Early Years

Our EYFS vision

At Hearsall Community Academy, we want children to become confident, curious and independent learners from the very beginning.

We provide a safe, secure and inclusive environment where every child feels that they belong and are valued. Through purposeful play, rich experiences and carefully planned teaching, children develop strong communication, self-regulation and the knowledge and skills that provide the foundations for future learning.

Skilled adults know each child well. They support children to explore, ask questions, solve problems, develop new ideas and become increasingly independent. By the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, we want children to be resilient, motivated and ready for the next stage of their learning journey.

How children learn in our Early Years

Young children learn best when they feel safe, valued and understood; when they have time to play, explore and practise; and when skilled adults know when to support, challenge or introduce something new.

Across Inspire Education Trust, our Early Years practice is built around eight core principles:

Warm, positive relationships
Inclusive practice and belonging
High-quality interactions
Responsive curriculum and child agency
Enabling environments, indoors and outdoors
Partnership with families
Independence, self-regulation and wellbeing
Physical development and learning through movement

These principles work together. They help us create environments in which children feel that they belong, develop confidence and independence, and build strong foundations for future learning.

What this looks like every day

Children in our Early Years will experience:

purposeful play and exploration
daily stories, rhymes and songs
rich conversations with adults who model and extend language
high-quality indoor and outdoor learning
regular opportunities to move, climb, create, investigate and solve problems
adults who observe closely and respond to what children need next
opportunities to make choices and use resources independently
carefully planned adult-led teaching alongside child-initiated learning.

These experiences help children develop language, curiosity, independence, resilience and a positive attitude towards learning.

What children learn

Our curriculum follows the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage framework and is planned across the seven areas of learning:

Communication and Language
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Physical Development
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design

How children learn is just as important as what they learn. The Characteristics of Effective Learning – Playing and Exploring, Active Learning, and Creating and Thinking Critically – are therefore woven throughout our teaching and provision.

Building strong foundations

We believe that children need secure foundations before they can successfully move on to more complex learning.

Foundational knowledge and skills are built gradually through repeated experiences, purposeful teaching and practice. Children learn to use these skills in different situations so that their learning becomes increasingly secure and independent.

In Nursery, particular attention is given to the foundations that underpin all later learning:

communication and language
physical development
personal, social and emotional development
early executive function skills, including attention, memory, self-control and flexible thinking.

In Reception, children build on these foundations as they develop early reading, writing and mathematical knowledge alongside increasing independence and the learning behaviours they will need in Key Stage 1.

Children are taught phonics systematically and regularly, with teaching matched carefully to their stage of learning. Talk, stories, rhymes and oral rehearsal remain central because strong language provides the foundation for successful reading and writing.

Our focus is on progression rather than acceleration. We want children to understand and use what they have learned securely rather than being rushed towards later learning before they are ready.

How we organise our curriculum: The 6Ms

Making Conversation

Vocabulary, listening and conversation grow through stories, rhymes, play and responsive adult-child interaction.

Managing Me

Children develop secure relationships, independence, self-regulation, emotional understanding and positive learning behaviours.

Muscles and Movement

Daily movement and outdoor play build gross and fine motor strength, coordination, spatial awareness, confidence and control.

Mark Making and Meaning

Children develop a love of books, secure phonics foundations, oral composition and purposeful mark-making and writing.

Mathematics

Children build secure number sense, subitising, composition, comparison, pattern, shape, measure and mathematical language.

My Marvellous World

Children explore people, communities, nature, culture, science and the arts, developing curiosity, creativity and care for their world.

How we teach for strong foundations:

There is no single way in which young children learn best. Our adults use their professional knowledge to choose the approach that is most appropriate for what children need to learn.

Children therefore experience a carefully planned balance of:

purposeful play and exploration
high-quality adult-child interaction
modelling and demonstration
guided learning and appropriate support
opportunities to practise independently
direct teaching where this is the most effective approach.

Adults observe children closely and use what they know to adapt teaching, resources and provision. They know when to join children's play, when to introduce new vocabulary or ideas, when to provide additional support and when to step back and allow children to explore independently.

Knowing and supporting every child

Assessment in Early Years is part of everyday teaching. Adults learn about children through conversation, play, observation and the work they do with them.

We use this knowledge to understand what children can already do, what they are beginning to understand and what they need next. Assessment is used to inform teaching and provision rather than to create unnecessary paperwork.

Where a child needs additional support, we aim to identify this early. We adapt teaching and provision, work closely with families and, where appropriate, involve other professionals so that every child can participate, belong and succeed.

Working in partnership with families

Parents and carers know their children best and are an important part of their learning journey.

We value strong, positive partnerships with families. We share children's successes and next steps, listen to families' knowledge and experiences, and work together where children need additional help or challenge.

We also encourage families to support learning at home through everyday experiences such as talking, sharing books, singing, counting and playing together.

Find out more

Our Nursery and Reception curriculum plans provide further information about the knowledge, skills, experiences and texts children encounter across the year.