The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework is the statutory curriculum we run through our Nursery and Reception classes. The National Curriculum starts in Year 1. At our school, we treat Year 1 as part of our EYFS phase, meaning that our pupils are taught in a child-centered, play-based way for longer. They still access our Year 1 school curriculum, it is just that we do not start more formal approaches to learning until children are in Year 2. At that point, we run smaller classes than normal and focus on ensuring pupils are absolutely ready for Year 2 SATs and the next stage of their education in Key Stage 2 (known as KS2, representing Years 3-6).

We have found this approach transformative and extremely popular with parents. It enables us to offer our younger pupils a developmentally appropriate form of education and has led to significant improvements in performance.