Nursery Curriculum
Our Nursery Curriculum
Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.
Aims
The EYFS seeks to provide:
• quality and consistency in all early years settings, so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind
• a secure foundation through planning for the learning and development of each individual child, and assessing and reviewing what they have learned regularly
• partnership working between practitioners and with parents and/or carers
• equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported
Four guiding principles should shape practice in early years settings. These are:
• every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
• children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
• children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers. (See “the characteristics of effective teaching and learning” at paragraph 1.15)
• importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Curriculum Documents
Our Curriculum
Each month we start a new topic. These help your child to encounter a wide range of experiences and knowledge. You might want to join in with some of the topics or the songs and stories we will be enjoying.
Click on the topic name to download our knowledge organisers.
Month
Theme
Learning Opportunity
Songs and Stories
September
Hear I am!
Naming body parts
Classroom routines
and behaviours
Name of staff and other children
One Finger, one thumb keep moving
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Orange Pear Apple Bear
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See?
October
Food items, how fruit and veg grow
Autumn weather
Changing trees
Little Red Hen
Autumn by Ailie Busby
Jasper’s Beanstalk.
1 potato, 2 potatoes, 3 potatoes, 4
November
Nursery Rhymes
To join in with traditional songs and rhymes
Words that tell us where something is
Animal names
Colours
Humpty Dumpty Incy Wincy Spider
Hey Diddle Diddle Little Bo Beep
Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star
Dr Foster went to Gloucester
Baa Baa Black Sheep. Old Mother Hubbard
Old McDonald had a farm
Red and yellow (I can sing a rainbow)
December
Christmas
Talk about what and how we celebrate things at home
Celebrating Christmas
The First Christmas
Songs for the Christmas Service
We wish you a Merry Christmas
Jingle Bells
January
Winter
Winter weather
Hot and cold
Textures
Winter by Ailie Busby
One Winter’s Day by M. Christina Butler
February
Safe and Healthy
Healthy foods
exercise
keeping clean
hospitals
fire fighters
police officers
Saad Gets Lost
Peppa Pig goes to hospital
Noah’s Superheroes.
March
Traditional Tales
Language of size
Animal names
Counting
How stories are structured
The Gingerbread Man
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
The Enormous Turnip
The First Easter (simple version)
April/ May
Springtime and Minibeasts
Caterpillar and Butterflies
Frogs and Tadpoles
Ladybirds
Bees
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Teeny Tiny Tadpole
The Very Busy Bee
Bizz, Bizz, Busy Bee
Here is the Beehive, Where are the Bees?
June
Water
Sea creatures
Floating and sinking
Noah’s Ark
Washing (including Wudu and Namaz)
Commotion in the Ocean
Noah’s Ark (Bible Story)
A sailor went to see
1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive
July
Summer Safe
Summer weather
Hat, sunscreen, plenty to drink
The Seaside
George -Sunsafe Superstar
Topsy and Tim at the Seaside