The Nursery and Reception Classes follow the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. The curriculum is organised into seven areas of learning:

Personal Social and Emotional Development

We help children to develop a positive sense of themselves and others. We enable them to develop relationships with other children and adults, and we teach them how to behave appropriately as part of a group.

Physical development

The children are given lots of opportunities to develop their large muscles, and to keep fit through exercise and healthy snacks. We also help children to develop their fine motor skills so they will be able to control things such as scissors and pens.

Communication and language

Being able to communicate effectively with other people is crucial to your child's development. We encourage children to talk to each other and we teach them to listen too! Lots of opportunities are given to extend your child's vocabulary and we teach them how to ask questions effectively.

Literacy

We want the children to leave the Foundation stage with a love of reading and books, and the ability to express themselves in writing. We will help them learn words and sounds, and will explore ways of writing and expressing their thoughts.

Mathematics

We provide opportunities for your child to develop their counting skills, and we encourage them to explore number problems. We also learn about shapes, pattern and measurement.

Understanding the World

This covers the early stages of history, geography, science and ICT. We explore the local environment, engage with different cultures and explore our own families. We use ICT in a range of ways to support other learning such as teaching the children to use an ipad to help with their maths, or using a camera to record some lovely work.

Expressive Arts and Design

Children need lots of opportunities to explore art, music, movement, dance, role play and design and technology. We provide a varied range of activities to fulfil these needs.

The Characteristics of Effective Learning and the Prime and Specific Areas of Learning and Development are all interconnected.

'The ways in which the child engages with other people and their environment – playing and exploring, active learning, and creating and thinking critically – underpin learning and development across all areas and support the child to remain an effective and motivated learner.'

Further information about the areas of learning can be found in our EYFS 7 areas of learning guide for parents which can be downloaded from our sidebar

The Characteristics of Effective learning support the development of the Unique Child in how children are learning.

3 Characteristics of Effective Learning

Playing and exploring – engagement

• Finding out and exploring
• Playing with what they know
• Being willing to 'have a go'

Active learning – motivation

• Being involved and concentrating
• Keeping trying
• Enjoying achieving what they set out to do

Creating and thinking critically – thinking

• Having their own ideas
• Making links
• Choosing ways to do things

The children will learn through practical hands-on experiences, which will ensure they are well prepared for future learning.

By the end of the Reception year children will have covered all areas of the Early Learning Goals and will be ready to work on the National Curriculum.

Continuous Provision 

The Reception unit consists of two classrooms (Rosen and Donaldson), a wet room (attached to Rosen classroom), a quiet room, and a partially covered outdoor area.

The indoor provision is spread between the two classrooms. 

Most of our activities are delivered through high quality, open ended continuous provision with weekly/ daily enhancements driven by the children’s interests and topic.

ROSEN CLASSROOM

• Funky fingers – activities to strengthen fine motor control, in particular pincer grip. The activities are differentiated to meet varied skill needs of our children.
• Maths area – A working wall shows the weekly maths focus. A selection of maths items are always available from here for children to take and use as they wish. These items include dice, numerals, tape measures, timers, shapes, sorting media, pencils and paper, numicon.

The yellow table directly beside this area has open ended materials set out to allow the children to explore the maths focus of the week.

• Small world tray - this is set up weekly with the story of the week characters.
• Rosen magical book nook – This book corner has a magical fairytale theme. It has traditional tale finger puppets to help with storytelling, a story telling chair and various dragons and characters to help with storytelling. Brown bear cuddly toy lives here and the children know that he is available for cuddles when they need him.
• Construction area - A variety of natural wood blocks, community playthings blocks, rainbow blocks and shiny construction materials are free for children to access. On the wall are pictures of interesting buildings for inspiration. On a table a tray is filled weekly with different construction to add a new dimension to the play.
• SMART board - the children are able to access games, watch power points etc that are put on by staff.
• Deconstructed role play area – Large shelf unit with capes, drapes, hats, bags, clipboards, pencils, baskets, broom handles and spools. There is a large whiteboard for the children to draw plans and write messages or stick their work up.On the floor are different sized boxes, large tubes, large spools, large cardboard sheets, a wooden steering wheel and small lengths of wood. The children are encouraged to use their imagination and create whatever they want. At appropriate times we may introduce enhancements that link to children’s interests or topic.

ROSEN CREATIVE AREA

• Painting station – a free choice painting area that is tweaked regularly to accommodate different types of painting.
• Creation station – two tables with shelving stocked with resources for the children to collage, junk model, cut, fit, join and build. Differentiated glue and tools provided for skill building. Second shelf to display their creations.

DONALDSON AREA

• Investigation area – activities to promote exploration, questioning and thinking skills are changed every week. These can include exploring how ice melts, natural materials, magnetism, colour, light, etc. We have a lightbox and magnifying glasses to aid exploration
• ICT area – there is a selection of ICT equipment always available for the children to access. This includes two I Pads and mini I pads with a selection of apps and camera function, bee bots, talking discs, real non-working mobile phones, real non-working cameras, calculators, rugged racers and torches.
• SMART board - the children are able to access games, watch power points etc that are put on by staff.
• Imagination Station (small worlds) – Shelving unit with mini me characters and a selection of different small world characters and setting provocations. This is changed and enhanced based on children’s interests. This is a large area with two different sized tables connected by a plank. The children are able to access above and below the table to enhance their storytelling.
• Snack area – children access the snack area freely for a piece of fruit and water or milk. There is a P4C snack chat topic to discuss each week.
• Sensory/tactile round table – usually food based sensory play (due to its close proximity to snack area) This is changed once or twice weekly according to children’s interests.
• Home Corner –Always incorporates some form of mark making opportunities, enhancements added based on child’s interests or themes
• Water Tray – A selection of copper and metal containers and scoops and whisks. 
• Reading Garden –This book corner incorporates the characters from the story ‘The Gruffalo’. It has a garden theme with natural cushions, toadstool table and rattan seating and a large leafy net drape for the children to cosy up and read a story. The Gruffalo cuddly toy lives here and the children know that he is available for cuddles when they need him.
• Writing resource area - this area is kept well stocked with all the tools and materials needed to freely write and draw. This is designed for the children to gather what they need and write for a purpose alongside their play and is not an exclusive area. We have introduced topic writing baskets for the children to use freely and carry around. These include ‘Frozen’, ‘Superheroes’ and many others, suggested by the children.
• FRED phonics table – an area instigated by the children. We present children with reading and writing challenges based around the taught phonics. RWI sounds are displayed above.

OUTDOOR AREA

• Building area – continuously available and currently includes the following resources (with items being added weekly as we improve the area). Tyres, milk and bread crates, natural conifer logs and offcuts, different sized planks for balancing and bridging, old car steering wheels, wheel barrows, builders mesh, builder hats and tools.
• Stacked tyres – for sensory experience and to act as a barrier for construction area. Containing a selection of herbs (smell), bamboo (for sound), and turf (allowed to grow in length (touch).
• Writing shed – opened daily for the children to freely access item such as playground chalks, clipboards, tool belts, pencils, pens, paper, whiteboards and pens, and a selection of baskets to carry equipment to different areas.
• RWI sounds displayed on the wall alongside the shed.
• Blackboard, white board and mirror on wall and children encouraged to use these freely.
• Channelling – a mix of bamboo and plastic guttering systems and changing media to roll.
• Outdoor maths area – Permanently set with a selection of larger scale item to promote maths outside. Includes large dice, large numbers and number carpet tiles, natural materials to count, sort, measure etc, tape measures, shapes, scales. Large abacus.
• A 1 to 10 number line and a 100 square are on the wall.
•  Small world tyre environments – four tyres set with differing environments: wet sand, white gravel, bark chips and turf. A vegetable rack is provided with a selection of small world toys for the children to self-select.
• Outdoor role play den – a wooden den with multi coloured ribbon door for the children to use as an open ended role play area with log seating. This has an astro turfed garden to the side for the children to extend their role play in the ‘garden!’
• Texture Kitchen – an area with mud, kitchen utensils, microwave and pots and pans all in a purpose built wooden kitchen. The children can explore and use their imagination and physical skills to create mud dishes.
• P.D Area – By opening our gate and coning off an area of the pathway, the children have a safe area to use bikes, scooters, balance boards etc that allows the rest of the continuous provision to run smoothly without disruption.
• Busy Bench – A wooden double sided table with shelving open to communicate and display work. This will change weekly/fortnightly according to the children’s needs and weather.