Overview
“The term curriculum is used to describe everything children do, see, hear or feel in their setting, both planned and unplanned." - Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage. We operate fully within the Early Years Foundation Stage framework (EYFS September 2021)
Aims Our carefully planned curriculum is tailored to the needs of the individual child allowing every child to progress successfully through the EYFS and foster a love of learning. Through skilful observation and assessment, well planned activities and opportunities the staff encourage children to gain skills with the minimum of pressure and lots of fun.
A balance of child-initiated and adult-led activity encourages the children to be successful through play and exploration. We aim for children to be well prepared for their next stage and we support every child to make excellent progress in relation to their different starting points.
We aim to provide a challenging and enjoyable environment where staff support children’s learning and look for ways to extend their knowledge and interests by offering open-ended and curious resources to inspire children to engage deeply in their work.
We use open ended questioning to promote active learning and critical thinking, increasing the ability of children to offer appropriate responses and extend their own learning. The curriculum of the EYFS underpins all future learning by promoting and developing three prime and four specific areas.
Prime areas:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development
- Communication and Language
Specific areas:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive Arts and Design
Your child’s learning journey at Childhaven
What do we want for our children?
We aim for our nursery to be a place of possibilities where children will be nurtured, where their individual interests and talents will be valued and developed.
As a result, we hope that children’s well-being will be high. They will have a belief in themselves and their abilities. They will know that they are loved, that they are strong, capable and unique. They will have resilience and the perseverance to keep on trying when things are challenging.
We want children to have the confidence to try new things, to take risks and be physically active. We want children to be able to communicate their ideas, beliefs and feelings, choosing different ways to do this. Some children will choose to dance, others to build or draw or sing. They will have experienced and remembered a wide range of words through stories, rhymes and poems. They will have the skills to make friends and will show kindness to others. They will know how to look after themselves, their friends, their school and the environment.
How do we observe children and monitor progress?
We ensure that all children are supported in reaching significant milestones.
We make observations to inform our everyday practice and curriculum. By gaining an insight into children’s thinking, feeling and needs we can plan our environment and actions to provide future possibilities for learning.
Our focus is on observing to understand children. We will not test children or seek unnecessary knowledge. Children are recognised as individuals, not as a percentage in a pie chart.
We will not spend unnecessary amounts of time writing observations or gathering evidence of children’s learning.
We believe that if we are capturing the moment, we cannot be part of the moment. Instead we have structures in place that enable us to regularly discuss each child as a team and with their family.
Observation of Play and Learning (OPAL)
Your child’s learning will be closely monitored in collaboration with you to ensure they are supported to reach significant milestones for their age.
OPAL works on the basis of having very simple, six monthly child developmental milestones, which we use to monitor children’s development. These milestones reflect what a ‘typical’ child, should be able to achieve. We know that not all children will have ‘typical’ development. OPAL allows us to tell and celebrate each child’s story and focus on the support they need from us.
The observations and assessments that we make are called ‘spotlights’. We observe children’s innovation, their creativity, their ideas, their intents and feelings. The insight that we gain enables us to discuss, reflect and plan our environment to support and shape future learning.
OPAL follows a simple, three step cycle:
- OPAL SPOTLIGHT
- MEET WITH PARENTS
- REVIEW AND REFLECT
What to expect?
There will be many opportunities throughout the year for us to come together to talk about your child and their learning.
Welcome - When your child first joins us at nursery, you will be invited to have a home visit so that we can start to get to know you and plan to tailor the nursery experience for your child.
Settling in: We will support your child to settle in and keep you updated about how they are getting on. We also use a parent platform called Class Dojo which we will invite you to join. We will share photographs with you on there and you can share photographs with us too. The focus of the settling in period is your child’s well-being, happiness and involvement in the all aspects of their nursery life.
Parent Drop In: We will hold a drop in session every half term, giving you the opportunity to come in, stay and play, have a look around and chat with your child’s key person.
Spotlight: Each child will have two ‘spotlight’ points in the year. Your key person will share these spotlights with you and talk about your child’s learning and development at home too so that we can plan together for their future learning.
In planning and guiding activities, we reflect on the different ways that children learn.
Playing and exploring
We have a play-based curriculum where children are provided with opportunities to; find out their own interests, explore and try things out, make their own choices and decisions, play collaboratively with peers and adults, develop a 'can-do' attitude to learning and use what they know and experiment through play. We have stimulating resources which are accessible, open ended and can be used and combined in a variety of ways and are relevant to the children’s interests. We have space indoors and outdoors where children are given challenges that are appropriate to the development of the individual child.
Active learning
Children are provided with opportunities for self-chosen and self-directed play. We get to know our children well and observe and reflect on a daily basis, both formally and informally, on what rouses the children’s curiosity, looking for signs of deep involvement. Therefore we can provide activities and experiences that are related to their interests and areas of enthusiasm. We ensure children are given the time and freedom to become deeply involved in activities. Children are given verbal and emotional support to help them to persist and keep trying in order to achieve their aims. We give positive feedback to behaviour that shows children’s learning processes – such as concentrating, trying different approaches, persisting and having new ideas.
Creating and thinking critically
We establish boundaries in space, time, resources, choice and supportive relationships that children can explore within. We support children’s interests over time, remind them of previous approaches and encourage them to make connections between their experiences. We build in opportunities for children to play and explore with ideas and resources before or after a planned task. Adults also try to be sensitive conversational partners and co-thinkers to children’s problems, showing and talking about strategies and sometimes modelling the creative process. Children are encouraged to learn together and from each other. We try to foster a learning community which focuses on how, and not just what, we are learning.