At St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School, we offer a nurturing, inclusive Early Years environment where every child is supported to thrive through high-quality interactions, purposeful play and a rich, carefully planned curriculum. Guided by the Characteristics of Effective Learning, Development Matters and the Early Learning Goals, our play-based approach places children’s curiosity, wellbeing and individual development at the heart of everything we do. Using other key documents such as Strong Foundations, we ensure that learning builds progressively and meaningfully, giving every child the confidence, skills and secure foundations they need to be fully prepared for Year 1. Our Early Years setting is a place where all children are valued, included and inspired—where brilliant beginnings lead to bright futures.

Enabling Environment

St Bernadette’s provides an enabling environment that is vital in the early years because it creates the conditions in which children feel safe, confident and motivated to learn. Carefully planned spaces—both indoors and outdoors—offer opportunities for exploration, independence and purposeful play, helping children to follow their interests and build essential skills. We understand that when resources are accessible, inviting and matched to children’s developmental needs, they encourage curiosity, problem-solving and deep engagement. Our enabling environment also reflects and values every child, supporting their wellbeing and ensuring they can thrive as active, capable learners.

High Quality Interactions

At St Bernadette’s we offer high-quality interactions that are at the heart of effective early years education. Through attentive listening, meaningful conversation, and responsive guidance, practitioners support children’s language, thinking, and social development. These interactions help children feel valued, understood, and confident to explore new ideas. By modelling language, asking thoughtful questions, and extending learning through play, adults turn everyday moments into rich learning opportunities, fostering curiosity, creativity, and a love of learning that lays the foundation for future success.

Each Child is Unique

St Bernadette’s recognises each child as a unique individual is central to effective early years practice. Every child has their own interests, strengths, experiences, and ways of learning, and valuing these differences allows us to provide tailored support and opportunities. By understanding and responding to each child’s individuality, we help them build confidence, independence, and a sense of self-worth, ensuring that every child can thrive and reach their full potential.

Inclusive Practice

Inclusion is fundamental at St Bernadette’s to ensuring that every child feels valued, respected, and able to participate fully in all aspects of learning. An inclusive environment recognises and celebrates diversity, removes barriers to learning, and provides tailored support to meet the needs of all children. By fostering a sense of belonging and equality, we enable every child—regardless of background, ability, or need—to thrive, build confidence, and reach their full potential.

Curriculum

The Statutory Framework for Early Years specifies there are seven areas of learning and at St Bernadette’s we ensure exposure for all children to these areas, in all elements of their learning experiences and environment. The curriculum at St Bernadette’s has been designed to meet all areas of the curriculum in a thorough, sequenced way to ensure children build and deepen the foundations of their early learning.

The seven areas of learning are

Prime areas of learning:

· Communication and language.

· Physical development.

· Personal, social and emotional development.

Specific areas of learning:

· Literacy

· Mathematics

· Understanding the world

· Expressive arts and design

The framework also details the characteristics of effective learning. These underpin achievement in the prime and specific areas of learning and play a central role in a child becoming an effective learner. Our curriculum is focussed on providing opportunities to develop these characteristics in all areas. The characteristics are as follows:

By playing and exploring:

· Finding out and exploring

· Using what they know in their play

· Being willing to have a go

Through active learning:

· Being involved and concentrating

· Keeping on trying

· Enjoying achieving what they set out to do

By creating and thinking critically:

· Having their own ideas

· Using what they already know to learn new things

· Choosing ways to do things and finding new ways

Religious Education

In Early Years as part of our school mission, we promote British Values and teach the children to respect and celebrate differences through a range of activities such as learning about Chinese New Year and visiting a local Chinese restaurant, voting for which books we would like at story time, and learning to be kind and a good friend. From Reception Class to Year 6 children follow the Archdiocese of Birmingham’s curriculum strategy for RE ‘Learning and Growing as the People of God’.

In Reception Class, this includes learning about: Bible stories; attending Mass; learning about our school’s values and virtues; and learning about a range of topics such as Creation, Christmas, People who help us, and Easter.

We promote cultural diversity and celebrate other cultures through themed weeks and multi-faith celebration days.

We use RHE Ten:Ten to promote self-regulation and managing behaviour through biblical teachings.

The day-to-day offer for our children is that all children, every day, are taught:

· Phonics – sessions are delivered by well trained staff and children are grouped according to their ability so all children can make rapid progress.

· Writing – Where children are taught how to put their phonic knowledge into practise and how to get their ideas down onto paper so that is can be read by themselves and others.

· Maths – Basic maths skills

· Reading – children are taught the basic book skills, building up respect for books and a love of reading.

· Outdoor Learning – Children have the opportunity to put into practise the skills that they have been learning inside in the outdoor environment, they develop gross motor skills which support fine motor skills which supports early writing. The children also have the opportunity to access our forest school area led by a qualified forest school teacher.

· Celebration of Word – It is a liturgical practise that emphasizes the importance of scripture in worship, often involving prayer and reflection.

Oracy

At St Bernadette’s, we place a strong emphasis on oracy as a vital foundation for learning, communication, and future success. Through high-quality interactions, structured speaking and listening activities, and a language-rich environment, we support children in developing the confidence and skills to express themselves clearly. We encourage children to share ideas, ask questions, engage in meaningful conversations, and listen respectfully to others. Storytelling, role-play, group discussions and purposeful play all provide opportunities for children to build vocabulary, develop reasoning skills, and communicate effectively. By nurturing oracy from the earliest stages, we help children become articulate, confident learners who can express their thoughts, collaborate with others, and access all areas of the curriculum with increasing independence.