Early Years Foundation Stage
Our Early Years Foundation Stage is made up of two Reception classes, Foxes 🦊 and Badgers 🦡, where we nurture and inspire 60 wonderful children aged 4–5.
At Coleham we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible start for all of our Reception children as we know a child’s development at this crucial stage has a fundamental impact on their happiness, school journey and shapes the young person they will become. It’s built on the simple truth that these early moments matter—they shape confidence and the joyful foundations of a lifelong love of learning.
Our dedicated team of experienced Early Year’s Practitioners care deeply about the children. They take the time to truly know each child, building strong, trusting relationships with families and creating a warm, nurturing environment where children feel seen, valued, and understood.
Every child who walks through our doors is celebrated as a unique individual. We want them to feel happy, secure, and safe—because we know that children thrive when they feel confident and cared for. Through clear boundaries and plenty of praise, we help our children grow in confidence and resilience.
We believe in the power of small steps. Whether it’s a brave attempt, a new skill, or a moment of kindness, we celebrate the little things that make a big difference to a child’s progress and self-esteem. In our EYFS, every achievement matters, and every child shines.
We know that young children are naturally capable of incredible things, and we nurture this by holding high expectations and fostering a strong sense of independence. Our children take great pride in being independent—whether in their learning, their personal belongings, or their daily routines. They are proud of their school, and proud of the important part they play within it.
Our Reception classrooms are separate to our main building nestled between our Conservation Area and Adventure Playground and back onto Little Cubs Orchard and our School Allotment to provide optimum outdoor opportunities and access to nature.
Our Conservation Area offers children the chance to experience Woodland Work in all weathers, giving them the freedom to play, explore, and investigate the natural world. Our Reception classrooms also have their own dedicated woodland space, Little Cubs Orchard, reached by wandering up Badger Hill behind Badger Class.
In these outdoor spaces, children build friendships, learn to assess risks for themselves, and develop the confidence and resilience to take on new challenges—having a go, trying again, and celebrating their successes.
Our natural environment is home to a rich variety of wildlife and even a historic folly. Our classes are proudly named after the foxes and badgers that live on our school grounds, and from time to time we set up camera traps to catch a glimpse of the badgers exploring at night.
Our Adventure Play equipment supports children’s gross motor development, helping them build the physical strength and coordination that underpin early writing skills. It also offers exciting challenges that encourage children to grow in confidence and self‑esteem.
As they share equipment, take turns, and negotiate space, children learn important social skills that strengthen their communication and help them build positive relationships with others.
We continue to work with Early Excellence to develop our practice, provide high‑quality CPD, and refine our learning environment and provision. Early Excellence specialise in supporting the development of best practice across the Early Years and KS1. They support us in maintaining high‑quality, research‑informed approaches.
At the heart of our ethos is a purposeful, well‑designed environment filled with high‑quality, open‑ended resources that inspire rich learning opportunities.
Across our classrooms children can explore designated areas for Construction, Block and Small World imaginery play, Dry Sand, Water, Playdough, a realistic Home Corner, Open Ended Roleplay, Maths, Literacy, Computing, and Creation station. Every resource is intentionally selected to support the development of key skills.
Our environment encourages children to immerse themselves in purposeful play based on their own interests. Open shelving ensures resources are always accessible, empowering children to make independent choices about where they play, what they use, and how they engage.
We immerse the children in stories, rich vocabulary, and quality literature every day. Nurturing a love of reading is central to our approach, with books available in many areas of the classroom and children independently choosing their home reading book each morning.
Lunch times play a key role in our day. We promote independence and gently support children in the dining hall as they make choices that suit their needs and preferences. Alongside this, we teach children about nutrition and healthy eating, and our Catering Team leads a variety of fun initiatives that bring food education to life and enrich the curriculum.
The Den is a mini EYFS classroom on the playground used to support smaller groups of children with interventions or when they need a calming environment to regulate away from the classroom.
Our Reception garden areas expand the children’s outdoor space and offer authentic outdoor learning that is naturally bigger, louder, and messier than indoor activities. Miss Melville, our EYFS Leader, is trained to deliver Bikeability, and with a suite of brand‑new bikes, every child has the chance to enjoy cycling. Outdoor learning is intentionally different from classroom learning, giving children the freedom to explore, play, build, investigate, make noise, dig, move, lift, pour, transport and embrace messy, hands‑on experiences.
The outdoor areas provide designated spaces for Mud, Gravel, dry Sand, wet sand and Water areas as well as natural areas. It is important to us that our children are surrounded by sensory experiences and natural outdoor space that replicate gardens such as grass, trees and wildlife.
Our crates and loose parts large outdoor construction has proved very popular with the children. Here they can imagine, plan, think critically, create, construct, balance, develop ideas, work together and solve problems.
While our Reception cohort is organised into two classes, Badgers and Foxes, our EYFS team works collaboratively across both as one cohesive team. Staff build strong relationships with all 60 children, and the open inter‑connecting doors and shared gardens allow children to move freely between classrooms when appropriate. This creates a unified learning community with a shared vision, rich interactions, and plentiful opportunities to explore shared resources and experiences.
Our EYFS staff play a vital role in creating the emotional environment that supports children’s learning, helping them feel confident, independent, and ready to try new things, while knowing that adults are there to help without taking over. We invest in holding an EYFS Practitioner meeting every morning so the team is fully prepared to support the day’s carousel of learning, child‑led activities, special events, and—most importantly—to share key information and observations about the children.
Key to our children’s progress are these high quality interactions from our staff in the moment. It is when children are engaged in what they are doing, in that moment of curiosity, puzzlement, effort or interest that our skilful staff make a difference. Our practitioners are always ready to listen, communicate, role-model, assess, explain, demonstrate, question and push the next steps of the child’s learning that is appropriate to the individual child.  Staff will ensure that obstacles are overcome and new possibilities are available so learning is meaningful and fun!
We follow the fascinations and interests of the children responding to the needs of individuals and real-life situations. Our Enrichment and Careers programme begins in Reception and Foxes and Badgers have opportunities for trips and visits throughout the year. We want every child to enjoy coming to school and are passionate to instil a love of learning in our children to follow them throughout the rest of their schooling here at Coleham.
For more information please click on the link below to see our EYFS Vision Statement.
EYFS Vision statement
Development Matters 2023
Starting School Booklet 2026