Reception – Ecclesall Primary School

Welcome to Reception.

Our Early Years expertise and practice is recognised by the Sheffield Early Years and Quality Access team and we are very proud of our Commitment to Quality Award in recognition of our work around Relational Pedagogy.

See below for a brief synopsis of their findings.

At Ecclesall Primary School, early years staff provide a structured yet flexible approach to child development grounded in relational pedagogy.
Through warm, reflective and responsive relationships, children thrive.
Strong relationships across the Early Years are supported by well embedded, evidence-informed strategies, including trauma-informed practice, the Leuven Scales, URLEY (Using Research tools to improve Language in the Early Years) and brain development research.
Their daily practice demonstrates a substantial impact on learning and development.

At Ecclesall Primary School we provide an exciting, broad and balanced Foundation Stage curriculum. We ensure we give every child the best possible start to their education and enable our children to develop skills for lifelong learning. A secure and welcoming environment enables each child to flourish as confident individuals. Our curriculum is carefully planned to engage high levels of interest and develop curiosity, knowledge and a love for learning. Experiences are fun, irresistible and challenging. The 7 areas of learning are delivered through carefully planned teaching and learning opportunities and purposeful play. There is a balance between adult led and child initiated activities. We ensure learning is fun and engaging and the curriculum is linked to the children’s interests through themes such as ‘Myself and other animals’ or ‘Once upon a time….’ All children are encouraged to explore and learn, be active, think critically and creatively and develop their own ideas in both indoor and outdoor provision. We provide a warm and nurturing environment where we support positive relationships and encourage all children to be caring, resilient, capable, confident and independent. Welcome to Polars, Pandas and Koalas!

Four guiding principles shape our early years practice.

Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
The importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates.

Learning and development is categorised into three prime areas of learning.