Teaching, Learning & Assessment Policy
Treetops ECC follows the internationally recognized and standardized British Early Years Foundation Stage birth to 5 years curriculum.
For each age group a set of structured benchmarks related to the early learning goals (strands) for every area of learning (subject) are used to assess your child in order to drive their learning experience each week. Children are assessed against these age and stage appropriate benchmarks throughout their time at the Treetops ECC in order to provide individual tracking of their progress and attainment.
“The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years’ providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.”
Topic based learning designed to excite each age group additionally supports inquiry moving your child from potential understanding to actual knowledge.
We at Treetops ECC strive to produce the best learning environment to stimulate and excite the leader in all our children in superb, state of the art facilities.
Prime Areas of Learning
The three prime areas help children to develop, learn and become ready for school.
1. Personal, social and emotional development
This area of learning focuses on making relationships, self-confidence and self-awareness,
managing feelings and behaviour. The benchmarks cover learning independence, working in
a group, cooperation, personal hygiene, self-esteem, social skills and being able to
concentrate on a task.2. Physical development
This area of learning emphasizes moving and handling, health and self-care. The
benchmarks cover active and interactive opportunities, fine and gross motor skills including
balance, control, movement and coordination, loco motor and non-loco motor skills, games,
drama and dance in relation to a healthy balanced lifestyle3. Communication and language
This area of learning concentrates on listening and attention, understanding and speaking.
The benchmarks cover expressing oneself through speaking and covers group work,
building vocabulary and use of grammar. Everything the children do at Treetops ECC
supports language and communication. Besides English, language and communication
classes in both French and Arabic support our multicultural school group.
Specific Areas of Learning
- The four specific areas of learning and development support the characteristics of effective learning – playing and exploring, active learning, creating and thinking critically.
1. Literacy
This area of learning focuses on reading and writing. The benchmarks include
encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write.
Children have access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems etc) to ignite their interest. The following structures are used to support literacy at
The Treetops ECC:
a. Phonics system: The Treetops ECC uses the Jolly Phonics (JP) system to teach
phonemes and graphemes. JP has proven to be one of the best systems when
learning more than one language because it combines all three learning styles –
auditory, visual and kinaesthetic.
b. Reading program: The Treetops ECC uses onset and rime, CVCs, blends and
sight words to complement the Oxford Reading Tree and other internationally
respected reading scheme.
c. Numerous websites and apps designed to support early literacy.
d. Reading stories from the library and listening to teachers reading with props and
showing comprehension of the story.
e. Listening to and understanding stories, songs and rhymes
f. Participating in dramatic plays with reading props.
g. Emergent writing techniques.
h. Artefact boxes and labeling.
This area of learning covers numbers, shape, space and measures. The benchmarks
2. Mathematics
focus on problem solving and creative thinking combined with real life experiences to
support mathematical knowledge and understanding. Children sort, order, match,
compare and contrast, use addition and subtraction, understand time, count, learn
about shapes and colour and discover weight, length and volume.
This area of learning focuses on people and communities, the world and technology.
3. Understanding the world
The benchmarks cover the physical world and the community through opportunities
to explore, observe and discover science, health and safety, ecology and the
environment, nature, social studies, people, places and IT helping children
understand and appreciate the world in which they live.4. Expressive arts and design
This area of learning centers on exploring and using media and material and being
imaginative. The benchmarks enable children to explore a range of media and
material, texture and colour, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement
for sharing their thoughts and ideas through a variety of activities in art, music and
movement, drama, dance, role-play, through producing models and design.
- Treetops ECC believes :
Learning is accelerated when a parent / family / guardian is involved in their child’s learning School is one part of the lifelong learning process, Learning is enriched through multiple experiences including an enriched curriculum, regular field trips, special days, cooperative learning experiences and use of technology The child’s learning style needs to be taken into account and teaching is aimed at the child’s individual needs Small group learning should occur allowing one to one contact and extension support and assistance programs Learning is improved when it is related to the child’s life experiences Learning is enhanced when the community supports learning
Progress & Development:
Early Learning Goals
- The Early Learning Goals are the goals or targets for children to achieve at the end of their EYFS Foundation Stage year. They will be working towards these goals throughout their time in Early Years.
EYFS outcomes are the result of ongoing observations and assessments of individual - children, ensuring that they are developing at the rate expected and spotting any areas where the child may need further support.
Assessment for Learning
- Assessment for Learning involves using assessment in the classroom to raise achievement by informing both children and teachers of the next steps to take on their learning journey.
To engage children as active learners, it is imperative that they strive to make sense of new ideas by relating them to their prior knowledge, the aims of their learning and the criteria and expectations agreed for a given task or activity. Teachers’ planning is flexible and reactive, responding to the initial and emerging ideas and skills of each child. Opportunities are created for children to reflect and respond to their own learning, and that of their peers, and all assessment is compared against the initial, agreed criteria and expectations.
Observation and assessment in EYFS
Assessment for the very young child is based on the knowledge of Child development also has regard of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework for children from birth to
5. Each child’s level of development must be assessed against the early learning goals
The planning and Assessment system at Treetops ECC are linked together so that planning feeds into assessment and assessment feeds into planning.Our teachers use both formative and summative assessments to assess children.
Formative assessments is a continuous process used to inform progression through the learning journey. This mode of assessment is carried out through planning and observations, marking and questioning as well as self and peer assessment techniques.Summative assessments occur at defined periods of the academic year such as the term Progess Reports and other curriculum related assessments. The aim of such assessments is to record the overall achievements of children in a systematic and standardised way and to provide further clarification of judgements made by teachers regarding areas of strength and development of individuals in their care. Results are also tracked across the school to monitor the progress of your children. The more we understand about their strengths and weaknesses, the more we will be able to help them improve.
It is crucial to ensure that teachers constantly observe, monitor, evaluate every child’s progress. Our teachers observe children in their care through both formal and informal observation tools. The observations are carefully recorded are then kept in each child’s Progress Report (Baseline Assessment), which is used as a tool for monitoring and evidencing the progress made. Parents have access to the child’s report and we encourage them to also add their own observations and comments. Similarly, each child has a Learning Journey Book where observations are made and written by teachers along with photos attached and then shared with parents at the end of the term.We conduct Parents-Teachers Conference during the middle of the term and at the end of the term to discuss the child progress and achievements. Teachers are available all through the term to meet and attend to the parents when needed. In addition to this, teachers share the child’s daily routine, activities and pictures on our ELC’s Communication Application.
Parents are kept up-to-date with their child’s progress and development. Teachers should address any learning and development needs in partnership with parents and any relevant professionals.
Planning in the EYFS is done collaboratively and is led by the teachers. There is a long term and this informs a half-termly scheme of work that covers adult directed learning and continuous provision. Weekly planning includes whole class teaching, focus group learning and continuous provision.
Staff plan learning opportunities and experiences for children that enable children to develop and learn effectively. Staff also take into account the individual needs, interests and stage of each child in their care, and use this information to plan a challenging and enjoyable experience.