What we believe

At Reach, we believe that what happens in Early Years shapes everything that follows. But, strong foundations are about more than getting children ready for Year one. Our ambition is the same for our youngest children as it is for every pupil at Reach: that they develop the skills, attributes and academic foundations to go on to live a life of choice and opportunity. 

We believe that knowing children exceptionally well, working in genuine partnership with families and building strong communication, language and physical development first gives children the foundations on which everything else can grow.

Our curriculum evolves in response to the children. We protect purposeful learning through play, invest heavily in relationships with families and create high quality environments where children can develop independence and confidence. We also believe that parents are the experts on their children. Our job is to start listening and collaborating with them before their child starts school. These beliefs shape some very practical choices:

Weekly Community Pre-school sessions

Our weekly Reach Play sessions are free for pre-school age children and their families in the Feltham community. They allow children to play, sing, listen to stories and create together – but they also allow us to start building relationships with families, sometimes years before their children join us. Our team can identify those who may need additional support at a very early stage of a child’s life. This could be something totally unrelated to school, but fundamental to that child feeling safe and happy. For example, a family may need advice on housing support, or on accessing SEN services. Sometimes doing “whatever it takes”, for a child has very little to do with what happens in the classroom.

Starting Earlier

We reserve sixteen nursery places for eligible two year olds, work closely with local nurseries and visit every child at home before they join us in Nursery or Reception. Two members of staff make each home visit, giving us the opportunity to understand the child, learn from their family and agree the foundations of our partnership.

As part of that home visit, the family and the school read out promises to do ‘whatever it takes’ to ensure that the child goes on to enjoy a life of choice and opportunity. We all sign these promises. We may well refer back to these to support our partnership working as we travel along a child’s educational journey.

Home visits are reinforced by six more opportunities to meet and celebrate their children’s progress during Reception, alongside stay and play sessions and workshops.

A curriculum that responds to children

We prioritise the Prime Areas, particularly communication and language and physical development, because these are the foundations children need to access everything that follows. If a child is struggling to express themselves, for example, they are also likely to find it harder to articulate their understanding of a story.

In order to develop a rounded EYFS experience, we have a curriculum that is skills led and knowledge rich. Our curriculum is based on the needs of our community and has a clear focus on language development driven by experiences. We know that the more children do, from making biscuits to going to the beach, the more they will have to think and talk about. We also believe in the power of knowledge and so we have designed a knowledge curriculum element that is delivered through 10 minute carpet sessions on a tri-weekly basis. This is the intended curriculum but, as with any curriculum area, this is often tweaked or changed as we go through the year in response to cohort data. 

Deep Dive into our Big Goals Curriculum

Our skills led curriculum is referred to as our Big Goals. In our Big Goals Curriculum, we develop pupils skills across the full cross section of the EYFS Framework through a set of 10 experiences. All of these 10 big goal strands then include progression of experiencing for our 2 year old, 3-4 year olds and in Reception. For example in our baking Big Goal, our Seedlings (our two year olds) make toast and spread jam on it; our 3-4 year olds measure out a recipe and make bread; in reception they would be set the challenge of baking biscuits. 

This curriculum is designed for the children to be in five days a week from the academic year when they turn five. We expect all children to join us in September, so they don’t miss out on developmental milestones and understanding of phonics. It enables us to help the children achieve together, helping them feel a sense of achievement alongside their peers, develop a love of reading, story time, sound discrimination and sense of the wider team, which informs all their other development goals. 

We use a mix of carpet sessions and uninterrupted play (which we call busy learning), where the children explore ideas and activities through play inside and outside the classroom. We ensure we set up spaces that engage and are open ended, so the children can move their learning forwards at their own pace. Our staff are well trained in how to extend their learning through questioning and support in these sessions. However, this is always a careful balance between high quality interventions and knowing that children thrive in play. At the forefront of our mind is – is it the best use of the child’s time to intervene, or are they better to learn themselves through play?

Training the teachers

We want our staff to be the best they can be so that they can deliver the best care and learning for our children. We have weekly EYFS morning practice which is accessed by the full team and focuses on key elements of teaching within the Early Years. A concept around play is modelled and practiced by everyone to help it stick and ensure we know how to use it. A member of the Senior Leadership Team then checks in, supports and coaches our staff while they are teaching to help the practices become habitual. Alongside all teachers being given weekly instructional coaching, we also give teaching assistants specific 1-2-1 coaching for their development. At Reach, we know that adults are absolutely vital for the success of our children and we all need to work together towards our shared vision, to ensure every child goes on to enjoy a life of choice and opportunity, so everyone will succeed. 

Inclusive by design

Our school is inclusive by design, we think carefully about everything from the way we eat lunch to the way children enter the school in the morning in order to support all children to be successful. We believe that this intentionality of inclusivity runs like a golden thread through our school. Due to our home visits and close working with other settings, we seek to identify children who may need additional support early. We know that earlier intervention and identification of those with additional needs also leads to better outcomes. We then think carefully about how we support those children into Reception, through additional pre-summer holiday stay and plays, which enable us to gauge their engagement with the setting and start our support from day 1. 

Seeing Success

There are three data points during the year, with the first in September. We consider the mid data point to be vital to ensuring we’re making that rapid progress with our carefully curated curriculum. If that progress isn’t being made, we will adapt what we learn and how we teach it to ensure we do.

In our 2024/25 reception cohort we saw:

• 98% passed phonics screening at the end of year one in Reach Academy Feltham  – which compares to a national average of 80%. 

• 82% of pupils left Reach Academy Hanworth Park’s reception with a good level of development. 78% in Reach Academy Feltham, compared to the national average in Feltham which was *68.3% in 2024/25.

So far, it is working well. We are really pleased with how our pupils are doing on a local and national level. As you can see, this is due to a combination of factors: knowing the children really well, great relationships with families, a curriculum adapted for the cohorts, learning through play, and excellent staff who support and intervene with children only when needed. 

Of course, we won’t rest on our laurels. Every year we see different children with different needs, so we will adapt our curriculum and our approach as necessary to ensure that every child in our care receives the best possible chance of going on to live a life of choice and opportunity. 

*Early years foundation stage profile results

Click here to find out about Bethan’s contribution to the StepLab early years curriculum.