Early Years at King's St Alban's

Our Ethos

At King’s St Alban’s it is our aim to create an active, engaging and exciting learning environment, underpinned by warm, nurturing and supportive staff to help guide children at every stage of their development. We aim to give children the strongest possible foundations for their learning journey by instilling the following characteristics in our pupils:

• We are happy. We firmly believe that happy children thrive and this really is at the heart of everything we do!
• We are caring. From our Nursery class of two-year-olds upwards, the emphasis lies in caring and nurturing each child so they feel secure, loved and confident at school. This is achieved through the quality of relationships and interactions with staff.
• We are inquisitive. Young children are inquisitive and learn best through play; King’s St Alban’s offers even our youngest children a wealth of opportunities, allowing them to develop as individuals and begin to develop their personalities, learning styles, interests, skills, and aptitudes.
• We are bold. Children are natural-born risk-takers and at King’s St Alban’s we encourage our children to explore their surroundings. We want children to acquire knowledge, but we have a commitment to help them to learn to think for themselves, to take risks, and be courageous.
• We are resilient. At King’s St Alban’s we promote a positive can-do attitude – there is no fear of failure; resilience and perseverance are celebrated here.

Prime areas of learning

Our curriculum involves activities and experiences to meet the learning and development requirements in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS): the three prime areas of learning and development are:

• Personal, social, and emotional development
• Communication and language development
• Physical development

Alongside these are four specific areas, through which the prime areas are strengthened and applied:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Expressive arts and design
• Understanding the world

Early Learning Goals

The children’s progress is monitored carefully and assessed using the Early Learning Goals which show the level of attainment expected by the end of the EYFS (at the end of Reception). We share the results of the profile with parents / carers in the final term and provide an opportunity for discussion with their child’s Reception teacher.