Our Curriculum
BBDN & PS Curriculum
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1. Settling in and becoming a confident learner
Children’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is crucial for children to lead healthy and
happy lives, and is fundamental to their cognitive development.
| Beginning: Children will settle through our supportive key person systems. Underpinning their personal development, the important attachments that they build will shape their social world. Children will be supported through strong, warm, loving, and encouraging relationships with practitioners to enable them to learn how to understand their own feelings and those of others | Children and their families are supported through individualised visits to setting, meetings with their key person, completion of ‘Special Me’ & communication through the Eylog system to share the settling process for each individual child. Individualised next steps are established at the initial care plan visit with the parent, so that children are supported from day one. On occasion an additional settling meeting with the SENCO may be needed to unpick behaviour or additional needs that children may present with to ensure that we are/can meet the child’s needs. Children will be supported to negotiate and begin to manage social situations, familiar practitioners will role model to children how to contribute to our nursery community in a positive way. Within our locality we have many children with EAL and additional support is provided to these children during the settling period, often culturally the expectations can vary. Language is simplified and concrete objects are used to aid understanding and teach English vocabulary. Key words of the child’s first language is used to further support them. Where possible and appropriate additional resources are obtained to enable development. Early identification of SEND and other needs will be identified & key persons will liaise with the SENCO to implement strategies to provide support in a timely manner. Parents may be signposted to a Family Hubb or another service to develop their social skills if they have been effected by the pandemic or other barrier. |
| Middle: Through these supportive relationship’s children will become comfortable within their environment, with their key person and the familiar practitioners around them enabling learning. Children eventually become confident to play alone, to play alongside their friends and soon begin to engage in pretend play and seek role play opportunities to develop these skills. |
As children’s comfort, sense of belonging and confidence develops within the setting, practitioners will observe children to identify where is appropriate to interrupt, manage, facilitate learning or to directly teach the children within their interests. Practitioners will tactfully deploy themselves into children’s play to further extend and teach them within their current lines of interest to develop their learning. Wanderlust adult-led nature study activities are provided to inspire and capture the interest of children within the setting. Bringing their attention to the awe and wonder of the elements around them. Children develop their abilities to socially communicate with others through supportive practitioners delivering Communication Friendly Strategies (Elklan) and Boogie Mites opportunities to develop our sense of togetherness. Loose parts opportunities are being developed to provide children with additional opportunities to use their characteristics of effective learning. |
| End: Children demonstrate higher levels of emotional wellbeing but are still supported by practitioners to co-function to support children who meet difficulty with solution. They reflect and communicate about their learning and their experiences as they refer to displays and display books and take pride in their products, such as sowing a seed. |
Practitioners will ensure that they direct, redirect or engage with children who are not purposefully playing or developing within their skills in the environment. Practitioners will actively display, draw attention too, and communicate with children about their achievements and progress within their development towards their curriculum targets. Using the children’s individualised next steps and the deployment of staff, children are continually supported within their development. |
| Outcome: Children are comfortable within the environment, able to socially engage respectfully with others and have a sense of wellbeing to share their knowledge, test their thinking and work alongside others to develop their thinking further. Children will be confident to access equipment and recognise what equipment they might need. Children will show high levels of emotional wellbeing leading to involvement in child-led investigation and the ability to seek practitioner support as required. Through supported interaction with other children, they learn how to make good friendships, co-operate together/with one another, and resolve conflicts peacefully. These attributes will provide a secure platform from which children can achieve at school and in later life. | |
(Equality, Harmony & Comfort, Togetherness, Truce)
2. To understand, communicate & socially interact
The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development.
| Beginning: Language comprehension starts from birth and the number and quality of conversations that key persons have with children throughout the day are crucial to a language-rich environment. Children will initially be supported through their understanding and use of ‘nouns’ within their ever-growing vocabularies. | On entrance to nursery children’s language will be baselined with support from the parent and additional practitioner observation is then used to complete a Communication Profile. This highlights where they are developmentally within their speech, language, and communication. Many children within our locality require additional support in these areas due to EAL and/or being located within a deprived area. A child’s level of understanding is immediately considered by our team. As a team we recognise the Communication Chain and recognise that understanding is crucial to developing expressive communication. Elklan strategies are used with children and staff’s communication is carefully considered to support the development opportunities for children. Focus and attention skills are also an area of continuing focus that requires practitioners to teach turn taking skills, using ready, steady, go games, encouraging the toleration of short delay, role modelling the clear use of nouns and usually where possible, accompanying the word with the concrete object to aid understanding. Practitioners work hard to identify and meet the individual child’s level of understanding, level of focus & attention, speech & language to then extend, enrich using repetition and providing interactions and direct teaching around Wanderlust planning. Key persons continually assess children’s Speech, Language & Communicational needs to ensure that these individual needs are met, and that intervention/strategy can be implemented in a timely manner to aid steps to progress. Practitioners promote sharing of books to children (stories and non-fiction) they read with them and enjoy rhymes and sing songs together through the use of Boogie Mites. |
| Middle: Within the children’s language journey, children will be encouraged to develop upon their understanding, and expressive language by practitioners commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added, practitioners will build children’s language effectively. |
Practitioners will highlight language, commentate, and use everyday opportunities to communicate using language extending to other areas of learning. Wanderlust opportunities provides key influence and direct language enrichment to inspire children. Boogie Mites can start to evolve into the school readiness programme, developing language, boundaries and all other areas of learning. Boogie Mites also meets the 7 aspects of Letters and Sounds Phase 1 which provides rich pre-reading skills. Practitioners continue to read books to children (stories and non-fiction) they read with them, and enjoy rhymes, poems, and songs together using the Boogie Mites Programmes. Setting appropriate boundaries and encouraging children to understand what the expectations are within the nursery is paramount, especially within our 2-year-old room. Often children within our locality are unable to adhere to simple boundaries and ‘understanding’ is often an identified area that needs nurturing. Practitioners work hard to identify when to direct, when to teach, when to observe and when to intervene to provide time and opportunity for children to develop communication. Practitioners use the following strategies: Following the child’s lead, using the 10 second rule, extending language, role modelling language, recognising, and considering the Communication Chain and the use of nouns, verbs & adjectives. To ensure that children’s play is followed, encouraged and that vocabulary is matched to that of the child, repeated and extended to support language development. The setting SENCO works hard to ensure that early identification of tools and services are consider for individual children, such as the implementation of inhouse strategies, close working in partnership with parents, referrals to Talking Together, referrals to SLT, support from EYIT and access to Family Hubbs. |
| End: Children continue to develop in their language journey, children’s vocabulary will be enriched, and language will include the use of verbs and adjectives within their communication. Language will be used to develop ability to ask and answer questions and to extend their thinking using enriched language. |
Children continue to develop in their language journey, children’s vocabulary will be enriched, and language will include the use of verbs and adjectives within their communication. Language will be used to develop ability to ask and answer questions and to extend their thinking using enriched language. Elklan strategies will develop as children’s skills develop; continual enrichment of language will be provided at all opportunities. The following strategies may be used: Use of Clever Questions, use of nouns/ verbs & adjectives, role modelling, further repetition and recasting of language to aid pronunciation. Use of the ‘Hand Rule’ – Limiting questions, extending, expanding to enrich vocabulary and use of language. Providing children with opportunity to speak in small and larger groups to improve confidence and ability within social situations through Wanderlust inspired nature activities, maths and literacy activities. Further developing language across all areas of learning. Children’s artistic and cultural awareness will be supported through opportunities for pretend play and role play opportunities to support their imagination and creativity. |
| Outcome: For all children to have a good starting point for school having a sense of self, confidence in their understanding, focus and attention within their learning and the ability to communicate effectively and present with positive social skills. For children to use expressive language to share interests, reflect on their learning and reflect their love of words, books and songs. | |
(Truce & Togetherness, Gratitude, Equality)
3. Join in with a favourite Boogie Mites Song
The frequency, repetition and depth of their experiences are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.
| Beginning: Boogie Mites provides the nursery with a framework through the age phases to stimulate early communication skills and support children through following the 7 aspects of letters and sounds and the EYFS. As babies develop their sensory awareness and all areas of the EYFS in the ‘Babies to Crawling’ Programme. |
Pupil Premium money has/is contributing to purchasing a collection of Boogie Mites programmes to use within our programme of study. Boogie Mites Baby Practitioner Pack is a program put together to stimulate neural connections across the brain. The programme also supports practitioners to stimulate early communication skills and sensory awareness in babies from birth to crawling. Practitioners use repetition to support development of skills through adult-led sessions daily, developing all areas of the EYFS. The involvement of Boogie Mites has supported practitioners to add additional music styles into their provision to provide children with new opportunities and sounds to play or move along to; this is directly linked to our sense of British Values and recognising that there are many different people and varied cultures within the world. |
| Middle: Children will be encouraged to develop their abilities through the repertoire of songs. Eventually developing into the ‘Minis’ programme. Children will develop in all areas of the EYFS by exploring a widened catalogue of Boogie Mites Songs. |
As children progress within the nursery, they will be introduced to more songs through the ‘Minis’ programme to continue supporting all areas of the EYFS and providing children with opportunity for togetherness and pleasure in contributing to Boogie Mites sessions. Boogie Mites experiences are captured at random to provide documentation for children to look back on past Boogie Mites sessions. Long term this can become a treasured experience. Images of children’s Boogie Mites sessions can be seen within our Boogie Mites display board and this is celebrated with the children frequently. Practitioners recognise that our daily sessions help children to gain phonic knowledge that will contribute to decoding regular words, to recognise rhymes, rhythms, and patterns of words. Practitioners work hard to animate their delivery and use expression in storytelling through work with intonation, tempo, dynamics, actions and facial expressions contributing to literacy development. Within our locality focus and attention is often a key area of need for our children, and we recognise that practicing these skills through direct teaching and facilitating is paramount as a key area of focus. Many strategies are used to support children within this area and when Boogie Mites sessions are being delivered children are developing these skills further. The use of the ‘tap tap sticks’ and musical instruments that the children make helps children to develop initially their gross motor skills with the actions and later developing fine motor skill manipulation required for writing. Practitioners use the songs to encourage children to count in sequence and build experiences around music which is built on recurring mathematical thinking. |
| End: Children will now have access to the full ‘School Ready Programme’ & an introduction to the ‘Mathematics’ Programme that will provide children with further development in this specific area of the EYFS. (Skills will be further extended to encourage Active Learning & Creating and Thinking Critically when problem solving to make musical instruments for use during Boogie Mites sessions.) |
At this stage children are exposed to a wide range of songs in their repertoire that promote repetition for core skills and knowledge such as counting in sequence & back again, to learning about different modes of transport. Children progress onto the ‘School Ready Programme’ alongside the introduction of the ‘Mathematics Programme’ to provide the final stage of Boogie Mites development. Practitioners recognise that music is built on recurring mathematical thinking as children respond to counting in sequence, counting backwards, shapes and one-to-one correspondence. At nursery we observe children representing their own ideas, thoughts, and feelings through either using the same tune with their own words or using the instruments in their own way, creating music, dance, often role-play and their own stories. Staff also provide opportunities for children to make their own instruments and provide more links and props to further develop children’s skills. Staff will continue to display children’s skills using the Boogie Mites board. Practitioners are encouraged to reflect and review the past sessions with children to celebrate their learning. Children continue to be given the opportunity to experience different cultures through the medium of media and music, introducing them to the wider world and our British Values. Using the children’s individualised next steps, especially within SLCN’s, when delivering Boogie Mites as it provides practitioners added opportunity to support their development. |
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Outcome: Children will have progressed through the Boogie Mites Programmes and will have developed within the 7 aspects of Letters and Sounds phase 1 leading to an easier transition to school. Children will indicate through their abilities in contributing to their Boogie Mites sessions that the music making that takes place in nursery supports all areas of the EYFS. Children will have accelerated their brain development at their young age, particularly in the areas of language acquisition and reading skills. Children will have developed social skills and how to manage others around them, developed musical skills such as rhythm, rhyme, and tempo, developed physical skills such as coordination and balance, developed language skills and mathematical skills. Children are confident to express themselves both physically and verbally, improving their sense of wellbeing and our nurseries sense of togetherness. |
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(Atmosphere, Presence, Gratitude, pleasure, Truce, Togetherness, Harmony)
4. Aim to solve problems with solutions.
The frequency, repetition and depth of their experiences are fundamental to their progress in interpreting and appreciating what they hear, respond to and observe.
| Beginning: Babies will be supported by their key person and familiar practitioners to co-regulate their emotional need. Through voice, sensitive handling and tuning in to respond promptly practitioners will help our babies experience returning to balance after being in a heightened state of emotional. | Children will be supported by their trusted key person & familiar practitioners to practice our Hygge principles by slowing down or stopping, to name the emotion, recognise the emotion and aim to regulate the emotion. Possible strategies used by practitioners are taking a calm approach, on occasion, encouraging positive exposure and being present, exploration of ways to find a truce and gratitude when staff support children to recall experience where they continued with difficulty in a positive way to influence their next steps and the choices which they may make. For some children who have communicational needs and struggle with their understanding and ability to communicate practitioners often provide these children with periods of ‘time in’ where possible. All children will be recognised and supported when they experience emotionally difficulty and practitioners will provide ‘time in’ to support children to regulate these emotions. The setting SENCO encourages all staff to recognise that behaviour is a form of communication, as practitioners it is our duty to unpick the child’s behaviour to support the emotional wellbeing and the ability to move forward in a positive way. |
| Middle: Children will be supported by their key person and familiar practitioners to co-regulate their emotion needs through naming emotions and coaching children through role modelling strategies. Practitioners will make suggestions and build cognitive awareness through commentating to reduce or manage extreme emotions. |
As children transition through the nursery, they will continue to be challenged by resources, using equipment, peers around them, learning new things and mastering old skills. Practitioners recognise their role in co-regulating to support children and practitioners remember 3 basic strategies for supporting co-regulation: Positive Relationships – Practitioners will provide a warm, responsive relationship where children feel respected, comforted and supported in times of stress, and confident that they are cared for at all times. Enabling Environments – Practitioners will create an environment that makes self-regulation manageable, structured in a predictable way that is physically and emotionally safe for children to explore and take risks without unnecessary stressors. Learning & Development – Practitioners will teach self-regulation skills through modelling, suggesting strategies, providing frequent opportunities to practice, and scaffolding to support children to use self-regulation skills. |
| End: Children will be encouraged to be mindful and able to use simple strategies to support them to self-regulate their emotions needs. Having practitioners consistently available to provide positive praise when children demonstrate a shift from the need for co-regulation to self-regulation. |
Practitioners will continue to use the 3 basic strategies from above. Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments, Learning & Development. Practitioners will ensure that they direct, redirect or engage with children who are not purposefully playing or engaging, practitioners will attend to distressed children and support children to negotiate disagreements to consider solutions encouraging higher levels of emotional wellbeing. Practitioners are always on hand to attend to disagreements and encourage children to work towards BBDN’s curricular outcome #1 – Settling in and becoming a settled learner. Practitioners will continue to actively display, draw attention, and communicate with children about their achievements and progress within their development using the display board to celebrate their learning. Practitioners contribute to a Hygge Book that demonstrates the 10 Hygge principles through direct documentation from within our nursery community. The principles are listed, and staff work hard to catalogue children’s evidence to provide opportunity to reflect with children and celebrate their achievements. |
| Outcome: Self-regulation is now recognised as crucially important in young children’s development, strongly predicting children’s later success in relating to others and in their learning. Co-regulation within the Early Years builds the neural pathways that regulate emotion while supporting their lifelong mental and physical health. Self-regulation involves children developing ability to regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours to enable them to act in positive ways towards a goal leading to success. | |
(Presence, Pleasure, Truce, Togetherness, Harmony, Gratitude, Equality, Comfort)
Seasonal Curricular Opportunities
Den building allows children to learn to negotiate, problem solve, resolve, manage, and work as a team.
| Beginning: Children will develop interest and sensory input exploration of comfort in being sheltered and spending time in dens for different purposes during seasonal times of the year. | Physical activity is vital in children’s all-round development, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives. Gross and fine motor experiences develop incrementally throughout early childhood, starting with sensory explorations and the development of a child’s strength, co-ordination, and positional awareness through tummy time, crawling and play movement with both objects and practitioners. Providing shelters and dens and creating atmospheres we enable children to develop in these skills. Through working towards our Hygge Accreditation practitioners are building on providing opportunity for comfort, shelter and spaces that are atmospherically soothing to aid and stimulate children’s learning. Seasons provide reason and opportunities for much of life to seek shelter and comfort and using our seasonal outcomes and through our direct teaching opportunities we aim to link it together for our children. This could be shelter for a hedgehog in the Autumn, shelter from the sun in the Summer or soil shelter for an emerging seedling. |
| Middle: Children will develop their abilities to use media and materials that promote den making. Learning will be scaffolded to achieve and develop use of gross/fine motor skills, mathematical language and concepts, literary areas, and all prime areas of learning. The focus is still very much on experience of comfort and shelter for the children at this stage. | Practitioners use den making opportunities to continue to develop children’s gross motor skills, to develop healthy bodies & social and emotional well-being. Through providing children with oversized media and materials to manage and opportunity to develop ability to use simple fixings, such as a peg, loose parts and various environments we aim to enable children to get creative so that children can develop those all-important muscles and provide opportunity to develop proficiency, control and confidence in skills. Revisiting shelters on an annual basis will provide children with the opportunity to revisit, develop & master skills and identify with most of the Hygge principles along their journey. Practitioners will be developing positive attitudes and interests in mathematics, aiming to inspire children, to look for patterns and relationships, to spot connections, and to show willingness to ‘have a go’. We encourage children to talk to practitioners or their peers about what they notice and are encouraged not to be afraid to make mistakes. |
| End: Children’s demonstration of skills and abilities will be visible with children being able to use media and material around them to create small shelters and to identify these as comfy spaces to play. Children will be able to comment and engage in Sustained Shared Thinking with practitioners to share their Characteristics of effective learning. |
Practitioners will provide open ended resource boxes to provide children with the opportunity to use loose parts, develop their characteristics of effective learning and consider the need for shelter in different contexts. Practitioners will create opportunity for children to develop their core strength, stability, balance, spatial awareness, co-ordination, and agility by encouraging use of large materials and adding story into the context of children’s play to inspire and bring learning to life. Practitioners will encourage children to enjoy ‘Fika Friday’ opportunities within their den spaces. As teachers we also recognise the importance for children to develop positive attitudes and interests in mathematics, so as we engage in play practitioners support children to look for patterns and relationships, spot connections, ‘have a go’, talk to practitioners and peers about what they may notice and not be afraid to make mistakes. Using the children’s individualised characteristics of effective learning and next steps, staff deploy themselves into the child’s play to ensure that children are continually supported within their personal development. |
| Outcome: Children are now able to build simple dens using familiar media and materials, children have developed their spatial reasoning skills across all areas of mathematics including shape, space, and measures. Children have developed their communication skills by being able to negotiate ideas, thoughts and the planning process whether working alone or with others. Children can discuss why shelters may be needed during the seasons and are knowledgeable. Children have developed gross and fine motor skills. | |
(Atmosphere, Shelter, Comfort, Pleasure, Gratitude, Harmony, Truce, Togetherness, Presence, Equality)
Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them.
(Presence, Pleasure, Equality, Harmony, Gratitude, Truce, Shelter, Togetherness, Atmosphere, Comfort)
| Beginning: Children will learn about changes through the seasonal planning opportunities through sensory play experience and developmentally appropriate activities to stimulate and capture their interest to promote learning and the development of new skills. | Adult-led planning is based on the Wanderlust Nature Study and opportunities are provided across the nursery to inspire and interest children in seasonal stimulus on a weekly basis. Activities are differentiated for the babies and the planning is sequenced to ensure that delivery is developmentally appropriate for all ages within the nursery. The benefits of the whole nursery approach is that we can investigate and celebrate the same focuses and areas of interest based around the nature study. This way of working enables us to come ‘together’ as a nursery, share experiences and aim to work to our vision: “To create an environment where staff and children aim to reach their full potential.” This also encourages the practice of our Hygge principles that practitioners highlight to children through their experiences and when taking time to reflect. (Atmosphere, Presence, Pleasure, Equality, Gratitude, Harmony, Comfort, Truce, Togetherness and Shelter.) A ‘Sustainability Book’ has been put together to evidence the children’s learning. Children are encouraged by supportive practitioners to get ‘together’ and reflect on their experiences, finding ‘pleasure’ and ‘gratitude’ in their experiences. Practitioners recognise where babies are developmentally and use this knowledge to provide opportunity for sensory activities, use of Elklan strategy to improve SLC skills, ability to explore using mouthing, the need for tummy time to develop motor skills and development in the use of resources. Within our baby room the staff recognise and use play such as finger rhymes. They draw attention to changes in small amounts and play peek-a-boo games and hide and seek games helping the babies learn about numbers in various ways, all based around the stimulus. Using natural resources and recycled resources we provide simple 2/4 square containers, posting equipment and practitioners are always encouraging children’s counting-like behaviour, practitioners draw from the stimulus to read books, share rhymes and to develop understanding from all aspects of their routine. |
| Middle: Children will become more inquisitive as their abilities develop and their understanding grows. Children will continue to build upon their understanding of changes over time through the seasonal stimulus, using vocabulary and actions that demonstrate their understanding within previous lessons. | Planning is compiled and organised by the leadership team on a rota basis and information directly relating to the planning is shared with all practitioners the week before it is being delivered. As a leadership team we identify some gaps in practitioner’s knowledge and by sharing this key information it enables staff and children to reach their highest potential. Learning that is planned is shared with parents on a weekly basis via the private Facebook parents’ group. Each team within the nursery is responsible for sharing their weekly learning via this medium and teams work hard to ensure that a learning project is sent home per term to encourage partnership with parents and working together to support young children to make those all-important connections. Children are encouraged to reflect and build upon their experiences through observing their experiences through displays and documentation books. Wanderlust Display boards demonstrate to children short quotes and photos to encourage them to reflect and review what learning has taken place and to make plans. The ‘Sustainability Book’ documents children’s achievements over the past season and how it can be used in another season, example the leaf composter. This book is revisited with the children when appropriate to support their knowledge and understanding. |
| End: Children are forthcoming in sharing past knowledge about what they have remembered and are eager to demonstrate the skills that they have developed across all areas of their learning. |
Practitioners will extend Wanderlust opportunities to help children to connect the ideas such as each year they get a little older, we aim to help them gain a sense of the structure of the year by looking at what special days are in each season, such as Christmas in the Winter. Practitioners will draw upon weather opportunities and seasonal nursery practices to further inspire our children within the experiences of sequenced opportunities that they are given. Practitioners will be mindful of when it is appropriate and when it is not appropriate to interrupt child-led activity as observe before scaffolding or directly teaching. Practitioners have high expectation of the children and provide opportunity for Characteristics of effective teaching and learning to take place after their practitioners have supported them in their initial experiences. Practitioners will scaffold children’s learning to encourage BBDN Outcome #1 – Settling in and becoming a confident learner & #4 – Aim to solve a problem with a solution to ensure that children are continuously and intensely engaged, demonstrating creativity, persistence and passion for what they are learning about in this direct teaching. |
| Outcome: Children are knowledgeable, interested and eager to share their practice, knowledge and skills with others about their abilities when recognising change. Children will be confident to speak about how colours change, how the seasons change, how a seed changes during growth or how an insect can change. Children will have been on annual journeys as a community to consider sustainability and how what we do directly effects the world around us. Children will be eager to learn more in the future. | |
(Presence, Pleasure, Equality, Harmony, Gratitude, Truce, Shelter, Togetherness, Atmosphere, Comfort)
Through adult modelling and guidance, they will learn how to look after their bodies,
look after other living things, learn about healthy eating, and manage personal needs independently.
(Equality, Pleasure, Togetherness, Truce, Harmony, Shelter,
look after other living things, learn about healthy eating, and manage personal needs independently.
| Beginning: To sow a seed using hand over hand support from their key person or a familiar practitioner. To explore using their senses and being encouraged to observe the seeds develop into seedlings. Supporting the practitioner to nurture and care for the plant. | At this stage practitioners believe that it is important to provide younger children with as many sensory opportunities as possible, through enabling them to become part of the process. Practitioners will role model encouraging children to observe, contribute and explore as they work together to sow, nurture and enjoy the rewards of a healthy plant. From this early-stage practitioners can support children’s skills across the 7 areas of learning when encouraging them to support in this process. Practitioners will consider development of hand eye coordination, developing patience, building confidence, gaining knowledge of where food comes from, sharing appreciation for the seasons and developing communicational skills and the ability to care and nurture a living object. |
| Middle: To sow a seed with verbal, visual and adult-led support from their key person or a familiar practitioner. Key vocabulary will be role modelled by the practitioner to nurture the seed into a mature plant. | Through the seasons practitioners will encourage children to plant seeds and to use the greenhouse to make this sustainable all year round. Practitioners will provide children opportunity to repeat this process enabling them to develop proficiency within a wide range of skills. Through practitioners continuing to role model and engage in Sustained Shared Thinking opportunities children will further develop their first-hand experiences, using their senses to learn about planting and nurturing. Practitioners will engage children actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes, and poems, and provide children with opportunities to use and embed new vocabulary in a range of contexts, giving children the opportunity to thrive. This year we have featured ‘Supertato and Evil Pea’ within the delivery of this outcome and we have been overwhelmed with the response. At nursery we recognise that the growth of plants take time, and we identify that it is important to keep children’s interests, so along with intermittent checking of the seeds to remind the children we grow cress, which features heavily within the nursery as this is a shorter-term project. Children then work with the chef to make egg and cress sandwiches. The children will collect the eggs from the chickens and make a ‘Hyggely’ feast to share in preparation for our ‘Fika Friday’ practice. Learning opportunities are extended to all parents per term to support their children within the home environment to mirror the learning that is being completed at nursery. This spring children have received peas to grow their own ‘Evil Pea’ and every summer children will receive sunflowers to grow at home with their parent/carer. Documentation is displayed within the setting to further establish strong links between home and setting. |
| End: To sow a seed with limited support from their key person or a familiar practitioner. Developing knowledge around the cycle of a seed and key information that they can recall and share confidently with practitioners. |
Practitioner’s expectations of children’s skills and knowledge develop, and children are supported to demonstrate their skills with limited practitioner intervention, recognising that they will be supported if they require it and that it is okay to make a mistake. Staff may draw on children’s previous experiences to remind them of what to do next to challenge their thinking as required. Practitioners will continue to engage children actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes, and poems, and provide children with opportunities to use and embed new vocabulary in a range of contexts, giving children the opportunity to thrive. Children will be supported to play and build stories around their role play involving characters. This Spring the ‘Evil Pea’ has been up to lots of mischief and this concept and buzz has been adopted into the home corner, the small world areas and beyond into children’s imaginations. ‘Supertato and Evil Pea’ books are read to the children both inside and out as we recognise that sharing stories are crucial for children to work on closing the word gap and develop a life-long love of reading. Learning opportunities are extended to all parents per term to support their children within the home environment to mirror the learning that is being completed at nursery. This spring children have received peas to grow their own ‘Evil Pea’ and every summer children will receive sunflowers to grow at home with their parent/carer. Documentation is displayed within the setting to further establish strong links between home and setting. |
| Outcome: To sow a seed independently. To demonstrate skills to transport the seedling and knowledge and ability to nurture the seedling to a mature plant. Children show responsibility on nurturing the plant and show confidence and pride when sharing their achievements through documentation with practitioners, other peers and their parents. | |
(Equality, Pleasure, Togetherness, Truce, Harmony, Shelter,
Gratitude, Presence)
Educating children in healthy eating supports them in making sensible lifestyle choices as they grow up.
(Pleasure, Presence, Equality, Truce, Togetherness, Harmony, Gratitude, Atmosphere, comfort)
| Beginning: Children will be supported using hand over hand support to collect and forage fruit from the nursery trees/bushes to create a smoothie. Children will be encouraged to observe and contribute to finding pleasure and gratitude in making a smoothie. | We are fortunate enough to have planted fruit trees a few years ago that do present us with a good yield of fruit per annum and the entire perimeter of the nursery gives way to wild black berries that grow in the later summer months. Practitioners use these opportunities to forage with the children for fruit to go into their smoothies. During this process adults bring children’s attention to the wider community of the nursery and as they collect their portion of the fruit, they will be encouraged to be mindful to save a portion for the children in the other rooms, for their smoothies. Younger children will be supported within their schematic play to explore the fruit with sensory focus at this stage of development. Opportunity will be provided for children to transform, squeeze, suck, and experiment with the fruit that is on offer. Children are heavily supported by practitioners to prepare the fruit and to blend the fruit to a smoothie. The children will drink their smoothie within a ‘Hyggely’ spot together with their friends. Practitioners will extend learning in all aspects of the process, introducing age-appropriate support to develop the understanding and use of nouns, verbs, simple mathematical language & identification of healthy foods. Children will be given the opportunity for reflection of their achievements using the tablet (practitioners will evidence the children’s journey via this medium.) Practitioners equally encourage additional fruit tasting sessions where children are encouraged to sample different and perhaps unusual fruits. Practitioners present children with contrasting tastes to expand their experiences, such as the sour lemon, the sweet guava, the watery cucumber or the tangy orange. These opportunities are directly linked with enrichening vocabulary using nouns and some verbs, further supporting understanding and developing social abilities within small group situations and developing tastes for new foods. |
| Middle: Children will be supported with verbal, visual and adult led modelling from their key person or a familiar practitioner. Children will observe and contribute to finding pleasure and gratitude in making a smoothie. | Practitioners recognise that children at this age often require additional support in managing their own feelings and behaviours and require adults to facilitate, redirect and provide this additional support to adhere to simple boundaries. Working in small groups enable staff to contribute to the development of this process, providing children with more manageable circumstance to tolerate. As children are supported to wash, prepare, and observe the fruit being turned into a smoothie adults will enrich children’s language and commentate on mathematical lines of enquiry providing children with examples of critical ways of thinking. Practitioners use the smoothie making opportunities to cover all areas of learning from teaching colours of the rainbow, related to the colours of the fruit, developing skills such as washing and chopping fruit and observing the process to the end with the added excitement of drinking their achievements. At this stage of the children’s development, we introduce the children to stories that complement the pleasure of fruit at the end of this process by sharing ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’, ‘Oliver’s Fruit Salad’ and ‘I Can Eat a Rainbow.’ Opportunities and enhancements will be made by adults to extend children’s learning environment to further promote play around the stories that we share. Oliver’s Fruit Salad by Alison Bartlett and Vivien French [Hodder Children’s Books; ISBN: 9780340704530] I Can Eat a Rainbow by Orena Rose [ISBN: 9798712819553] The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle [ISBN: 9780241003008] Practitioners will continue to extend learning in all aspects, further developing the understanding and use of nouns, verbs, a few simple adjective, simple mathematical language & the identification of healthy foods. Children will be given the opportunity for reflection of their achievement using the tablet (adults will evidence the children’s journey via this medium.) |
| End: Children will be provided with assistance as required when foraging and collecting fruit from the nursery trees/bushes. Children will be expected to be able to prepare the fruits and label some of the parts of the fruit, and the ability to recognise how the fruit will regrow. Children will find pleasure and gratitude in their achievements. |
Practitioners expect children to be able to attend to foraging and harvesting the fruit whilst being mindful of others to ensure that we share with our wider community, children within other rooms. Practitioners will only assist as required as the children set about washing, preparing, and blending the smoothies. Practitioners will continue to provide fruit tasting sessions with higher expectations placed on children to contribute to the process, children are presented with more choice and methods and independence is promoted to children within these opportunities. Practitioners will explore exotic fruits with the children and continue to make links to stories such as ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Browne [Scholastic; ISBN: 9780744536348] which links to the awe and wonder of far-off places and adventures into different cultures within our wide world. Last year we travelled to Africa by aeroplane, took in the sights, went on an animal safari and tried the exotic fruits that grow there. By providing frequent and varied opportunities to build and apply how to prepare and make a smoothie, understanding and skills are developed and children become competent, feeling a sense of pride and are eager to develop new skills and try new fruits in the future. During the preparation process if there is enough fruit then practitioners could use spare fruit to leave as loose parts invitations, providing opportunity to use number frames for organising, counting and one-to-one correspondence. Counting in this way with children will develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built. |
| Outcome:Children are able to describe, share knowledge and complete the process of preparing and making a smoothie. Children will show natural consideration for others within our nursery community and be supportive of peers around them to achieve a common goal and enjoying the product of their achievements together during our ‘Fika Friday’ togetherness. | |
(Pleasure, Presence, Equality, Truce, Togetherness, Harmony, Gratitude, Atmosphere, comfort)
All curricular outcomes are evident throughout the seasons & linkable to all seasons – Providing children with additional ways to achieve.
Curriculum goals will be revisited at the beginnings of every new season to ensure that they are appropriate for the cohort that we are caring for and teaching.
Address
Sunningdale Road, Balby, Doncaster, DN4 8DR
Area Coverage
Alverley, Balby, Central, Conisborough, Edlington, Hexthorpe, Loversall, Wadsworth, Warmsworth, Woodfield Way & Plantation
Hours of Operation
7.00 am – 6.00 pm
Monday to Friday
Closed on public holidays