The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) programme at Clifton College

We structure our EYFS programme to spark curiosity, build confidence, and create a lifelong love of learning. We do this through focusing on early literacy, music, outdoor learning, and forming real-world connections, which gives our pupils a holistic start to their education.

Making Early Literacy Fun

Learning to read and write is the start of any child’s education, and is one of the most rewarding parts of a child’s development for parents. We ensure that parents are a part of that process through learning phonics. We run phonics workshops, led by our teachers to help parents understand how they can support their child’s learning at home. We have created pupil-centred videos that families use to practise together. These sessions and the continuity of education at the school and home, makes early literacy a shared and rewarding experience for pupils, parents and teachers.

We also hold a Drawing Club for our Reception classes, which we have found really inspires mark-making and drawing throughout the year group.

Learning through play

At Clifton College, our Early Years provision combines a mixture of child-led and adult-led learning through play.

Each day, our children have their learning experiences enriched through high-quality play opportunities, which improve their cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being. These experiences also help them learn about the world and themselves, laying the groundwork for their future learning and development potential.

“Music is Magic”

This is the motto of our Assistant Head of the Pre-Prep School, Mrs Gillam. Music is woven into everyday life in early years classes. We have a strong belief that learning with music builds confidence and creativity in young children, and gives them a platform for self-expression and communicating. Every child is a member of the choir, and as they move up the years, they will have the opportunity to perform in informal concerts, held weekly for family to watch.

In the Pre-Prep, our Fun Friday Sing is a weekly highlight, where parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles can join in, making music a shared joy. From Year 2 onwards, our pupils have the opportunity to pursue learning an instrument in groups or with one-to-one sessions, they also meet Upper School Music scholars and visit the Chapel for performances, giving them clear role models to aspire to follow as they progress through the school.

Experiencing the Real World

We make sure that children get to experience learning outside the classroom. Our Forest School gives children the chance to explore, create, and learn in nature. Each term, they will spend around 50 hours in Leigh Woods, led by a specialist Forest School instructor. Sessions are linked to academic activities, allowing the children to form mental connections to what they have learnt in the classroom.

Our children learn best when they can see how their lessons connect to the real world. Which is why we have launched our Community Heroes initiative, inviting people from different professions, to talk about their jobs and how they play their part in our modern society. We have so far welcomed speakers from the Post Office, lorry and bus drivers, catering staff, and our school porters. These sessions have helped broaden our pupils’ young minds, showing them how different roles contribute to the world around them.

Sharing Experience

We’re very proud of two of our teachers, who have set-up an Early Years education cluster, the first of its kind in Bristol. We work with eight other schools in a non-competitive forum to share best practices, challenges, and training that teachers have engaged in. This ensures that our teachers and others around the city benefit from the latest in early years education.

We believe that our EYFS provision gives our youngest pupils the strongest start to their education, in addition to our curriculum, we give them the skills to express themselves, understand the world around them, and thrive within an educational environment.

To see our EYFS setting in action, please join one of our upcoming Open Events, or arrange a Personal Tour at a time convenient to you.