EYFS Curriculum

Acorns Class

When children enter our Foundation Stage we recognise that they are all unique and that they bring with them a wide variety of experiences.  From these early years, through to leaving us at the end of Year 6, it is our aim to help each child to develop socially, emotionally and academically to enable them to move on to their next school as confident, thoughtful and capable young individuals.  

We recognise the important role that parents play in their child's education and well-being.  Class teachers, therefore, welcome the opportunity to work closely with parents at every opportunity. Every child is given their own online learning journal where parents and teachers can work together to record and document your child's progress in the classroom and beyond. 


During the Foundation Stage children will develop at varying rates in the different areas of the curriculum.  Continuous observations allow us to assess each child's ability, and progression, through the seven key areas of learning and development:

The EYFS classroom is set up to provide structure play based opportunities around these seven areas. Our curriculum links these areas through overarching topics and through book based focus weeks. The learning opportunities are also reflected in an outside space that offers opportunities to engage in learning in a more physical and adventurous way. For full details about our EYFS provision, please read the policy below. ​For further information about the EYFS framework please see the EYFS Statutory Framework 

EYFS Policy 2022-24.pdf

Below is an overview of what the children in Acorns learn during their first year at our school

Long Term Plan EYFS 23.24.pdf

Below you can read further details about the learning that will take place in each term during your child's time in Acorns. Each document shows how your child will progress in one of the key areas of learning.

EYFS CLL.pdf
EYFS PSE.pdf
EYFS PD.pdf
EYFS Maths.pdf
EYFS Literacy.pdf
EYFS UW.pdf
EYFS EA.pdf
Vocabularly progression EYFS 23.24.pdf

Phonics and Reading in EYFS

At Cossington we teach Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) developed for schools by schools. Based on the original Letters and Sounds, but extensively revised to provide a complete teaching programme meeting all the expectations of the National Curriculum and preparing your children to go beyond the expectations of the Phonics Screening Check.  This is a government recommended approach to teaching of synthetic phonics that is aimed at ensuring children can decode and spell a wide range of words by the end of Year 1. Phonics is delivered from entry to the school at Foundation Stage through to Year 2. Any children not completing the scheme will receive further phonics support in Year 3 onwards through other interventions. Children are taught phonics daily for twenty-thirty minutes in groups of no more than fifteen children. Children learn phonics through a range of games, active learning and interactive teaching activities delivered by our skilled staff. Teachers assess children every six weeks in phonics and they are then given additional support as needed. At the end of Year 1 children are tested for their phonic ability according to government guidelines through the statutory phonics screening test. Parents will be informed of the result of this test in a letter at the end of year will the child’s school report.  For more information about 'Little Wandle', please head to the Reading Zone page of this site.

In our Acorn Class, children learn to read using fully decodable texts that are matched closely to their phonetic ability. These books help the children practise their decoding skills learned during phonics lessons and build towards being fluent readers. Children in Acorns receive three reading practice lessons each week in class. During these small group sessions they learn about decoding (blending sounds to read words), prosody (reading fluently with expression and intonation) and comprehension (understanding the text). The children concentrate on one book each week and this same book is sent home for parents to practise with their children.  Children also get encouraged to read through an extensive selection of books, within the classroom, that they can use to read or be read to by adults.