Early Years Foundation Stage
At our nursery we follow the EYFS. This is a statutory framework that sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that the children in their care learn and develop well, stay safe and are kept healthy.
The EYFS promotes partnership working between practitioners and families to ensure the best start possible for children. It seeks to make sure that every child makes good progress and has the opportunity to gain a secure foundation through learning and development opportunities. These opportunities and experiences must take into account individual children’s needs and interests.
Useful Information
You can view or download further information about EYFS and your child’s learning and development by clicking the links below:
Principles of the EYFS
- Every child is unique
- Through positive relationships children learn to be confident and independent
- Children develop and learn in enabling environments
- Children learn and develop at different rates and in different ways
Our Curriculum has 7 areas of learning:
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development: We support children in creating relationships and making friends. We help them to have a positive sense of themselves, develop respect for others and manage their feelings and behaviour. Together we encourage children to have confidence in themselves and their abilities.
- Communication and Language: Within our nursery children have the opportunity to experience a rich language environment. Nursery staff have a good understanding of speech and language development and support children in developing their confidence to express themselves. We help them to gain the skills to speak to others and listen with increasing attention.
- Physical Development: We provide opportunities for children to be active and develop their co-ordination, movement and control. We support them in negotiating space and handling tools effectively. At nursery we help children to understand the importance of health, physical exercise and staying safe.
- Literacy: Books and stories are a very important part of our curriculum. By providing children with access to a wide range of reading materials linked to their interests, they develop a love of reading. At nursery we provide opportunities that encourage children to link sounds and letters to support them in the process of learning to read and write.
- Maths: We provide children with opportunities and experiences that develop their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers. We encourage them to solve problems, including those that include addition and subtraction. In nursery we support children in using everyday language to talk about and describe shapes, spaces and measures.
- Understanding the World: We support children in making sense of their physical world and their community. In nursery we provide opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.
- Expressive Arts and Design: Children in nursery have the opportunity to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials. Opportunities are provided and encouraged for children to share their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play and design and technology.
Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning
When we plan and think about the children’s activities and experiences, we reflect on the different ways that children learn and how this can be developed and extended.
We believe that children learn best when:
- They play and explore- investigating and experiencing things and showing the ability to ‘have a go’.
- They are actively learning- concentrating and persevering when they encounter difficulties
- They create and think critically- developing their own ideas, making links in their learning and develop strategies for doing things
Phonics and Reading Programme- Letters and Sounds
At Horden Nursery School we have adopted the Letters and Sounds programme for the teaching of reading and phonics. During their time at nursery the children will take part in a range of fun and exciting activities to help them build their phonological awareness, language and give them the skills they need to begin to read words.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
At Horden Nursery School, we believe that inclusive education means providing all pupils with appropriate education and support alongside their peers. The Curriculum is all the planned activities that the school organises in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. Further information can be found in the SEN Information Report.
If you would like to discuss your SEND requirements in detail please contact the school to arrange an appointment.
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