Teaching specific subjects in EYFS

[pooh]

Hi everyone 

I'm after a little bit of help please! We had an advisor in to school yesterday for a mock deep dive in Science. As EYFS lead I was very happy with the provision the EYFS teachers had on show, they had been asked to showcase Science and had a lot of activities available and children had access to resources that could give rise to discussions and child led investigation in science based topics. Lots of water, materials, magnets etc with a focused adult led activity too. 

Although I would prefer a more general approach through continuous provision I was proud of children’s responses and felt boxes were ticked for what had been asked for. 

However! The advisor queried the science provision an dsaid we should have more direct curriculum plans to be in line with Bold beginnings also suggested children having a science, history and geography book (which I fully rejected, backed by my Head teacher.)   

At the moment Staff evidence via Tapestry on an a as and when basis for U the W, they don’t make specific entries for science, history and geography. I would be grateful for ideas of how others are evidencing each area with regard to subject deep dives with the new inspections within a primary school. 

Apologies for the long post! 

[BenTapestrySupport]

Sounds like this advisor was Science and has no experience or interest in Early Years / child development!

I'm intrigued by their understandings of Bold Beginnings if they're saying that the children need these books and more direct teaching. I've read the document many times and have never thought that was what it was trying to imply. Infact, having heard different HMIs give talks about inspections etc, I'd say this is exactly against what they want to see! They want to see how you are helping the child understand the curriculum. If you have got activities out that initiate this understanding then that is exactly what is needed. An inspector would then want to see questioning and next steps to support the child. Recording on Tapestry is all the evidence you need - although you don't even need that to be honest. You're all professionals with a good sound professional judgement! 

I'm so glad to hear that your Head teacher also rejected the books idea! They would serve no purpose except for someone to monitor - which is completely the wrong thing to be focussing on. 

 

[BedfordBoroughNicolaM]

At a recent LED event, Ofsted shared this slide during their presentation:

As an EY adviser in a local authority that has already had lots of inspections under the new framework, I would be making sure that curriculum plans include reference to EY and that there is clear skills progression from one year group to the next- drawing and expanding on previous learning. How you teach these concepts can be through adult directed and by embedding opportunities and experiences into the provision the children have access to daily. Ofsted inspectors are less interested in how you are recording this learning- its all about the intent-implication-impact:

Subject leaders need to have an understanding of what for example, science looks like in early years- during an Ofsted inspection they be asked to talk about their curriculum area from EY through to the end of KS2. 

Hope this helps 

[jocrow]

Hi Pooh,

 

We do exactly the same as you with regard to Tapestry, we have 1 'busy' book that everything goes into. We do have a separate maths book, although it doesn't have much in it! In our recent Ofsted inspection our deep dives were in Reading and History. Within our school we have 'families' e.g. humanities, well-being, STEM and Arts, each family has one representative from EYFS, KS1, Lower KS2 and Upper KS2. Interestingly in the deep dive discussion he didn't even want EYFS in there!