CURRICULM

As a nursery we follow the Early years foundation stage (EYFS). We prioritise the importance of the Characteristics of Effective Learning in all activities. We ensure that the prime areas of Communication and Language skills, Personal Emotional and Social Development and Physical Development is secured within our children from their early years. We also look at more specific areas, however, we believe in promoting more importance on the primary areas as a form of teaching norms and values to support our children’s upbringing. The specific areas that we bring into our learning are Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and expressive Arts and Designs.

Through the EYFS we also plan for and implement the characteristics of effective learning into our children’s activities.

The focus of the COEL is on how children learn rather than what they learn i.e. process over outcome. Underpinning the COEL is the understanding that during their earliest years, children form attitudes about learning that will last a lifetime. Children who receive the right sort of support and encouragement during these years will be creative, and adventurous learners throughout their lives. Children who do not receive this sort of support and interaction are likely to have a much different attitude about learning later on in life. Hence, why the supportive practitioner, and the environment they provide, need to nurture these COEL’s to occur, but without forgetting that children are individuals who bring their own needs, talents and histories to the learning environment

The three areas are:

  • Playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;
  • Active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements; and
  • Creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.