Curriculum
 

Children learn through everything they do: their play, their communications with other children and adults, their interactions with the environment, routines, experiences, their feelings and the feelings of others and the culture around them.  All these things together form our curriculum.

Please see below for the link to Parkview Nursery School's individual curriculum based on the skills and knowledge we plan for the children to develop. 

The activities and adventures in the environment are not specifically set out in our curriculum document. The reason for this is that as a team we meet weekly to discuss what the children have been curious about and what interests they have. In our bi-weekly meetings we then plan our environment, group activities and trips out based on what will bring the children the most joy, awe and wonder at that time to enable them to develop the skills and kowledge each individual needs. This therefore changes between cohorts of children.


Parkview Nursery School Curriculum Plan
 
Implementation

One of the key principles that our curriculum is based on is that children learn by doing and being active particpants in their learning.  This means they need access to first hand or 'real' experiences and quality resources.  They need time to play with open ended materials while being supported by caring adults who extend their learning by joining in at times or using comments or open ended questions to develop the children's thinking skills.  They need time to practice their new skills.

We want children to be able to make choices and be independent in leading their own learning developing their own challenges and goals. Running throughout all the learning is a focus on working with others, discussing and negotiating ideas and working together to achieve something. Key to this is communication which is our other main focus for learning.

Please see the 'indoor' and 'outdoor' pages under this tab to find out how our environment is set up and organised to enable the children to learn in this way.  The 'community' page also explains how having a varied program of different experiences over the year enhances the children's learning.

Our curriculum is delivered through a balance of adult led and child initiated experiences in our continuous provision.  Each session the children take part in a small group focused activity with their Key Person and they also have storytime each day.  At other times the adults support the children througout the nursery getting involved in their play to listen, comment, question, demonstrate, mediate when needed and generally ensure that the children have fun!

The outdoors is seen as an extension of the inside.  Some children learn better outside and so we strive to ensure they have the same learning oportunities outside as in.  The children are able to access the outdoors every session and move freely between inside and out.

Intent
We also use the national guidance in the statutory framework 'Early Years Foundation Stage' to help plan our curriculum. 'The Early Years Outcomes' document sets out what stage of development children will typically be at when they reach a certain age.  We use this document to help us sequence the learning for children.  Please see below for more information on this or for even more information on the EYFS please visit the following website:
 

http://www.foundationyears.org.uk
 

In the resources section you can download the document mentioned above. There is also a parents section on this website with some useful information about how you can support your child's development.

One of the most important things we try to develop with the children is the development of, 'Effective Characteristics of Learning'.

These are identified in the EYFS and are:

• Playing and Exploring

• Active Learning

• Creating and Thinking Critically

These characteristics are vital to develop as being a good learner is a skill that they will use throughout their lives and supports them to be ready for more formal schooling as they get older.

There are 7 Areas of Learning and Development

3 prime areas

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

This is about

• developing their own self esteem and awareness of their own feelings

• becoming independent and making their own choices

• being responsible for themselves and their actions

• building relationships with others and understanding their feelings

• understanding expected behaviour and what is 'right and wrong'
   

Communication and Language

This is about

• communicating with others through talking or other means

• talking to others about their experiences and ideas

• following instructions and answering questions

• learning to listen to others and respond to sounds

Physical Development

This is about

• developing their physical skills of movement and control

• developing their hand control and use of tools

• beginning to understand about how to be healthy

• learning and practising new skills with a range of equipment and materials
   

Then there are 4 specific areas:

Mathematics

This is about

• understanding numbers and learning to count

• exploring and comparing shape, space, quantity and measure

• exploring pattern and relationships

• solving problems of quantity, shape, space etc

Literacy

This is about

• enjoying books by listening to stories and sharing books with others

• making their own marks on paper and seeing themselves as a writer

• becoming aware of rhyme and letter sounds

• writing their own name and other words

Understanding the World

This is learning about the wider world around them - animals, plants, the physical environment, their local community, the past and ICT

• being curious and asking questions

• observing and noticing differences and change

• exploring differnet materials and how they can change them

• using ICT in lots of different ways

• exploring and experimenting

• working with their friends to find things out

Expressive Arts and Design

This is about

• representing and communicating their ideas and feelings in a variety of ways e.g. music, dance, language, role play and imaginative play with small world resources

• expressing themselves through, paint, clay, drawing and other materials in both 2D and 3D

• exploring a wide range of media, methods and musical instruments

• using their imagination

We track children's progress by observing them during their play and in adult led activities and we complete a termly assessment of each child's development. By evaluating a child's development and progress we can plan next steps for all the children to ensure that our curriculum is helping them meet their developmental milestones.  Their progress is evident via their Tapestry account which records what they are doing at nursery and the impact of this on their learning and development.