Nursery Curriculum

Long Term Plan - Intent

We aim to work in partnership alongside parents in providing a happy and safe place for their children to come and learn and develop as they play. Every child is unique and we want them to know they are special, will be heard and therefore feel valued. We understand each child arrives with their own experiences, starting point and their family’s culture. By playing alongside the children as we get to know them we are able to follow their interests, ignite their curiosity, provide new experiences, model language and behaviours and allow them to reach their full potential. By the time the children transition into Primary they will be independent, confident and more than ready for the next stage in their early education.

Key persons get to know their key children really well, only by playing alongside finding the teaching moments and scaffolding their learning are they able to ensure the children’s needs are being met.

Planning to help every child’s language is vital to their development. Through conversations, routines and continuous provision (resources and activities we do every session/day) staff provide an array of opportunities for children to learn, following their interests and planning in the moment to enhance the environment and extend their play and learning. Books, stories, music and rhymes are a large part of our day, a rich language filled environment is crucial to children’s communication skills and this impacts all areas of learning. Our aim is to install our love of books with the children and lay the foundations for future reading and writing as well as their knowledge.

We aspire to work with parents to share home learning through the REAL project. As a child’s first educator, parents are crucial to their early development. Therefore by sharing projects such as our Nursery Rhyme Challenge, sharing stories and books, print on our environment hunt in our local community and celebrating children’s early writing enriches a child’s experience in nursery and at home. We also encourage good oral health by sharing teeth brushing at home using our story bears and a teeth brushing chart.

Before children start at nursery we will have met them on their induction, chatted to them and gathered information from their parents regarding their likes and dislikes, their interests, culture and family. We ask the parents to fill in an ‘All about me’ form before they start. Parents are able to discuss any concerns with their child’s development. In the initial first days as they are supported to settle without their parent’s staff and key persons will play alongside and nurture conversations to really get to know the child and this along with the parents and any other settings assessments will determine the medium term planning.