Our Mission Statement: Play, learn and grow together
At St Mary’s Nursery School we provide a safe environment in which children can experiment, explore and progress in their own creative ways.
Intent
The intent of our EYFS curriculum is to ensure our children develop the necessary skills, knowledge and attitude to achieving fulfilling lives. The EYFS is the start of our children’s school journey towards achieving this important purpose. We endeavour to give the children the Cultural Capital they need for future success, by giving each child the best start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their full potential and achieve future success.
Implementation
We aim to achieve our curriculum intent by providing high quality teaching and learning in a language-rich environment. We value, respect and care for all of our children; we believe that each child is unique and brings an irreplaceable value to our setting. We provide an accessible curriculum that is based upon the children’s interests and which links to the world that they know and understand.
In our setting, practice is based upon four main principles:
A UNIQUE CHILD
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
We understand that each child is a unique individual, maturing and developing at different rates and at different times. At St Mary’s Nursery we value and place equal importance on each area of their development – cognitive, physical, social, linguistic, spiritual and emotional. We will assess progress and plan for next steps for each and every child.
INCLUSIVE PRACTICE
All children and their families are treated with equal respect, ensuring that everyone feels valued, welcome and included in our nursery.
KEEPING SAFE
Feeling safe, cared for and valued is critical to a child’s development and our consistent approach to explaining boundaries, rules and limitations promotes this feeling of staying safe but not over protected.
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
We will provide opportunities for our children to play, explore and learn, recognising their fundamental need to be physically active, to be cared for and to be nurtured according to the individual child’s needs.
POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS
RESPECTING EACH OTHER
At St Mary’s Nursery, our philosophy is to value each child for who they are, to celebrate their differences and to ensure that everyone is appreciated whatever their capabilities, personality, ethnic background or culture.
PARENTS AS PARTNERS
We see that creating positive relationships with our children’s families is a huge factor in their approach to learning and their development. We are totally committed to making our setting as welcoming and accessible as possible to enable good working relationships with parents.
SUPPORTING LEARNING
Our skilled team of practitioners share a clear vision of effective and stimulating teaching – where we really know our children, can identify when their learning is ready to be extended and can offer support specific to an individual.
KEY PERSON
Our belief is that when a child feels safe, happy and secure through the special bond developed between a child and their key person, the confidence and reassurance this relationship brings is essential to their experience and development in their setting.
ENABLING ENVIRONMENTS
OBSERVATION, ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING
Our planning consists of long, medium and short term plans, identifying how we will implement the EYFS Principles into practise. At the core of our planning process is our focus on the child, observations of what they can do today which influence the planning we do for tomorrow. In the moment planning allows staff to proactively plan around the children’s needs, develop on next steps and allow exploratory play both with and without adult support.
SUPPORTING EVERY CHILD
Whilst planning activities and experiences for groups of our children, we recognise that each child’s learning journey is an individual one, based on their personal interests and our experiences and so our plans will be flexible enough to provide for alternative learning opportunities when required.
THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Our indoor and outdoor environment provides a safe, secure but interesting and stimulating space for our children. Our premises are developing all the time – we make sure to respond to the needs of our children by adding equipment, changing the space, creating different learning experiences, but always being mindful to maintain the emotionally secure atmosphere which children thrive in.
THE WIDER CONTEXT
We work hard to effect positive working relationships with other professionals for the benefit of the children in our nursery setting, e.g. close liaison with St Mary’s Primary School staff ensures smooth transition; sharing best practice at our local Cluster group meetings with other providers; visits from librarians and contact with specialist support professionals for children with special needs. We also promote links with Health Visitors and other outside agencies.
LEARNING DEVELOPMENT
PLAY AND EXPLORATION
At St Mary’s Nursery, we plan and resource our environment where children’s play can be supported and extended. As practitioners, developing children’s language, communication and social skills can be achieved through careful and sensitive contribution during their play.
ACTIVE LEARNING
We recognise that, to optimise children’s learning, we must provide activities and opportunities for learning that are interesting and that children will find motivating and engaging. Tailoring expectations to suit each child so that their needs are met and a sense of achievement experienced, promotes a positive attitude to further learning.
CREATIVITY AND CRITICAL THINKING
We give children many opportunities to play and experiment in different situations and with a range of tools, props and other resources. We regularly consult parents about how their children play at home and strive towards an appropriate balance of child-initiated and adult led activities.
AREAS OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Within this framework, we teach the EYFS Curriculum which consists of seven areas of Learning and Development:
As practitioners, we understand that each of the ‘seven areas of learning’ are equally important and that for children especially, these areas are closely linked to one another and not independent of each other.
Impact
The broad and balanced curriculum we offer is centred on the needs of the children, inclusive of disadvantaged children and those with SEND. All children are observed and their learning evaluated via talking to children, looking at their achievements, observing their learning experiences and analysing data and progress by age, gender, and group. Every member of staff uses ongoing observational assessment to identify children’s starting points and plan experiences which ensure progress. This information is tracked which enables us to measure our starting points against a national data set. We use this information on a regular basis to plan learning experiences and next steps. Evidence of children’s learning including observations, work samples, photographs and contributions from parents are kept in their Famly ‘learning journals’.
Our curriculum and its delivery ensure that children make good progress. During their time at St Mary’s Nursery, children make rapid progress towards their age-related expectations before transitioning to primary school. Our high standards of progress and achievement are driven by an enriched curriculum, enabling environment, and rigorous assessment processes.
Above all, the impact of our curriculum is measured by how effectively it helps our children develop into well rounded individuals who embody our values and carry with them the knowledge, skills and attitudes which will make them lifelong learners and valuable future citizens.
