Children in our Nursery and Reception Classes form our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). This is a separate curriculum for children in this stage of school. It is planned to enable each individual child to explore the world in the ways that best suit them.

A unique child - Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

Positive relationships - Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

Enabling environments - Children learn well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents/carers.

Learning and development - Children learn and develop in different ways and at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years settings, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Within this there are seven areas of learning and these shapes the educational programme in our early years setting. All areas are interconnected but there are three areas that are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, for building children’s capacity for learning and to help them form relationships and thrive.

The 3 prime areas are:

• Communication and Language development - giving children opportunities to speak and listen in a range of situations and to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves.
• Physical development - providing opportunities for young children to be active and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy food choices.
• Personal, Social and Emotional development - helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities.

 The 4 specific areas are:

• Literacy development – encouraging children to read and write, both through listening to others reading and beginning to read and write themselves. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials – books, poems, and other written materials, to ignite their interest.
• Mathematics – providing children with opportunities to practise and improve their skills in counting, calculating simple additions and subtractions, and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures.
• Understanding the World – guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.
• Expressive Arts and Design - involves supporting children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology.

We believe that children are active learners who learn through their senses, through investigation, experimentation, listening, watching, social interaction, questioning and exploring. Your child is a special and unique individual and will be encouraged to develop their confidence, skills and talents in these early years of education.
 

Nursery

The children have the opportunity to play, learn, experiment and explore both inside and outside of the Nursery.  We are learning to write and count all of the time in many different and fun ways.  We also have an area for writing and reading, numbers, puzzles and games, painting, role play, building, sand and water, the list goes on.  Pop in and have a look for yourself.

Reception
The teaching in our Reception class is based on the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. This stage is the period of education up to the age of 5 years.

Our goal is to enhance and embellish this curriculum, whilst maintaining a strong emphasis on acquiring the basic tools vital to early schooling. Every day is an adventure and a time of discovery. However, we carefully structure the work to help children develop their skills and relationships to enable them to reach their Early Learning Goals milestones by the end of the Reception year.

We recognise that not all children develop at the same speed, or in the same way, so we differentiate accordingly allowing our more able children to achieve very high standards. By observing all children at work and play we are able to continuously assess progress and attainment. We maintain a profile of each child's development during the Reception year which is shared with parents/carers and staff at the end of the Reception year before each child progresses into Year 1.