We deliver all elements of the Early Years curriculum through exciting and stimulating learning experiences around a theme or topic as outlined below.

Our Nursery provides a lively, vibrant and active learning experience for all children. We embrace the Early Years philosophy of starting with a ‘unique child’ and developing their potential from their own starting point. Young children bring different experiences and strengths and we aim to foster these to give every child the best start possible.

Our Nursery is very much part of the school. Nursery children attend weekly assemblies as well as perform in their own assembly in front of the whole school.

We work closely with parents to ensure that a child’s experience in our Nursery is warm, friendly and meets the needs of both the child and their family.

We deliver all elements of the Early Years curriculum through exciting and stimulating learning experiences around a theme or topic as outlined below.

Within the second year cycle, Nursery covers 6 different topics which include; Where We Live, Celebrations, Let’s Make Music, People Who Help Us, Traditional Stories and In the Garden. We incorporate these topics across the seven areas of learning and many of our focus activities are cross curricular.

Expressive arts and design (EAAD)

When exploring EAAD in Nursery, the children will have a chance to explore many different resources and materials including collage, salt dough, poster paint, watercolours and junk modelling. The children will have the opportunity to explore musical instruments both in class and with the music teacher in the music room. The children will also take part in assemblies and perform in class with their friends. The children listen to a variety of different music, learn about movement and the ways in which it can affect their bodies. In addition, they have the opportunity to choose freely materials both inside and outside where they are able to develop what they have learnt and enjoy arts and crafts. 

Understanding the world (UTW)

In Nursery we explore UTW daily and our topics also have a link including ‘Where We Live’ and ‘In the Garden’. The children have the opportunity to play with the sand and water trays. The classroom also provides the opportunity to explore UTW through the role play area, small world play and construction. We have lots of opportunities to use the iPads and have our own computer in the classroom. The children also have the opportunity to role play with cameras, keyboards and the camera technology. Furthermore, we celebrate Science Day and spend time with the school gardener planting bulbs in the winter and seeds in the spring.

Understanding the world (UTW)

In Nursery we explore UTW daily and our topics also have a link including ‘Where We Live’ and ‘In the Garden’. The children have the opportunity to play with the sand and water trays. The classroom also provides the opportunity to explore UTW through the role play area, small world play and construction. We have lots of opportunities to use the iPads and have our own computer in the classroom. The children also have the opportunity to role play with cameras, keyboards and the camera technology. Furthermore, we celebrate Science Day and spend time with the school gardener planting bulbs in the winter and seeds in the spring.

Mathematics

At the start of the year we begin by mainly focusing on reciting numbers to 10 in order and developing their understanding of the number. We do this every day during a focus carpet session and we have a focus table doing similar activities for the children to try in a smaller group. This could include rolling the dice and counting the dots to match the same quantity with topic related objects or finding the matching number. In Nursery there is always a mathematics focus table and many resources around the classroom for them to explore independently including numbers in the sand, number puzzles and magnetic numbers. In nursery we also explore shapes and do sorting activities. We go on shape hunts, create different shape drawings and use hula hoops to sort shapes in different ways. Furthermore, we explore time thinking about the days of the week and our daily routines, for example we have our good morning and goodbye song. We discuss what day it is and how the different days vary e.g. we have assembly on Friday.

Literacy

In Literacy the children have many opportunities to explore reading and writing independently. They enjoy their mornings starting off with a book and have stories read to them throughout the day. They also have a reading area for them to enjoy and story books outside. We have a writing area and many mark making materials, including the chalk board wall and the interactive whiteboard. We have a daily literacy focus table where the children do mark making activities. We also have certain book focuses e.g. for our topic ‘Where We Live’ we read ’Home’ by Carson Ellis and discuss what their homes are like and then the children paint their own home.

Personal, social and emotional development (PSED)

The children get the opportunity to go on different trips including to the Buddhist Centre and they explore different cultures through our topic of Celebrations; this includes bringing in food from home and discussing celebrations they have at home.

We also have circle time daily to discuss our likes and dislikes and talk things through that may have happened throughout the day. We explore emotions and what they are called, giving the children the opportunity to be able to name how they feel and explain and discuss what could make us feel a certain way.

Furthermore, by the end of the year we do show and tell giving the children the opportunity to discuss and show something that is special to them from home.

Physical development (PD)

The children have a great outdoor space where they get to move freely, have lots of fun on the soft play area and develop their abilities to climb the different equipment. Nursery also have PE weekly with our PE teacher where they explore different movements and techniques including jumping, catching and travelling in different ways.

We also do cooking weekly so they get to explore different tools and their uses. Nursery really love cooking and it gets them discussing what they do at home and what they recognise. It also brings up the discussion of healthy eating and gets children trying foods they may never have tried.

We have a range of puzzles they can play with at any time and different threading activities. We also develop their fine motor skills daily through writing activities and different creative activities.

Communication and language (CAL)

We read lots and lots of stories altogether in Nursery, at least twice a day. The children will chose a story to read during fruit time and most weeks there is a book focus that we will read regularly throughout the week so that by the end of the week the class recites parts of the story. We have lots of circle times getting the children to communicate with each other and having the time for the children to express themselves. Tidying up also helps the children to listen to instructions and understand where things go. We also take part in assemblies and learn directions and listen well when watching other class assemblies. Furthermore, we focus lots on our questioning and give the children many opportunities to ask the adults in the classroom questions and take time together to talk and play.

​Curriculum

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