Early Years

Children in the Nursery and Reception classes follow the guidelines for teaching and learning within the Early Years Foundation Stage. This includes the following guiding principles:

every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured, children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers
children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates

Areas of Learning

The curriculum is split into 7 areas of learning:

communication and language
personal, social and emotional development
physical development
literacy
mathematics
understanding the world
expressive arts and design

Characteristics of Effective Learning

Planning reflects how each child learns, as reflected in the Characteristics of Effective Learning:

Playing and Exploring
Active Learning
Creating and Thinking Critically

Planning provides opportunities for adult and child initiated activities, with the majority of learning planned through child initiated activities, where staff join children in their play.
The children are encouraged to be independent learners who explore, investigate and take risks.

Learning Opportunities

Learning opportunities are provided to reflect all areas of the curriculum both indoors and outdoors and children have access to the outdoor space throughout the day.
The children are encouraged to build their own learning, with opportunities provided to self-select the resources they need. Areas of the learning environment provide opportunities for role play, writing, reading, maths, reflection, snack table, technology, investigation, small world, construction, creative, tactile, gardening, music, dance and physical development.

The children in Reception class begin to have more structured learning times added to their day as the year progresses, these include a phonics program of learning, group reading, focused writing groups and focused maths activities.

Planning

Planning is cross-curricular, topics provide starting points for the children’s learning, but these remain flexible and through careful observation of children’s play staff reflect each day and plan as a team to follow areas of interest generated by the children.