Curriculum

The learning in Nursery is split into the seven areas of development; each day consists of a range of activities including:

• Registration and finger gym (fine motor skills)
• Phonics (Read Write Inc.) Playing 'fred' games to encourage word blending moving onto RWI picture card recognition
• Topic Story / Lesson Time
• Child Initiated Time
• Snack Time
• Maths - number blocks 
• Child Initiated Time
• PSED - becoming familiar with our 'Golden Rules' - and time to think about what they mean for us in nursery
• Story Time and Singing
• Physical Development - focus on development of gross motor skills, specific skills taught and practiced in small  groups
• Lunch Time
• Plus, many more fantastic learning opportunities.

Outdoor area

Our outdoor area has been designed for pupils to have access to a range of different activities to meet the 7 areas of development. The jungle gym promotes physical development, the house is designed to encourage communication and language and role play. We learn maths, literacy and build our physical development further through the sand and water play. We have a mud garden which we use to grow plants, watch them develop and sometimes we get to taste what we grow. A variety of mark making activities, with different tools, are available throughout the day. Children can access all areas and resources to develop their imagination, independence and build on their own experiences.

Reading areas

There are dedicated reading areas inside the Nursery and outside in the garden. We use this space to listen to and act out stories, share books with our friends or enjoy some quiet reading time. We have books in all areas of learning. In the outside reading area, we often have characters from the story we are reading to help us tell the story.

Authors we study

We spend time together enjoying stories from a range of authors. We enjoy listening to traditional tales including Goldilocks and the three bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood and The Gingerbread Man. There are many other stories we enjoy linked to our topics such as Percy the Park Keeper, Farmer Duck and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We role play as the characters and join in with the words.

Visits

We have visitors who come to talk to us about our learning. The librarian comes to talk about books, the PSCO comes to speak to us and we take a visit to the local church. In the Summer Term, we are visited by an expert in minibeasts with his collection of animals.

The learning in Reception is split into the seven areas of development; each day consists of a range of activities including:

• Registration and finger gym
• Read Write Inc.
• Child Initiated Time
• Maths 
• PSHE 
• Lunch time
• 15-minute maths
• Topic time
• Story time
• Plus, many more fantastic learning opportunities.

Our day in Reception is balanced between times of formal and informal learning with an adult who leads an activity – this is known as Adult Directed time.  As well as times when the children can choose learning experiences for themselves – this is known as Child Initiated time.  All of our formal and informal learning takes place indoors and outdoors. It is in these different environments that children explore and discover their immediate world. It is here they practise new ideas and skills; they take risks, show imagination and solve problems on their own or with others.

Topics

All of our topics are underpinned by a book – either non-fiction, fiction or a rhyming book. We enjoy listening to and then learning all about these books. Our learning includes re-telling the stories, acting out characters from the stories, and exploring and discovering maths, the world and creativity through these stories. They include traditional tales; The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Rapunzel; stories by Julia Donaldson including The Gruffalo, The Paperdolls and The Snail and the Whale; and non-fiction books about Castles and Dinosaurs.

Outdoor Area

Our outdoor area has been designed to allow all pupils to have access to a range of different activities to meet the 7 areas of development. The Role Play house outside allows us to link our experiences from home to school; it is designed to encourage communication and language skills with peers. Our stage is also used to encourage communication and language skills with peers and is set up either by our topic or by the children’s current interests. The construction area allows the children to construct on a larger scale and promotes physical development, maths and communication and language skills. The water, sand and mud areas allow the children to further develop their physical development and communication skills. The creative area offers creativity with different tools, themes and promotes independence, imagination and sharing. The reading garden is a dedicated area for children to listen to familiar stories, re-read familiar stories themselves and enjoy some quiet reading time. Children can access and learn in all areas, with resources designed to develop their imagination, independence and to build upon their own experiences.

Visits

We have visitors who come to talk to us about our learning. The librarian comes to talk about books in the autumn term, just in time for us to start to visit the school library. We visit St Barnabas Church three times a year to learn about Christmas, Easter and Noah. We are visited by a Circus Skills workshop and an expert in Minibeasts, as well as visiting Wellington Country Farm Park.