Nursery Aims

The ethos of the setting is based on a safe and caring environment where every child will feel valued and positive about themselves so that they will feel happy and motivated by the learning opportunities and gain maximum benefits from their time with us.

Our aim is to provide a safe, happy and caring environment where children can learn skills, values and knowledge, laying a secure foundation for future learning. We ensure learning and development is planned around the individual needs and interests of the child and informed by the use of on-going observations and assessments.

We believe that children learn through play, and that play shall be valued.  We aim to help children develop their confidence and independence by providing a warm and secure environment, ensuring that every child is included and not disadvantaged because of ethnicity, culture, or religion, home language, family background, learning difficulties, disabilities, gender or ability.

We recognise the importance of working in partnership with parents and acknowledge parents as the child’s first educators.

Intent

At our nursery, children are taught to be resilient and independent learners and are supported by staff who look carefully at the children in their care, consider their needs, their interests and their stages of development and use all of this information to help plan a challenging and enjoyable experience across all the areas of learning and development.

We recognise that every child is unique, with his/her own developing view of the world, interests and abilities. We respect the many different forms of family life that children may experience as well as their social and cultural backgrounds. (Cultural Capital)

Staff build relationships with children, using their observations and assessments to implement planned, purposeful play through a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activity, using continuous play and small group activities. Play is essential for children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, to think about problems, and relate to others. Children learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play which is guided by adults.

Build children’s confidence, self-esteem and independence through the relationships they have with their parents, practitioners and peers. Through activities and routines, encouraging all children to ‘have a go’ focusing what they can do, rather than what they can’t.

Our two weekly planning is designed to recognise children’s prior learning and development stage, provide first hand learning experiences and allows children to develop knowledge and skills.

Through our curriculum (eyfs) this year we are continuing to aim to ensure:

• Our children develop a love of books
• We extend children’s vocabulary to close the word gap
• We enhance and support children’s creativity and imagination through the characteristics of learning both indoors and outdoors
• We promote speech, language and communication to strengthen children’s ability to learn.
• We focus on children’s well-being and how to keep ourselves healthy, including oral health.
• We build children’s confidence, self-esteem and independence through positive relationships, activities and learning to ‘have a go’

Implementation

Our curriculum is a carefully planned learning experience. Our children follow the Early Years Foundation Stage and we use Development Matters curriculum guidance. We find out about and recognise children’s previous learning and the experiences they’ve had at home and of the wider world.

We provide a learning environment based on the individual children’s needs and interests and it builds on previous skills and knowledge the children may have. Children engage in planned, focussed activities as well as child-initiated play.

All 7 areas of learning are used to plan children’s learning and activities.  Staff use first hand experiences to enhance children’s experiences, create awe and wonder and to bring their learning alive. 

Our fortnightly planning offers all children access to a broad, balanced, well-resourced curriculum, which offers opportunities for enjoyment and success through playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically.  Planned activities aim to foster good social relationships, promote equal opportunities, encourage independence and support special educational needs. Children learn to co-operate and listen to others. They do this in 1:1, small groups and whole groups. Staff plan for and ensure that both inside and outside spaces are fun, safe, engaging and offer challenge.

The planning enables staff to check children’s understanding of what has been taught and identify gaps in learning. They can then respond and adapt their teaching as necessary. Revisiting the learning outcomes over the fortnight and during the term enables children to consolidate learning and helps staff identify individual children that may need additional support/teaching input.

Staff observe, listen to and work with children to facilitate learning.  Positive relationships and good communication play a vital part when planning for individual needs. Every child has the support they need to flourish.

Information is shared to ensure that new learning builds upon and strengthens children’s previous understanding. Termly newsletters sharing information on nursery/home learning, new vocabulary and songs/nursery rhymes are shared with parents/carers

Throughout the year there are special weeks /events that children, staff and parents can take part in e.g healthy body, happy me week, black history week. All contributing to supporting children to be active and to develop physically including giving clear messages to children why it is important to eat, drink and exercise promoting healthy lifestyles and oral health as well as be kind to others.

To plan appropriate activities staff carry out assessments.  Our assessments start with careful observation. These observations inform planning and in turn are used to support the children’s wellbeing, development and learning and next steps.

We record observations in a secure online journal called EYLOG. This is shared with parents and family members can add their own observations too. This document is used by staff to support statutory assessment judgements, moderate learning and create reports e.g. 2year check.

Impact  

Children’s progress is monitored closely from the moment they start, and their journey is tracked throughout their time in nursery.

We use an online tool eylog to track children’s progress and to identify any specific needs. This information is shared with parents/carers to help support children’s individual learning and development and can be used to support intervention. It shows families some of the activities and successes of their children throughout their time in Early Years.

It allows managers to track different cohorts of children, e.g. pupil premium, girls/boys, SEND, 2year funded.  By monitoring regularly, we can effectively demonstrate what learning is taking place and how each child is progressing in all seven areas of the EYFS curriculum.

As a team we carry out training and meetings to ensure we are confident in our moderating and tracking of children. Managers and staff can monitor the impact of the curriculum, what is working well and identify any area that may require more focus.

It also helps support the nursery improvement plan, agreeing targets and areas for development and focus.

An integral aspect of the curriculum is that our children will grow to be confident, independent, kind and caring individuals while aspiring to be the best they can be.

When they progress to school, our children talk confidently about their learning and share their experiences in discussion with others. They have a curiosity about the world and a desire to learn.