Early Years at Phoenix Community Primary School

Our Reception class is known as the Early Years Foundation Stage or EYFS for short.  At Phoenix, we follow the statutory EYFS framework for teaching and development.  This stage is very important in a child’s life as it helps prepare them for the school career ahead of them and for their future learning and successes. 

The EYFS framework explains how and what children will be learning to support their healthy development and provides the foundations which children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.

Children learn skills, acquire new knowledge and demonstrate their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development. These are split into Prime and Specific areas.

Children start developing in the 3 prime areas first. These are:

• Communication and language;
• Physical development; and
• Personal, social and emotional development.

These prime areas are those most essential for a child’s healthy development and future learning. These weave through our Early Years Curriculum.  As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive art and design

All 7 areas of learning are used to plan children’s learning and activities. We make sure that the activities are suited to your child’s unique needs. This mirrors our school curriculum, but it's suitable for very young children, and it's designed to be really flexible so that staff can follow your child's unique needs and interests, whilst also teaching them the most important skills and knowledge to prepare them for future learning.