS’ into the accordian structure:
The importance of the Reception year (taken from Page 7 of The Writing Framework - July 2025
The above guidance highlights the important role of the Reception year in building the foundations for writing. These foundations support children throughout primary school and prepare them for secondary education.
To ensure children get off to the best start and have the best chance of later success in writing, it recommends a focus on building these foundations through oral composition and through developing handwriting and spelling. This means keeping things simple and doing them well. Children need to be able to compose orally (say out loud what they want to write) and know how to form letters, spell and punctuate correctly. Handwriting instruction should start at the beginning of reception, alongside phonics, and continue throughout the Reception year and beyond.
The guidance explains that pupils should not be expected to produce extended pieces of writing. Rather they should be given plenty of opportunities to practise handwriting and spelling, write dictated sentences and develop oral composition. It also provides guidance for teachers on making judgements against the early learning goal for writing.
How does Essential Writing for Early Years ensure that all the requirements of The Writing Framework are met?
Essential Writing for Early Years has been developed to build strong foundations for successful, young writers. It links the developmental milestones needed to prepare and motivate all children to experience the joy of writing.
The Essential Writing curriculum for Nursery and Reception-aged children offers a balance between child-led EYFS activities and adult inspired activities to ensure children can use their own experiences and interests to build the skills to see themselves as communicators, mark-makers and ultimately writers. The strands of communication & language, physical development and literacy are interwoven throughout the curriculum, with the children’s own compositions nurtured alongside age-appropriate transcriptional skills.
Essential Writing is built on the idea of all adults and children talking and writing together, with the possibility of taking part in book-making projects with adults writing alongside groups or individual children.
Each book-making unit contains six steps, resulting in a book that reflects the passions and experiences of its author. The programme aims to build a writing community within the school or setting, valuing early years mark making, emerging writing and the children’s own ideas whilst supporting all practitioners to develop a rigorous approach to closing gaps and providing additional support to children who may need it.
The unit plans are created by Early Years experts and are designed to be used within child-led and adult-inspired sessions, based on the understanding that the writing process involves talking, drawing, writing and sharing. Children are given opportunities to share their books with their chosen readership, and this links to the core principles of authentic purpose and audience that underpin ESSENTIALWRITING in KS1 & 2.
Alongside the Statutory Framework for the EYFS Essential Writing has referenced learning statements from Development Matters so that, as a school, we can be sure that the skills children learn and practise in the Early Years (Nursery and Reception) builds upon what has gone before and prepares them for what follows in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
Please click below for documents which provide further explanation of Essential Writing in Early Years:
Parents and Carers would also find it very useful to read the following document:
