Early Years – Hawkesley Church Primary Academy – Birmingham Diocesan Multi-Academy Trust

The Early Years Foundation Stage

Our GLD results at the end of EYFS have been consistently above national figures.

	21/22	22/23	23/24
Hawkesley Church Primary Academy	67%	76%	71%
National	65%	67%	67%

At Hawkesley Church Primary Academy, we highly value and understand the importance of the early years. We know that nearly 90% of a child’s brain is developed by the time they are 5 – meaning every second of a child’s time in nursery and reception is crucial. At Hawkesley we are passionate about establishing solid foundations and a lifelong love of learning that will have an ever-lasting impact on our children’s cognitive, emotional and social wellbeing. We make it a priority to provide real life, rich experiences that develops our children’s cultural capital.

We know that children learn best when they feel safe and valued. We pride ourselves on creating a sense of belonging for our children and have created nurturing early years environments where strong relationships between staff and children are cultivated and children can let their light shine. We understand that our families are the primary educators for their children. To ensure that they are involved in every stage of their child’s education we use interactive online journals and hold educational workshops and stay and play sessions.

Promoting and fostering independence for our children is fundamental in developing their ability to think, be curious and take risks. Through our daily practice, children are supported to make choices, solve problems and take ownership of their learning. We also place high importance on developing children’s self regulation and understanding their emotions.

We pride ourselves on the high quality interactions we have with our children to enhance their learning and experiences. Using shared attention, planned responses, expansion and back and forth conversation we model and introduce new ambitious vocabulary to the children. We know that children who experience nurturing and knowledgeable interactions develop higher levels of confidence and enthusiasm for their learning.

Promoting a love of reading is woven through all that we do at Hawkesley. We expose our children to rich language, stories, poems and books that enhance their learning experiences and ignites their imagination and curiosity. Alongside our rigorous approach to teaching children to read, we place high importance on children developing a love of reading and setting the foundations for children to become life long readers.

Learning Environment

Both of our Early Years classrooms have been designed and developed by Early Excellence to promote independence and inquisitive thinking. Our environments are clearly defined, accessible and language rich. The areas are enhanced regularly to meet our children’s developing needs and interests. Our learning environments are further enriched by high quality interactions with our skilled practitioners. This further develops the children’s learning and development.