Curriculum
At Grosvenor Nursery School and Day Care Centre, we work with the Government’s curriculum for children aged 0-5. It is called:
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
It is divided into 7 Areas of Learning:
3 Prime Areas of Learning
4 Specific Areas of Learning
There are 17 Early Learning Goals to be aimed for by the end of Reception Year in Primary School.
Prime Areas of Learning – these are:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development – which is about making relationships and getting along with other children and adults, having confidence and self-awareness and being able to manage their feelings and behaviour.
Communication and Language– which is about developing good listening and attention skills, to have good understanding and also to speak and express themselves clearly.
Physical Development – which is about developing large and small movements in a variety of ways, having good control of their bodies and handling a variety of tools and equipment well. It also covers health and self-care, looking at ways to keep healthy and safe.
Specific Areas of Learning – these are:
Literacy – which is about, stories, rhymes, poems, books and reading, mark-making and writing.
Mathematics – which is about number, counting, shape, space and measure.
Understanding the World – which is about people and communities and helps children understand about the world in which they live and it also includes ICT.
Expressive Arts and Design – which is about developing different forms of expression, exploring music, dance, and song, encouraging children to be creative in all respects. It also focuses on media and materials and imaginative/pretend play.
At Grosvenor we believe that it is important to embrace and support the natural instincts and motivation of children to investigate and learn about the world. We provide a curriculum that promotes their effective learning.
The Characteristics of Effective Learning
Our curriculum promotes:
Play and Exploring
- finding out and exploring
- playing with what children know
- being willing to ‘have a go’
Active Learning
- being involved and concentrating
- keeping trying
- enjoying and achieving what they set out to do
Creating and Thinking Critically
- having their own ideas
- making links
- choosing ways to do things
Curriculum Planning
- The staff plan high quality, exciting activities to cover all of the Areas of Learning each week.
- Our planning is based on children’s interests as well as things that are topical such as stories we are reading, the seasons, visits and visitors, festivals and cultural events.
Monitoring and Assessment
- Staff observe and monitor children’s skills and development in their first few weeks so that we can plan activities to suit every child’s needs and develop their skills further.
- In joint discussion with parents, targets are set for each child for the term.
- Progress and new learning is recorded on Tapestry, a secure online platform.
- Every child has an online Learning Journal on Tapestry, which his or her parents/carers have access to using a secure password.
The Learning Journal builds up a lovely picture of the child’s learning and development throughout their time with us. Parents/carers can upload photographs and celebrate their child’s achievements at home in the Learning Journal for their Key Worker to see.
Learning and development information is also passed on to the child’s primary school when he or she leaves us.