Curriculum

Creative Development

This involves developing children's imagination through art, music, stories and imaginative play and by providing a wide range of materials, tools and instruments to express ideas and feelings in a creative way.

Physical Development

This covers children's developing physical control, mobility awareness of space and manipulative skills. Positive views on healthy exercise and way of life will also be promoted.

Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy

Children will be provided with a rich and varied range of experiences.

We focus on practical activities, games and songs in which children can explore, enjoy, learn, practise and talk about their developing understanding. We believe that the greater the number of experiences stored away in the minds of the young child, the more secure the later abstractions.

Communication Language and Literacy - covering important aspects of language development and to provide the foundations for literacy.

Communication Language & Literacy

Children will be encouraged to talk and hold conversations, to take turns and to listen to others. Hearing stories read to them also enriches the children's experience of language. Talking with children is one of the most valuable ways we can spend time with them, both as teachers and as parents.

A broad approach is taken to reading. The children will have extensive pre-reading experiences including the sharing in discussions of many delightful books. The children can not yet read the words, but they are learning all the time, picking up picture clues, guessing what will come next, getting the story in the right order, using context to work out what is happening. Gradually, letters and their sounds will be recognised then whole words. This is a very complex process and should be supported with confidence building, praise and patience.

Writing develops in a similar way. Children often 'write', it may look like scribble but don't discourage it. Gradually children learn letter shapes and the sounds that go with them. We encourage both reading and writing by the use of a stimulating language environment and a wide range of opportunities to support and encourage our children.

Personal, Social & Emotional Development

(Aspects of personal, moral, social and spiritual development will be covered.)

Children will be provided with experiences and support that will help them to develop a positive sense of themselves and of others. They will be helped to develop a positive disposition to learn through provision of stimulating activities

Knowledge & Understanding of the World

This covers the children's developing knowledge and understanding of their environment, their families and other people. Through this we aim to help the children become more aware of the world about them, both natural and man-made, observing changing patterns of the seasons, weather, similarities and differences in plants and animals etc.

Opportunities will be provided to discover creatures, people, plants and objects in their natural environments and in real life situations.