Al Maha Academy for Girls follows the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum.

The EYFS curriculum sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5 years old. The EYFS supports an integrated approach to early learning and care. This is achieved by ‘Learning Through Play.’ It gives all professionals a set of common principles and commitments to deliver quality early education and childcare experiences to all children.

Al Maha Academy for Girls follows the requirements of the Ministry of Education in the teaching of Arabic, Islamic Studies and Qur’an. Can fun and education go hand in hand? In the Early Years at AMAG they sure can!

Each staff member of Al Maha Academy for Girls is part of a team with a common mission: to help all of our students succeed. We have highly talented, experienced, professional teaching and non-teaching staff members from many different countries.

Our teachers attend regular professional development to ensure that they stay up to date with the best teaching and learning practices.

Early years department

Learning outcomes

• EYFS curriculum
• Partnership with Parents
• Early Learning Goals
• Observation & Assessment
• Snap shot of Phonics (Mr Thorne)
• Team work
• Learn to value others, their views, and cultures, from a global perspective.

Defined learning areas EYFS

How children learn

• Children deepen their understanding by playing, talking, observing, planning, questioning, experimenting, testing, repeating, reflecting and responding to adults and to each other.
• Practitioners need to plan learning experiences that will help them make progress. Well-planned play is a key way in which children learn with enjoyment and challenge during the foundation stage,
• Monitoring of each child’s progress throughout the foundation stage is essential to ensure that they are making progress and that any particular difficulties in any of the areas of learning, whatever the cause, are identified and addressed.

For children to have rich and stimulating experiences

• The learning environment should be well planned and well organised.
• Well-planned, purposeful play activities and appropriate intervention by practitioners (teacher and TA) will engage children in the learning process.
• Throughout the day there is a supportive routine with large group and small groups activities with opportunities for children to make choices about activities.

Early learning goals

• Knowledge, skills and understanding that all young children should have gained by the end of nursery and the Reception year.
  The prime areas
• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development

Early learning goals – continued
The specific areas

• Literacy; Talking, Listening, Reading, Writing
• Mathematics; Numbers, Shape, space and measures
• Understanding the world; People and communities, The world, Technology
• Expressive arts and design; Exploring and using media and materials: Being imaginative

Observations and Assessments

• Practitioners (Teachers and TA) need to observe children and respond appropriately to help them make progress.
• Practitioners need to make systematic observations and assessments of each child’s achievements, interests and learning styles
• Practitioners must use these observations and assessments to identify learning priorities and plan relevant and motivating learning experiences for each child.
• Practitioners must match their observations to the expectations of the early learning goals

Skillful and well-planned observations

• Will include observations recorded by practitioners (teachers and Ta), of what the children can do, has done and said,
• Talking to children, assessing outcomes such as models, paintings, designs, drawings or writing, and observing them individually and in groups during different activities will give an insight into what children know, understand can do, and where they need support.
• Recording children’s use of a particular activity or a play scenario helps practitioners monitor how children use their time, their particular interests and any gaps in their experiences, so that practitioners can plan a balanced curriculum that takes note of children’s strengths, interests and needs.

Assessment

• Assessment gives insight into children’s interests, achievements and possible difficulties in students learning from which next steps in learning and teaching can be planned.
• Information gained from assessment helps identify the next step in children’s learning to plan how to help children make progress
• During assessments practitioners can also reflect on their practise identify areas for improvement in terms of organisation, management, extending resources.

A focus on phonics

A word-pattern approach that helps students sound out and spell new words.