Our vision at Barby Primary School is to create a warm, supportive, nurturing and happy learning environment where everyone feels valued and encouraged to recognise and achieve their full potential.

Our Foundation Stage provision offers the necessary balance of ‘teacher-led’ input and ‘pupil-initiated’ learning. We create a supportive, stimulating context in the school indoor and outdoor learning areas for children to play and engage in enquiry, discovery and reflection. We want our children to be confident in expressing their ideas, happy to make independent choices, resilient in tackling challeges, proficient in using ICT and keen to explore the world around them. Our children are taught Phonics from their first week at Barby and apply this well to learning to read and spell. It is in the EYFS that we set down the roots of our curriculum approach at Barby Primary.

It is really important to us that children are encouraged to think and talk about what they are learning and how they are developing, using the language of learning even at this young age. This is an early approach to ‘metacognition’, enabling the children to begin to see themselves as learners and build on their love of learning. We know that Barby children love learning, thrive on knowledge and like to bring what they discover at home into the classroom.

Learning habits and routines are very important and we teach pupils how to look after and enjoy the resources around them. We aim to make the learning relevant to children’s lives though our EYFS themes and colourful, lively learning environment. We place the pupils’ individual interests and choices at the heart of the classroom so they feel unique, secure and ready to explore.