Early Years (EYFS) Curriculum

We follow the government’s curriculum for Early Years: The Early Years Foundation Stage.

However, we also build on this to give our youngest pupils in Nursery and Reception the most personalised experience that we can, which incorporates each child’s Education Health Care Plan.

We aspire for students to effectively communicate as confident individuals, stay safe and healthy and become responsible citizens, ultimately fulfilling their aspirations and preparing them for adulthood.

The curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior learning, both from previous settings and their experiences at home. We recognise that children’s Personal, Social and Emotional development underpins all subsequent learning and work hard to ensure children develop high levels of confidence, independence and self-awareness.

Our curriculum challenges and inspires our children, encouraging them to develop into independent, motivated learners who are curious about the world around them.

We work in partnership with parents, carers and other settings to provide the best possible start at Sutherland House School, ensuring each individual reaches their full potential from their various starting points.

Our curriculum has been designed utilising all of the Early Learning Goals, Development Matters and has the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning at its heart:

• Playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
• Active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
• Creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things

At Sutherland House School, we provide an engaging curriculum based upon children’s interests and ideas, promoting a lifelong love of learning both in and outside of school.

At Sutherland House School due to the nature of our setting we do not have a stand-alone Early Years Foundation Stage. Instead, we make provision for pupils in FS1 or FS2 within their appropriate Curriculum Cohorts. We have designed the EYFS curriculum to be broad, balanced, challenging, relevant and personalised to the needs of autistic children, reflecting the world they live in today.

We make use of various approaches and interventions that are successful across the school including:

• Attention Autism
• Intensive Interaction
• Sensory Stories
• Communication boards
• And many more.

The child’s Educational Healthcare Plan remains central throughout our curriculum and for many, they may also have a wide range of complex and co-occurring differences. We therefore place equal emphasis on core academic learning, therapeutic support, and development of life skills that promote learners to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Each half term, staff introduce a new theme to provide inspiration for learning, whilst providing the flexibility for children to follow their own interests and ideas. Children learn through a balance of child-initiated and adult-directed activities.

The timetable is carefully structured so that children have directed teaching during the day and there is flexibility within it to take into account the changing needs of the children.

We believe play is a powerful tool for learning, through this we ensure our Characteristics of Effective Learning are at the heart of our plans and provision. Through play, children explore and develop learning experiences, which help them make sense of the world.

We use a person-centred approach to ensure learning is tailored to suit each child based on their developmental journey, ensuring opportunities for developing communication skills and self-regulation.

At Sutherland House School, we ensure learning opportunities extend to many aspects of a child’s life, including but not limited to; when they go for their lunch trying new foods; when they access activities, promoting them to play alongside and with others; when they take part in personal and hygiene care routines, developing their independence. Also, using their senses to explore and investigate.

This holistic approach to learning enables staff to use a range of strategies, which help children deepen their understanding and apply their learning to different aspects of their life.

We follow the EYFS Framework and use Early Steps to inform our planning alongside each pupils’ individual interests and next steps. Each pupil has an IEP with individual targets (often a break-down of annual EHCP targets). These are reviewed termly along with their parents/carers and ensure opportunities to develop these targets are provided within the environment and adult-led activities.

In the EYFS, we provide an environment where spoken language is clear and precise and written communication, signs, symbols, objects, gestures, intensive interaction and music interaction are used to reinforce expressive and receptive language.

This ‘total communication approach’ reinforces and strengthens meaning; helps form connections, ensures successful interactions and supports information exchange and conversations.

Staff take pride in getting to know pupils well and forming good relationships to find and use the right combination of strategies to maximise their speech, language and communication.

In EYFS, we follow the Sutherland House English Scheme of Work. Children take part in a range of opportunities designed to develop their English skills such as regular sensory stories, singing, rhyme time and regular trips out in the local community such as walking to the park.

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and our aim is to encourage a love of reading right from the start. In the EYFS we have favourite stories each half term.

The aim is to expose children to a range of books that not only develop a love of reading, but have been chosen specifically to develop their communication, oracy, vocabulary and comprehension.

These books will be embedded in our provision through activities, story sessions, interactive displays and resources (for example, use of augmentative and assistive communication (AAC) devices/symbolised resources/sensory stories), and on display for children to access independently. Through this, children begin to build their interest and love of reading.

We use the systematic synthetic phonics program (SSP) “Little Wandle” to ensure consistency across the school.

This SSP was carefully selected from the vast array of government validated schemes, as the programme provides a comprehensive step-by-step method for teaching, reading, handwriting and spelling. Over learning through repetition using the many resources from Little Wandle means that phonic learning is embedded.

In EYFS, we follow the Sutherland House School Maths Scheme of Work.

We spend time with the children developing their early mathematical skills through play such as sorting and categorising, early counting and using number names as well as exploring concepts such as pattern, capacity and shape.

Children develop a love of maths through games, songs, rhymes, and play. There is a strong focus on practical, exploratory and sensory learning opportunities to develop early maths skills, for example during play and lunch times counting and recognising numbers are incorporated into discussions and activities.

These functional ‘real-life’ experiences help the children to apply their early maths skills and concepts in context. High quality learning environments and meaningful interactions with adults, support children in developing mathematical thinking and problem solving.

Formative Assessment

We use Early Steps to track progress and ensure learning aligns with individual outcomes.

Assessment in EYFS is continuous and takes the form of observations, examples of child-initiated work and samples of adult led activities and interventions.

We use ‘Evisense’ to keep observational records and create a ‘Learning Journey’. All ongoing observations are used to inform weekly planning and identify children’s next steps.

EYFS Profile 

We use the EYFS Profile at the end of the EYFS.

All records and information are passed onto new teachers to ensure a smooth transition each year.