EYFS Curriculum
The curriculum in the Foundation Stage is taught through the Early Learning Goals. Our Nursery and Reception classroom is a carefully planned and well-resourced environment that caters for the various needs of a young child. We offer a broad range of experiences for the early years, both indoors and outdoors. Our team plan a range of adult led activities which are well matched to the needs of the children in our school.
There are seven areas of learning that shape our educational programmes. The 3 prime areas are:
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, social and emotional development
Children are also supported within the 4 specific areas of:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
These seven areas are used to plan an exciting and balanced curriculum.
The main topics that we cover across Nursery and Reception are All About Me, Through My Eyes, Everyday Superheroes, We're on the Move, Down at the bottom of the garden, Under the Sea.
All About Me
In the first term your child will be familiarising themselves with their new classroom and making lots of new friends. Through their topic, your child will learn about the important emotions that they will experience and how they can identify and recognise these. They will talk about themselves and recognise how they have changed since they were a baby. They will have chance to talk about their family and friends.
Through my Eyes
During this topic, your child will build upon all the knowledge from the previous term. They will start to look at individuality and what makes them special. They will then move onto looking at celebrations, including birthday's, celebrations of life, love and then moving onto talking about Christmas and New Year.
Every Day Superheroes
In this topic, the children will be looking at Superheroes in their local community. They will find out about their important roles that these roles have in keeping us safe. The children will look at the police, firefighters, dentist, hospital and vets. Your child will learn how to keep their teeth healthy and discuss healthy diets, understand how to care for others and enjoy lots of visits from local superheroes in our community.
We're on the Move
Your child will build upon everything they have learnt so far throughout the year. They will look at different modes of transport that they can use to explore out of the local area. Here your child will learn about different modes of transport, including trains, buses, boats and aircrafts. Through this, they will talk about different cultures and compare and contrast different environments around the world.
Down at the Bottom of the Garden
During this topic, your child will explore animals and their habitats including farm, jungle, desert and wild animals. They will explore various animal habitats and compare the animals that live there with animals in their locality. We will then explore different environments and talk about how they differ, including why some foods do not grow in our country. Your child will then learn about minibeasts. They will observe minibeasts in their natural habitats and create shelters for them to live in. They will learn about the life cycle of a butterfly and explore what minibeasts, such as snails and worms, need to survive.
Under the Sea
In this topic, your child will learn about animals that live in rock pools and on the seashore. They will explore days out at the beach and compare their experiences with beach holidays in the past. They will learn about the animals that live in the sea and find out about worldwide seas and oceans. They will explore the importance of looking after the environment to keep living things safe. They will learn about staying safe at the beach and find out about people who help us.
Characteristics of effective learning
Playing and exploring
We encourage children to play with what they know and be willing to ‘have a go’. We want children to feel safe and be able to find out things and explore what happens.
Active learning
Our environment is set up to encourage children to motivate themselves to become independent learners. We support them to become resilient and ‘keep trying’ until their achieve what they have set out to do.
Creating and thinking Critically
As children engage in our curriculum, they begin to actively think about how this links to the outside world. Children will begin to have new ideas, make links between experiences and learning and become problem solvers.
Tapestry
Key moments in the children's learning is captured in the online learning journey, Tapestry. Parents will be able to view these observation and will be able to add observations to their learning journey. More information about Tapestry will be communicated through a parent workshop, when your child starts at our school.
