Welcome to Early Years

The Early Years Foundation Stage is the education period for young people from birth to the age of 5 years old. In our Foundation Stage at Stella Maris Catholic Primary we have one reception class called the Imps Class.

Our Early Years Team

Class Teachers: Mrs Jukes (Monday - Thursday) and Mrs Roberts (Friday)

Class Teaching Assistants: Mrs Green, Mrs Sage, Miss Jones, Mrs Buck, Mrs Burrows and Mrs Dickenson

Our Expectations in EYFS.....

To have lots of fun in our learning and to make wonderful memories together. 

To use our School Gospel Values of Love, Care, Share, Trust and Respect!

To have a positive attitude towards our learning and to embrace new challenges. 

To become independent learners over the year.

Our Curriculum in Imps Class

Our curriculum enables there to be no limits or barriers to our children's achievements. We want all children to reach their God given potential. Our curriculum allows for high ambition and encourages all children to be deeply engaged. It also allows the children to build upon their love for learning. All children will be able to access our curriculum and together we overcome any difficulties! We recognise that play is fundamental to a child’s learning and development. Through play, children explore, imagine, and make sense of the world around them. These meaningful and engaging experiences help children build essential skills such as problem-solving, creativity, resilience, and social understanding.

"It is not how much we give, but how much love we put into the giving." Saint Teresa of Calcutta

Our Outdoor Learning

At Stella Maris, we absolutely love taking our learning outside. Our outdoor learning helps support our ambitious curriculum and allows all of our children to develop their knowledge and skills across all seven areas of learning. It also allows our children to learn through high levels of curiosity, concentration and enjoyment. Our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) team is committed to providing a rich, stimulating environment, both inside and outside, where every child can flourish. Carefully planned play opportunities ensure that learning is both enjoyable and developmentally appropriate. Practitioners play a crucial role by observing and participating in children’s play, introducing new ideas, and engaging in high-quality interactions that extend children’s thinking and deepen their understanding. 

Mental Health and Well Being within the Early Years

To ensure every child is happy, engaged, and making meaningful progress, we use the Leuven Scales for Well-Being and Involvement. These tools help us monitor how secure and content children feel in our setting (well-being), as well as how deeply they are engaged in their learning experiences (involvement).

Well-Being: A child with high well-being feels relaxed, confident, and safe to express themselves—often showing signs of happiness, curiosity, and emotional security.

: A child with high involvement is deeply absorbed in their activity, demonstrating focus, persistence, and a strong drive to explore and learn.

By using the Leuven Scales, we can identify children who may benefit from additional support and make informed adjustments to our environment and teaching approaches. Whether it’s re organising resources, planning targeted activities, or simply engaging in a meaningful conversation, we are committed to ensuring every child feels valued, supported, and ready to succeed.

Seven Areas Of Learning

The resources we have created for Imps Class are made for our children to support their learning.  We have created these resources with our children in mind, if you have any requests for further resources or require additional information, please let us know.

The PowerPoint images are used with the kind permission of Twinkl Educational Publishing. (c) Twinkl Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Maths Online Resources  

Reading For Enjoyment  

Little Wandle Resources 

Other Useful Resources

Development Matters Document

At Stella Maris our Early Years practitioners use Development Matters to support the early learning of young children through daily observations, assessment, and planning. It also serves as a helpful guide for making best-fit summative judgements at various points throughout the EYFS. The age and stage bands within Development Matters are intentionally overlapping, as they represent typical ranges of development rather than fixed age boundaries. It is important to remember that babies, toddlers, and young children grow and learn at their own pace and in their own unique ways.

The EYFS development statements—and their sequence—are not prescriptive steps that every child must follow. They should not be used as checklists, but rather as flexible tools to support individual learning journeys.

New Parent Meeting- June 2025

Below you will find the presentation shown to parents with children starting school in September 2023.

In this presentation you will find all of the information to ensure a smooth transition into school. If you have any questions that are not answered in the slides, please do not hesitate to contact the school office and we will be happy to answer your queries.

In the presentation you will see a slide about 'Chatterboxes.'

Over the Summer we would like you to decorate a shoe box and fill it with some of your special things from home. You could include a toy, pictures/drawings or photos for example.

Do not include anything that will need to come back and forth from school, only items that you can cope with being away from home for a couple of weeks!

The box is then used in class to get the children to talk about themselves, what they like and allows everyone to learn a bit about them. It helps to build confidence in speaking and listening skills as they are talking about things that they know about.

Parent Presentation Power Point - June 2025