Our Curriculum

At Foxyards Academy our curriculum is designed to develop inquisitive, independent thinkers with a love of learning. We understand that the curriculum, both within taught lessons and beyond them, should create an environment where questioning, academic risk-taking, divergent thinking and the freedom to learn from mistakes are all encouraged. Our curriculum will develop in our students these qualities: responsibility, independence and a sense that learning can excite and invigorate throughout life.
We strive for all children to enjoy learning and make it as much fun and as meaningful and relevant as possible. We offer children an excellent education in a safe, calm, creative, inclusive and stimulating environment. Every child is valued as an individual; we aim to nurture well rounded, respectful and confident children who will develop skills for life-long learning. We nurture our children on their journey and encourage them to be creative, unique, open-minded and independent individuals, respectful of themselves and of others in our school, our local community and the wider world.
We strongly believe in the development of key skills that are embedded into all areas of the curriculum. In addition, teachers plan highly engaging learning opportunities that are matched to the relative starting points of all pupils.
We take our responsibility to prepare children for life in modern Britain very seriously and ensure that the fundamental British Values are introduced, discussed and lived out through the ethos and work of our school.

The Foundation Stage includes all children in our Nursery and Reception classes. The Early Years Foundation Stage is the statutory curriculum which is followed by all childcare providers, nursery settings and reception classes. This is the curriculum delivered in our school.
The curriculum is divided into core and specific key areas of learning and development. They are:

The prime areas of learning:
Communication and Language
Physical Development
Personal, Social and Emotional Development

The specific areas of learning:
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design

The learning characteristics:
Playing and Exploring
Active Learning
Creating and Thinking Critically

Together, these areas of learning make up the skills, knowledge and experiences appropriate for your children as they grow, learn and develop. At Foxyards Academy we strive to ensure that each child’s learning and development occur as an outcome of their individual interests and abilities so our planned learning reflects this.

An EYFS learning journey will be completed for each child. Each child will be assessed in relation to the 17 Early Leaning Goal descriptors. Assessments will be based primarily on observation of daily activities and events. For each ELG, practitioners must judge whether a child is meeting the level of development expected at the end of the Reception Year (expected), exceeding this level (exceeding), or not yet reaching this level (emerging).

The completed EYFS Profile includes a short commentary on each child’s skills and abilities in relation to the three key characteristics of effective learning.