Our Curriculum
We follow the highly-rated EYFS Programme which focuses on the development of each individual. It identifies six areas of learning, which specifically encourage and enhance the natural skills and competence of babies from birth onward. It particularly highlights the relationship between growth, learning, development and the environment in which the child is nurtured and educated.
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD
Babies and children learn about the world through exploration as well as from their family, teachers and friends, they need regular opportunities to learn about different ways of life, to be given accurate information and to develop positive and caring attitudes towards others. Children should be helped to learn respect by valuing everyone, avoiding misapprehensions and negative attitudes as they develop understanding of the world. They should be involved in the practical application of their knowledge and skills which in turn will promote self-esteem by allowing them to make decisions about what to investigate and how to do it.
Aspects of Knowledge and Understanding of the World include:
- Exploration & Investigation
- Designing & Making
- ICT
- Time
- Place
- Communities
PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
For children, being special to someone and well cared for is vital to their physical, social and emotional well-being. Being acknowledged and affirmed by key people in their lives leads to them gaining confidence and inner strength through secure personal attachments. Close relationships lead to the growth of self-assurance, promoting a sense of belonging which allows the children to investigate the world from a secure base. Children need a good example from adults so they can learn about positive interaction. If they're given the freedom to express ideas and feelings such as joy, sadness, frustration and fear, they're given a solid base from which to develop coping strategies when faced with new or challenging situations.
Aspects Of Personal Social and Emotional Development include:
- Dispositions & Attitudes
- Self confidence & Self-esteem
- Making Relationships
- Behaviour & Self-control
- Self-care
- Sense of Community
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Babies and children learn by being physically as well as mentally active and Physical Development takes place across all areas of learning, establishing self-confidence alongside good health and activity. Early good health safeguards well-being with children learning about food and exercise. All of this leads to appropriate weight gain in the first years and guards against obesity later in life.
Aspects of Physical Development include:
- Movement & Space
- Health & Bodily Awareness
- Using Equipment & Materials
PROBLEM SOLVING, REASONING AND NUMERACY
For babies and children, mathematical development occurs as they seek patterns and make connections. They recognise relationships as they work with numbers and counting, with sorting and matching and with shape, space and measures. Children use their acquired knowledge and skills in these areas to solve problems, generate new questions and make essential connections across other areas of learning and development
Aspects of Mathematical Development include:
- Numbers & Labels & Counting
- Calculating
- Shape Space & Measures
CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
Creativity is about taking risk and making connections and is strongly linked to play. Creativity emerges as children become absorbed in action and exploration of their own ideas, expressing them through movement, making and transforming things with crayons, paints, scissors, words, sounds, movement, props and make-believe. Each child's response to what they see and hear is individual, as is the way they reproduce those experiences. Being creative enables babies and children to explore different processes, media and materials and make new things emerge as a result.
Aspects of Creative Development include:
- Being Creative – Responding to Experiences, Expressing & Communicating Ideas
- Exploring Media & Materials
- Creating Music & Dance
- Development of Imagination & Imaginative Play
COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
To become skilful communicators, babies and children need to be surrounded by warm and loving relationships or be in a group situation with a key person who they know and trust. Babies respond differently to different sounds and from an early age are able to distinguish sound patterns. They use their voices to make contact and to make known their needs. All children learn best through activities and experiences that engage all their senses - music, dance, rhymes and songs all support language development. As children develop speaking and listening skills they are making sense of visual and verbal signs, building sound foundations for later literacy. Children need interaction with others and a variety of resources for expressing their understanding including mark-making, drawing, modelling, reading and writing.
Aspects of Communication, Language and Literacy include:
- Language for Communication
- Language for Thinking
- Linking Sounds & Letters
- Reading
- Writing
- Handwriting
EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Also available at Little Nightingales is a range of popular extra-curricular activities including French and Tiny Mites Music Sessions. Details on these can be found in our newsletter; or give us a call in the office to discuss which might be most suitable for your child.
To register your childs place at Little Nightingales Childcare Day Nursery, please download our pdf registration form here.
Find out the latest news and activities from Little Nightingales Childcare Day Nursery in our Newsletter. For more details click here.
Find out more details about what Little Nightingales Childcare Day Nursery can do for your child/children. Please download our pdf brochure here.
