At Pitmaston Primary School, we recognise the importance of every child having the best possible start in life which then supports them to fulfil their full potential for their whole educational journey. Research shows that children learn and develop more from birth to 5 years old, more than any other time in their life – which is why our investment and priority in the Early Years is fundamental to our philosophy at Pitmaston.
We follow the Early Excellence approach which focuses on high quality, open ended play and quality interactions between pupils and adults in the environment from Nursery through to Reception. Excitingly, we have made a huge investment and refurbished our Reception environment using Community Play Things furniture to ensure our Early Excellence approach is embedded throughout all of our provision and resources are accessible for all pupils. We believe in a research informed approach to provide the best outcomes for our pupils and follow Early Excellence due to their extensive research and leading pedagogy for Early Years. We believe this approach will ensure the provision leads to effective, meaningful and impactful learning for all pupils.
Our Pre-School, exclusively for 3 and 4 year old pupils, is the start of this journey for some children in a bespoke, purpose built, open-ended environment. Children engage in child initiated learning through play both indoors and outdoors continuously developing early vocabulary, language and social skills. The Pre-School Nursery is situated on the school site and therefore pupils have lots of opportunities to visit the school and regularly use the facilities including the PE hall, the library, adventure playground and large playground areas. This supports the transition into our Reception classes. In Reception, we have three large classrooms with a shared indoor creative area and a large outdoor covered space, which leads onto the Key Stage 1 playground.
We have also designed our own bespoke Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning animals to ensure pupils develop their own intrinsic values from the very beginning of their school lives. For example, a ‘Concentrating Crocodile’, ‘Listening Leopard’ and a ‘Respectful Robin’ are some of the animals we use to introduce our pupils to this language and promote the positive behaviours we would like our learners to develop in the Early Years. These then link to our Character Education curriculum used throughout the rest of school and help prepare our young learners for their journey into Key Stage One.
Ofsted (June 2017) graded the school and Early Years as ‘Outstanding’ stating:
“Children in the early years have a great start to school life. Passionate leadership, excellent teaching and stimulating learning environments enable children in the early years to make rapid progress.”
“Pupils at Pitmaston Primary thrive in all aspects of their academic and personal, social and emotional development.”
We have spent a considerable amount of time designing and planning an exciting, engaging, theory driven, ambitious curriculum, through the seven areas of learning, to spark a child’s love of learning whilst ensuring that children experience the awe and wonder of the world in which they live.