Frizington Nursery School Curriculum
Curriculum Co-ordinator - Miss C Oddie
Curriculum Governor – Mrs L Robson
Our Core Beliefs
- Early childhood is the foundation on which children build the rest of their lives.
- Children learn most effectively by doing and are actively involved and interested.
- Play is vital and a beneficial right for ALL children to help them learn about themselves and the world around them.
- A rich vocabulary helps children to succeed in all areas of learning and in future life.
Our Intention
Our School Nursery Curriculum is mapped out and sequenced to give ALL children the knowledge and skills they need to progress for the challenges that await them in their next stage of education. The curriculum has been designed for children to know more and remember more. We recognise the importance of learning and development and that children develop at different rates. Our curriculum ensures the 7 areas of learning are embedded and that the outcomes of learning are sequenced for all children in the School Nursery, including those children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
The golden thread of our curriculum is communication and language, it is woven into everything we do. The children will build a rich range of vocabulary and language structures through interactions, stories and rhymes.
Learning through play is at the heart of our curriculum and we believe a language rich environment it vital, with high quality interactions between adults and children taking place all of the time, thus ensuring that ALL children learn in all provision areas learn all of the time.
Our environment is carefully planned out, along with enhancements and adult led activities that are chosen to consider the children’s interests. Our broad and balanced curriculum gives ALL children opportunities to have explicit teaching opportunities to introduce new knowledge across the 7 areas of learning.
We recognise that every child is a unique child who is constantly learning and developing resilience, the children will be capable, confident and self-assured and children will learn to be strong and independent learners through positive relationships with adults and peers.
Implementation
Purposeful learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage:
At Frizington Nursery School we believe purposeful learning is imperative to our curriculum; the children have high quality learning environments both indoors and outdoors. Through this, our children explore and develop learning experiences, which help them make sense of the world. They have the opportunity to practise skills, develop ideas and think creatively both alongside other children and on their own. Our curriculum enables them to see a need for rules and enables them to take risks and make mistakes. Children’s communication skills are highlighted through play and they communicate by investigating and solving problems at their own levels of development. Within their learning, children have the opportunity to express their fears or re-live experiences in a controlled and safe environment and they are scaffolded, where necessary, by trained Early Years Practitioners.
Characteristics of Effective Learning
We ensure that our environment and delivery of the curriculum incorporates the three characteristics of effective teaching and learning and these are at the forefront of our planning.
- Playing and exploring
- Active learning
- Creating and thinking critically
Early Reading
At Frizington Nursery School, reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We are very passionate and ambitious that all children share a love of reading and that all children learn the basic skills to become fluent readers in later aspects of education. Communication and Language is our golden thread and we believe that this needs to be fully embedded at the earliest possible age for children to fully embrace their reading acquisition.
All children will take part in a focused Letters & Sounds or Phonics (depending on Stage of Development) session on a daily basis and will practise and apply their knowledge in a fun and active way. Our chosen systematic, synthetic, phonics (SSP) programme is ‘Supersonic Phonic Friends’ and once children have embedded all 7 Aspects of Letters and Sound's this is the programme they begin.
We aim to develop children’s oral language, establish their phonic knowledge and give them a broad range of reading opportunities including independently reading books and sharing a growing range of books with adults throughout the school day and beyond, with promoting home reading being the highest of high importance. Our curriculum texts will be around the children’s interests and will be fully integrated into our provision across all aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
Inclusion:
At Frizington Nursery School, we believe that all our children matter. We always give our children every opportunity to achieve their best and have the best possible start in life. We set realistic and challenging expectations tailored to the needs of our individual children, so that all children have the best start and best chances to success based on their different starting points on entry to our School Nursery. We plan carefully to meet the individual needs of all children.
- Planning opportunities that build upon and extend children’s knowledge, experience and interests, and develop their self-esteem and confidence;
- Using a wide range of teaching strategies based on children’s learning needs;
- Planning challenging activities for children whose ability and understanding are in advance of their language and communication skills
- Providing a wide range of opportunities to motivate and support children and to help them learn effectively;
- Providing a safe and supportive learning environment in which the contribution of all children is valued;
- Using resources which reflect diversity and are free from discrimination and stereotyping;
- Monitoring children’s progress through carefully developed Tiny Tracker Learning Journeys;
- Tailor make the continuous provision to meet the individual needs.
Our Intended Impact for all children
As a result of a broad and ambitious curriculum, children’s well-being will be high. They will have confidence and a sense of belief in themselves and their abilities. They will feel loved and part of the school community, and that they are capable of achieving anything and they are unique. They will have resilience and the perseverance to keep on trying when things are challenging. They will show respect to each other and their environments around them.
The children will have the confidence to try new experiences, to take risks and enjoy being physically active. Children will have the language structures to know how to communicate their ideas, beliefs and feelings, choosing different ways to do this. 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 empathy to others. They will know how to look after themselves, their friends, their school and the environment.
They will know about important mathematical and scientific concepts. They will have an understanding and respect of the world around them and the world beyond. They will have a desire to learn and be ready for their next stage in education.
Why an Early Reading Curriculum
Our curriculum is purposefully planned through text led learning. The texts have been chosen to engage children into a love of reading and learning as a whole. It is designed to provide our children with a memorable and joyful early school experience. We aim to give each child the skills, knowledge and a solid foundation on which to build in their further learning. Through core experiences, planned purposeful play and high-quality interactions, we promote the importance of making links beyond the local environment; opening our children’s eyes to the jobs, landscapes, cultures and opportunities in the wider world.
Linking the seven areas to our curriculum
Our curriculum has been carefully constructed, to ensure it starts from 0-3 ‘3 and 4 year olds’, using the ‘Development Matters’ statements, to inform assessment and track the progress of all children. However, the start of our ambitious curriculum is far more than this, as it provides many exciting experiences whilst always developing pupils’ vocabulary. The learning and experiences are all linked to meaningful texts each week, so all of the children become engrossed in their own development.
All staff at Frizington Nursery School & Preschool are fully aware that the Prime Areas are time sensitive and need to be well embedded as early as possible for the children to be able to fulfil their full potential across the specific areas. They are delivered in such a way that they will be fully integrated within the teaching and the continuous provision in the classrooms, both inside and outside. They are taught through a balance of adult led and child-initiated activities, with careful observations and assessments being made of each child across each area in order to inform the developmental needs and next steps.
Our children make the smooth transition from our fully integrated Preschool setting into our School Nursery. Some children attend other educational settings that exist within our wider community, but due to strong partnership with these feeder settings we ensure smooth transitions are maintained for each child through a carefully planned induction procedure and face-to-face transition meetings with parents and staff from each setting.