At Mesne Lea Primary School, we recognise the crucial and formative role of early years education in providing the firm foundations upon which the rest of a child’s education is successfully built. From the very start and throughout each child’s journey in the Early Years, we ensure that warm, nurturing and positive relationships are firmly embedded between staff, children and families. Our consistent routines and strong partnerships with parents play a vital role in helping children to settle quickly, feel secure, and make strong progress.

Our curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced, ensuring that all children develop firm foundations in reading, writing, mathematics and communication. We are committed to ensuring:

We deliver a word-rich curriculum that consistently promotes vocabulary development and a love of reading. Through a wide range of meaningful experiences, we enable children to develop a deep knowledge and understanding of the world around them, valuing subject specialisms and the unique disciplines that help pupils to see the breadth of future opportunities available to them.

Our curriculum is broad, balanced and ambitious, offering memorable experiences, trips and visits, and making full use of the local area and community to enrich learning. We place equal importance on well-being and personal development, ensuring that pupils feel a strong sense of belonging and community within our school.

At Mesne Lea, we are a reflective and research-informed school, committed to continual improvement of our teaching and learning. We draw on the latest educational research to enhance outcomes for pupils, including a focus on how to strengthen children’s long-term memory through our carefully sequenced learning threads.

We place great value on developing children as individuals, ensuring they are equipped with the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to thrive in Key Stage One and beyond. Our curriculum is rooted in communication and language development, with an embedded focus on vocabulary enrichment through high-quality texts, real-life experiences and purposeful interactions. Alongside this, we prioritise children’s personal, social and emotional development, supporting them to become resilient, confident and conscientious members of society.

 

Early Years Setting

 

We recognise that play is a fundamental part of learning and is consistently embedded within our practice. We provide a carefully balanced blend of adult-directed and child-initiated learning, ensuring that children develop independence, curiosity and a lifelong love of learning. Our stimulating and well-organised environment encourages exploration, challenge, adventure and creative thinking.

Through the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning – Playing and Exploring, Active Learning, and Creating and Thinking Critically – we ensure that children develop a positive attitude to learning, becoming motivated, reflective and independent learners.

At Mesne Lea Primary School, we faithfully follow the EYFS framework, underpinned by the four guiding principles which are consistently embedded across all aspects of our practice:

Our Early Years provision at Mesne Lea is well-structured, inclusive and ambitious for all, ensuring that every child leaves the Foundation Stage ready for the challenges and opportunities of Key Stage One and beyond.