Buckshaw Village Nursery use the ‘Birth to 5 Matters’ as the basis/guidance for our curriculum, it provides comprehensive guidance, drawing on previous guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) which is a legal framework which has been updated in order to reflect recent research, to meet the needs of practitioners, to respond to current issues in society, to meet the needs of children today and to lay a strong foundation for their futures by having an expert knowledge of each individual child; by teaching and role modelling; by discussion and conversation; and providing resources and experiences to foster a rich learning environment.
The purpose of our curriculum includes reaffirming core principles which recognise:
the child at the centre of practice
the child’s connections within family, communities, cultures and the natural world
the need to consider the whole child: physical, social and emotional wellbeing, health, and learning
Every aspect of the learning and development requirements in the statutory EYFS is reflected in Birth to 5 Matters, therefore our practitioners can be confident that using this as our curriculum they will find support to fully implement the EYFS.
What are prime and specific areas in the EYFS?
The statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) focuses on how your child learns and what adults can do to encourage that learning. It identifies three prime areas, which are considered to be fundamental through the EYFS, and four specific areas which include essential skills and knowledge and provide important contexts for learning.
The three PRIME areas are:
Personal, Social & Emotional Development – involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities.
Physical Development – involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity and to make healthy choices in relation to food.
Communication and Language – involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations.
The four SPECIFIC areas are:
Literacy Development – involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest.
Mathematics – involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting; understanding and using numbers; calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces and measures.
Understanding the World – involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.
Expressive Arts and Design – involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play and design and technology.
Our curriculum aims to show that children follow their varied, and sometimes uneven path. In the ‘Birth 2 Five’ the word “range” (replacing age bands) is used to suggest a broad area that a child might be developing within and moving through in their own way. Our practitioners to consider the section that is relevant to what is observed in a child, not necessarily the section that matches their age.
This is evidenced in our curriculum within the ongoing cycle of observation-assessment-planning, where we observe what children are doing, think about what it tells us about their thinking and individual style of learning, and plan how to support or extend each individual child’s learning. Through this process we are aware of the learning progress of each child and will be able to describe many examples of the progress we see.
Each term we will summarise children’s learning in a summative assessment, using a best-fit judgement in each area to identify which range of development is a best overall match for each child’s level of development and learning. As the ranges we will use are quite broad, we may not necessarily expect to see movement from one range to the next if the summative judgement is done more than about once a year.
We believe that play is essential for children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, relate to others, set their own goals and solve problems. Children learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play which is guided by adults. Our curriculum enables us to achieve this.
The key aspects of our curriculum:
Children have a right to play. We will provide regular opportunities and learning opportunities for children to engage with the arts and develop a cultural awareness, as well as hands on creative experiences, accessed through play.
Play, both indoors and outdoors, makes a powerful contribution to children’s wellbeing, development and learning. We will provide opportunities that focus on the development of gross and fine motor skills and talks about the importance of physical development to children’s all-round health and development, including social and emotional well-being
In play children can become deeply involved as they take things they already know and combine them in new ways so that their understanding deepens.
Children choose to play,and are in charge of their play.
Having freedom and time to play in an appropriately stimulating and resourced environment which is finely tuned for babies, toddlers and young children supports development and learning across all areas.
The development of spoken language underpins all areas of the curriculum along with the role of high-quality back-and-forth interactions and conversations in a language rich environment.
We feel that developing a lifelong love of reading is crucial. Reading is broken down into comprehension, which begins from birth, (and word reading which comes later) which is where we provide age-appropriate resources of the written word.
In mathematics area we will focus on the importance of embedding a deep understanding of number, including the patterns and relationships between these numbers and developing spatial reasoning skills, enabling our children to develop a positive attitude to and interest in maths.
Understanding the world provides examples of ways in which children make sense of their physical world and their community. We recognise the importance of providing a broad range of resources and experiences to enable the understanding of ‘our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world’.
As we recognise that not all children have the same experiences and that in some cases this can disadvantage them in their future lives. We understand that we must find out about each child’s home life, and work with their parents and carers and consider what additional experiences we can all offer that would benefit them and complement their home learning.
The importance of attachments, within strong, warm, supportive relationships, and the role of self-regulation.
Adults must have a deep understanding of how play of different types supports children to develop and learn, and be able to discuss this with parents.
Working in partnership with parents.
Learning Journeys.
Parents and carers are a vital aspect of children’s learning and development. As the primary carer and educator for their child, it is essential that parents and carers play a part in nursery life and the care and education that takes place within the setting.
Electronic Learning Journals are an efficient and effective method for parents and carers to be ever more involved and in touch with your child’s learning and development. Staff within the nursery routinely capture photographs and videos as part of their observation process. These are then enhanced with a description of the skills that are being demonstrated and the learning that is taking place, based on links made to the Early Years Foundation Stage.
Through an app on your smart phone, tablet or computer, parents and carers have 24-hour, unrestricted access to their child’s learning journey and all of the observations and assessments completed within it. Simply downloading the app and logging in via their registered details is all that parents need to do.
To allow parents and carers to contribute even further, the home observation feature provides a means to share photos, videos and information with the setting that the Key Person can use to inform their individual planning for each child.
Children learn skills and their interests can change rapidly, so a simple and effective way for parents and carers to share this information from home only strengthens the opportunities available to their child.
The Curriculum starts with knowing every child and their starting points – our Baseline assessments – ensuring relationships with the child and family start as soon as the child starts with us.
At Buckshaw Village Nursery the children are at the centre of our curriculum, the care we offer our children is blended, including a combination of:
Our daily routines – meal/snack times; personal care routines and daily planned activities/sessions such as ‘whats in the box?’/phonics time/ball skills
Indoor and Outdoor play where the children can freely access resources and are supported in their play by us as interested adults.
Children’s individual learning needs – for example, recognising where the individual child may need extra support.
Outings – walks etc into the local area where children can learn about where they live and their locality.
Adult led interventions and activities to further extend the child’s learning, learn new things and explore new ways of thinking.
The full ‘Birth to 5’ framework is available here:
