Aims of the Early Years Foundation Stage:

• To provide quality learning experiences for all children. Learning will be through practical and play based activities, which are structured, balanced, relevant to the child and related to the real world;
• To give each child a happy, positive and fun start to their school life in which they can establish solid foundations on which to expand and foster a deep love of learning; 
• To offer each child a wide range of new and exciting experiences and give them the opportunity to consolidate, explore and test them out along with their own, individual experiences; 
• To enable each child, through encouragement and high expectations, to develop, to the full, socially, physically, intellectually and emotionally;
• To offer a structure for learning that has a range of starting points and unlimited opportunity for development; 
• To encourage children to develop independence within a loving, secure and friendly atmosphere; 
• To support children in building relationships through the development of social skills such as cooperation and sharing; 
• To help each child to recognise their own strengths and achievements through experiencing success and developing the confidence to work towards personal goals.
   

Time to play

We believe that play, both indoors and outdoors, is the fundamental way in which young children learn. Play can be enjoyed and challenging. When playing, children behave in different ways. Sometimes, their play will be boisterous, sometimes they will describe and discuss what they are doing, and sometimes they will be quiet and reflective as they play. Through play, children will be developing skills across all the Prime and Specific areas of learning, working towards achieving the Early Learning Goals. The adults role is to extend the children’s learning through sophisticated questioning, sustained shared thinking, modelling, playing alongside and through role play.