The EYFS Reading Enhanced Curriculum (REC) is centred around the love of books and the importance of reading and vocabulary development.
It has been developed to work with the National EYFS Curriculum 2021.
High-quality texts have been selected for FS1 and FS2 from the national Top 30 Reads and have been carefully selected to be delivered throughout the academic year to show progression. The key books selected link to a long-term yearly plan and have been chosen to support key themes and interests.
The EY REC contains ambitious links to strategies such as: Talk 4 Writing, Mastering Number and the school’s SSP, with the intention of preparing children well for Year 1 and beyond. The needs of all children have been carefully considered when setting this ambition. This ambition remains high for all children, and appropriate adaptations are made for children’s unique starting points.
Cross-curricular links provide plentiful opportunities for children to explore, test-out and revisit a broad range of purposeful, engaging and deliberately-chosen content across areas of learning.
Storytime book recommendations link to the literacy book focus for that week, which ensures story times are purposeful and references can be made to the literacy book focus. The length of books and difficulty of texts progress over the year to promote Year 1 readiness.
Connections are made throughout the EYFS curriculum to children’s wider personal development. For example, teaching children about relationships and friendships is high-profile and is delivered through the 1Decision scheme of learning. Aspects of the EYFS welfare requirements are also addressed through the EYFS REC curriculum.
Pedagogy and Environment
At Norbridge Academy, we strongly follow the ethos of the Early Excellence Pedagogy, which focuses on the development of learning through inspirational teaching and learning. All practitioners teach skills through offering children the opportunity to play. Practitioners follow the interests of the children and enhance learning provisions in line with this. This provides children with the opportunity, not only to acquire enthusiasm for learning, but to enhance their communication and language development. Practitioners intervene and develop the children’s play in line with the ELG.
The Foundation Stage One unit offers the children a large open space, which meets the needs of the child’s extended play. The children develop all their skills from PSE to maths in this area, through their play. The environment is enhanced based on the needs of the children daily and predominantly with natural resources. Our outdoor area is an extension of our indoor classroom. This is important to us, as we offer children the same opportunities to develop their learning. Children are actively encouraged to access the outdoor area throughout the school day.
Phonics
What is RWI?
Read Write Inc. Phonics (RWI) is our chosen phonics programme. It teaches children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing. Read Write Inc. Phonics includes reading books written using only the letters they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately-taught tricky words). Children quickly feel confident and successful with reading.
How do we teach phonics?
In Foundation Stage One, children will spend lots of time sharing stories and rhymes to help them develop a love of reading and learn lots of new vocabulary. Stories and rhymes have been mapped out across our EYFS curriculum, and these are shared regularly so that children know them really well.
In the term before they start Foundation Stage Two, children will begin to learn their Set 1 phonics sounds.
As soon as children start in Foundation Stage Two, they will learn lots of different phonics sounds. They will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn how to spell. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters.
Children also practise reading (and spelling) ‘tricky’ words, such as ‘once’, ‘have’, ‘said’ and ‘where’.
Children practise their reading with books that match their phonics knowledge. They start thinking they can read and this does wonders for their confidence.
Tapestry
Tapestry is an online learning journal where practitioners and parents can work collaboratively to highlight the progress, development and personal milestones achieved by children. Practitioners will upload observations of the children at school based on the learning taking place. The observations are then linked to the statements and age expectations, where they are then celebrated with parents too. Parents have the ability to log on to Tapestry, view these observations and have a dialogue with practitioners. We feel this is important, as it strengthens the communication between school and home. We also encourage parents to upload their own milestones of their children, which can be celebrated in school.
