The Early Years Foundation Stage comprises Nursery, Foundation 1 and Foundation 2.
Our nursery school is where children first learn to feel comfortable away from mum and dad. It is where they begin to adapt to the big, wondrous world outside of the home. Supportive teachers and assistants provide a warm environment, encouraging exploration without undue pressure on our most delicate and sensitive students.
“The nursery is the natural extension up from the family, not the natural extension down from school.” D. W. Winnicott
The EFYS 2-year programme provides children with a myriad of opportunities, inside and outside, to explore seven areas of development. Play remains a very important method of learning and is enhanced by teacher involvement and interaction. Focused, teacher-directed lessons increase and a Phonics programme is introduced. Children begin to read and write. The world has opened up!
The Importance of Play
“Play underpins the EYFS. It also underpins learning and all aspects of children’s development. Through play, children develop language skills, emotional awareness and creativity, and social and intellectual skills. For most children, their play is natural and spontaneous although some children may need extra help from adults. Their play takes place indoors and outdoors and it is in these different environments that children explore and discover their immediate world. They practise new ideas and skills, take risks, show imagination and solve problems on their own or with others.
The role that adults have is crucial. They provide time and space and appropriate resources. They observe play and join in when invited, watching and listening before intervening. It is here that teachers can model and enhance language, as well as challenge and channel children’s thinking.
Early Years Matter 2022, Play & Learning, accessed 2 June 2022
We value play and provide safe but challenging environments that support and extend learning and development.
Key learning objectives are pursued by integrating them into the children’s daily routines. This is known as either Continuous Provision or Enhanced Provision.
Continuous Provision
All of the different learning through play areas which are available for your children to use every day. Within each of these areas of provision, there is a core range of resources that children can use all of the time, throughout the whole year. The continuous provision enables children to return to their explorations and consolidate their learning over the course of a day or a more extended period. When children do this, they can explore what happens to their world as they grow and develop over time and make changes to explore new ideas.
Enhanced Provision
Themed resources are added to continuous provision. It’s a way of adding more challenges and broadening their learning. It allows teachers to follow up on childrens’ explorations and interests and to support specific objectives drawn from the seven areas of learning. For children, this is play.
And when children play, they are learning at the highest level.
To support these areas, other aspects of learning are scheduled into the day. Pupils visit the library and the garden on a weekly basis. PE lessons and games are also scheduled to assist with children’s physical development. The children also receive two lessons in the Lao language; although, English acquisition is our primary goal.
Taking care of our garden
Curriculum
We have adopted the Oxford International Curriculum for Early Years.
The curriculum provides a structured framework to underpin young children’s learning to nurture wellbeing and build the skills for a smooth transition into Primary.
The learning outcomes are achieved through a balance of child-initiated activities in the well-planned continuous and enhanced provision and adult-led small-group and whole-class activities.
Areas of Learning and Development
There are seven areas of learning and development that shape our educational programmes in the EYFS. All areas are important and inter-connected.
Prime Areas:
Early Learning Goals
The level of development children should be expected to have attained by the end of the EYFS is defined by the early learning goals (ELGs).
The ELGs should support teachers to make a holistic, best-fit judgement about a child’s development and readiness for year 1.
EYFS > Primary – Year 1.
At HISV, we dovetail Foundation 2 with Year 1 during the first term. This means that children continue to experience a degree of continuous provision and self-choosing whilst becoming used to the more formal expectations of our primary school programme.
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Staff
Our teachers are fluent, English speakers and qualified to international school standards. They receive continuous training to keep abreast of developments within the field of education.
The teachers are supported by a wide variety of support staff including teams of teaching assistants in every year group. Along with a dedicated school manager and office staff, we are all working towards the same goal of caring for and educating the children at HISV.