Early Years and Foundation Stage

At Olga Primary children join us from a wide range of starting points and with varied life experiences. Our aim is to ensure that every child has an equal chance of success through giving them the foundation knowledge and skills to develop a love learning, a sense of awe and wonder and the ability to achieve in every area of life.

Implementation

Our Curriculum is adaptable and responsive and we carefully balance following children’s interests with teaching essential knowledge and skills. The EYFS Curriculum at Olga is designed to support all children to overcome possible barriers and is based on the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework. It ensures that children are given a secure foundation which enables them to ‘Be The Best They Can Be’. 

We value children’s interests and allow for significant periods where children lead their learning while having meaningful interactions with skilled practitioners to extend their learning further. Planning from children’s interests is explicitly included on our weekly planning and this is represented in many ways including trips out of school, arranging a visitor to come in, enhancements or development in our environment. We recognise that some key knowledge and skills will need to be explicitly taught. The Olga Primary School Curriculum outlines ‘Non-negotiable’ content across Nursery and Reception for each half term.

Adult led learning includes:

• Direct daily teaching of phonics and early reading skills
• Direct teaching of maths skills 

Alongside our non-negotiable content and child initiated learning the Olga’s Early Years curriculum includes 8 goals based on our curriculum drivers. These were developed specifically for our children.