Foundation Skills

At Merton Bank, we believe that every child deserves the strongest possible start to their learning journey. ‘Strong Foundations’ and ‘Foundational Skills’ refers to the guidance published by the Department for Education and Ofsted that highlight the essential knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that enable children to thrive throughout primary school and beyond.  They summarised the 5 key areas in the image below.

Ofsted’s Strong Starts guidance highlights the importance of structured, engaging, and language-rich learning experiences in Early Years and KS1 classrooms. As a school we use Ready Steady Write and Ready Steady Read to ensure these recommendations are met, ensuring that every child has access to the quality literacy instruction they need to thrive. Please see our English page for more information.