Information for New Parents
Welcome to Early Years!
Our Early Years Department consists of a morning and afternoon Nursery and two Reception classes.
Our aim is to provide a caring environment which will compliment the child's life both at home and in our community and encourage ALL children to progress to the best of their ability.
We have lots of fun being busy! It is through our play that we learn all we need to know. We believe that play helps children to develop intellectually. At St Stephen’s we place great value on learning and exploring outdoors. Our wonderful outdoor environment provides many enriching and risk taking opportunities. Such opportunites allow children to graw and develop confidence, independence amd skills for life.
We play activities that allow children to develop their skills that will help them to meet the Early Learning Goals below:
Organisation of the learning areas
The EYFS curriculum is as follows:
Prime Areas of Learning
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, Social and Emotional Developement
The Specific Area of Learning
- Understanding of the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
Childrens Preferred Learning Styles
Characteristics of effective learning
The three characteristics of effective learning comprise playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically. The characterisitics describe the different ways children learn rather than what they learn. They begin at birth and are lifelong characteristics which are critical for building children's capacity for future learning. These characteristics need to be understood by practitioners working across all seven areas of learning.