The Elm Wood EYFS vision

At Elm Wood we believe that young children are intrinsically capable of amazing things and we develop this by creating a space in which the children feel happy, safe and confident to lead their own learning. We believe experiencing and exploring the natural environment is essential to child wellbeing and we utilise our outdoor space in all weathers. Our large, open area allows the children the freedom to build their resilience and self-esteem while the readily available resources support the children's independence. Our outdoor classroom is available for the children to access resources typical of an indoor space but in a natural environment; an area in which activities from inside the classroom may be mirrored to outside.
We have high expectations of the children and endeavour to remove limitations to their learning. Our classrooms are set up for children to have access to good quality, open ended and gender-neutral resources to ensure purposeful play of their own choice and interest.
Our EYFS staff are central to providing a nurturing and supportive environment in which the children can thrive and succeed; our practitioners are ready to listen, model and extend play to guarantee engagement. We are dedicated to ensuring each child develops a love for learning and to providing the foundations for education on which children can build.

The Elm Wood EYFS environment

The EYFS at Elm Wood is split into our Moonstone provision (for two - three year old children), our Sunstone provision (for three - four year old children) and Opal and Pearl (our two Reception classes). Each area intends to provide the children with a safe, comfortable and interesting environment in which the children are inspired to learn both independently and with support. We understand that the EYFS environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children's development therefore we fill our spaces with resources which aid this.

We are blessed to have a large outdoor area which is accessible to all children everyday. We believe children gain enormous benefits from learning outdoors; being outdoors supports confidence and allows opportunities for big scale play, problem-solving and creativity in the company of other children. The outdoor area also provides children with more opportunities for speech and communication, something we are passionate in encouraging. 

The Elm Wood EYFS staff

Moonstones and Sunstones

Miss Elisabeth Learoyd - EYFS Lead and Nursery teacher

Mrs Lauren Hill - Nursery Teaching Assistant 

Mrs Angela Kirkman - Nursery Teaching Assistant

Mrs Nansal Gay - Nursery Teaching Assistant (Moonstone provision)

Opal and Pearl

Miss Faye Johnson - Reception teacher

Miss Jordan Ratcliffe - Reception teacher

Ms Tara Ashworth - Reception Teaching Assistant

Mrs Marie McGuire - Reception Teaching Assistant

Miss Amy Towey - Reception Teaching Assistant

Mrs Justine Blyth - Reception Teaching Assistant

The Elm Wood EYFS curriculum

At Elm Wood we built a curriculum that we hoped would inspire and challenge children whilst providing them with freedom and autonomy over their learning. Our curriculum is written using a combination of the Development Matters and Birth to 5 documents and it is a skeleton on which we build using the children's interests. We collaborate with the children and families in our care to provide a broad curriculum that is individual to the community we work in. The documents below are 'what we want the children to know' and the 'how we do it' is exciting and ever-changing.