Our curriculum is planned to cover all the areas set out in the new Early Years Foundation Stage. The three prime areas we cover are:
communication and language- physical development
- personal, social and emotional development
We also plan activities to encourage and develop the children's skill and knowledge in the following areas
- literacy
- mathematics
- understanding the world
- expressive arts and design
Communication and Language
To develop children’s’ communication `and language skills we daily provide opportunities for children to listen and enjoy stories, interact with children and adults and develop writing skills. Circle time and role-play in particular give opportunities for the children to increase their communication skills by interacting, negotiating, planning and learning to take turns in conversation.
Physical development
To develop fine and gross manipulative skills we provide a range of activities from jigsaws, threading and construction toys to dance, exercising to tapes, and games using small apparatus for both indoor and outdoor exercise.
Personal, Social and Emotional development
Through every day activities we encourage the children’s personal, social and emotional development. Games and role-play for example help us to develop and maintain co-operative behaviour, like learning to share, working in a group, and taking turns. We encourage the children to develop good relationships with other children and adults and show respect for each other. As the children progress through Pre-School we aim to increase their self-confidence and self-esteem and encourage independence ready for the transition to school.
Literacy
With a large library we can offer books that cover a wide variety of subjects to extend the children’s knowledge and vocabulary. We have a story time during each session, as well as small group or 1:1 reading sessions.
We have a small very popular lending library for children to take books home to share with their parents.
We also introduce early writing skills, encouraging mark making and letter forming, with children writing their own names and labels for the display areas.
Mathematics
To develop mathematical skills such as number recognition, counting, awareness of shape and space we use a variety of activities, including games, number songs, cookery, and role-play shops. We introduce positional and size language for example ‘opposite’ and ‘next to’ and ‘bigger’ and ‘smaller’ and reinforce this with practical activities. These activities are also used to introduce simple adding and subtracting using language such as ‘more’ and ‘less’ to compare numbers.
Understanding of the World
To encourage a growing awareness of the world around them we incorporate activities to enable children to:
explore and investigate objects and living things
build and construct using a variety of objects and use tools appropriately
become familiar with using a computer and programmable toys
develop a sense of time
observe and find out about their environment, and identify features in the place they live and the natural world
develop knowledge about their own and other cultures
We celebrate many festival and events from around the world including Chinese New Year, Diwali, Harvest Festival, and many others, in order to enhance children’s awareness of their own and other beliefs and cultures.
Expressive Arts and Design
At Pre-School we provide a wide range of activities for the children to develop their creativity, these include art, music, dance and role-play. Through art in the form of painting, printing, collage, papier-maché, clay and junk modelling we aim to encourage children to use their imagination, explore colour, shapes and textures in two and three dimensions. Music is always fun, and we sing daily and regularly explore sounds using our music box, which includes many instruments, made by the children.
Role-play encourages the children to use their imagination and we offer regular themed or child led activities using multi-purpose play panels and a variety of dressing up clothes and resources.
