The Early Years’ curriculum follows the Guidance as provided by DfES for the Early Years’ Foundation Stage. There are four themes and principles which underpin our practice, three of which combine to ensure success in the fourth.
These are:
- A Unique Child
- Positive Relationships
- Enabling Environments
leading to
Three Characteristics of Learning are also fostered to enable the best development in every child. These are
- Playing and Exploring
- Active learning
- Creating and Thinking Critically
The curriculum is now divided into seven areas. The seven areas are split into three prime areas and four specific areas. The three prime areas are:
1. Communication and language
2. Physical development
3. Personal, social and emotional development
These form a firm foundation on which to build the four specific areas, which are:
1. Literacy
2. Mathematics
3. Understanding the World
4. Expressive Arts and Design
The seven areas contain a total of seventeen goals to work towards. These can be seen in the Development Matters document at the bottom of this page.
We provide a curriculum which puts the principles into practice. It:
• is carefully planned by the teachers to cover all areas of the curriculum, with opportunities to learn inside and outside, pursuing self-initiated and adult-directed activities;
• allows the children to learn through play sometimes for extended periods;
• puts a greater emphasis on adult-directed learning in the summer term, depending on their needs;
• provides activities which allow the children to explore, be active learners, be creative and think critically;
• encourages children to take responsibility for their learning;
• is planned weekly, taking into account the children’s interests and current enthusiasms;
• is flexible, ensuring progression for those children who attend full-time and part-time;
• meets the diverse learning requirements of all the children;
• respects the cultural differences of all children and communities;
• is dependent on practitioners and parents working together;
• ensures that all the children are secure and confident;
• builds on what children already know and can do and takes them to the next steps;
• uses varied approaches and teaching methods.
Please see the key statutory Early Years guidance documents below:
Read Development Matters HERE
Birth to 5 Matters
EYFS Statutory Framework