Our Nursery Values Our children will ‘SPARKLE’ –
S – We provide Security which enables Self-belief. This in turn makes each child feel Special which gives Strength of character.
P – Practitioners teach with Passion and support children in being Playful, Persistent and Proud learners
A – We help children to successfully Adapt to new environments and routines. This means children feel secure to Actively Achieve their goals.
R – Practitioners strive to have positive and open Relationships with all families who come to nursery. We support our children to be Responsible and Resilient learners
K – Our children are Keen learners who show Kindness to all around them with support from our positive behaviour systems. Children are Knowledgeable about their rights and help each other to stay safe as well as express their feelings.
L – Our Leadership is robust and fosters a Loving environment both for practitioners and children to have a Love for Learning
E – We ensure Equality which supports Empowerment in taking steps in our own learning. Children and staff are Enthusiastic and Eager to keep learning.
Our Aims
- To provide a welcoming, calm and purposeful environment where children, families and staff feel valued and respected
- To value children’s increasing capacity to show self-control and to take responsibility for their own actions
- To help children develop a positive disposition to learn, developing empathy and positive behaviour towards others.
- To understand that problems in behaviour are usually a product of a complex interaction between the child, setting and home experience
- To deal quickly, clearly and sensitively with bullying
A curriculum for the future
We believe that children learn best by actively pursuing their interests and ideas through exploratory play, supported by practitioners who extend their learning, facilitating the child’s process of creating and developing theories about the world.
Children learn by exploring, investigating, discovering, creating, practicing, repeating, revising and consolidating their developing knowledge, skills and understanding through playful learning. They develop confidence, a sense of agency and a ‘can do’ approach by having time and opportunities to choose their play and learning. We believe in lifelong learning and that both practitioners and children are learning every day.
At Hollyfield Preschool Nursery, we recognise the challenges and opportunities our diverse range of children might face and experience as they grow to be responsible adults within their communities. We believe it to be our mission to equip all children with the academic and character skills they need to excel in a world that is constantly changing. It is therefore imperative that we offer children a curriculum, which is rich in knowledge, understanding (including vocabulary) and transferable skills to be the best they can be.
We believe that to be effective, the curriculum must be purposeful, engaging, active and connected. Our practitioners not only reflect on what children know and can do, but also reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses and plan their professional development needs accordingly.
Our curriculum
- Has a starting point and this builds upon what children already know, understand and are able to do.
- Enables children to know more than they did before, giving them opportunities to make connections.
- Enables our children to use their growing knowledge and skills to ‘SPARKLE’: (see above)
- Inspires and motivates children to take an active part in their learning.
- Enables all children to achieve, taking every possible step to overcome barriers to learning.
Our curriculum is carefully designed to ensure that learning is sequential and progressive. Key persons ensure that activities within the room are engaging, exciting and interesting, building upon children’s previous knowledge. These activities are delivered using a variety of approaches and resources, reflecting the needs of our children and the nature of the activity.
Where appropriate, learning will be supported by experiences available in the local area. This enables children to know more and remember more, whilst making connections to previous learning and enabling them to make future connections when they develop new knowledge.
We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum with our children and develop their knowledge, skills and understanding through a combination of both play-based learning and more focused led sessions, which is supported through Birth to Five Matters. Children learn to share, work independently and play with others.
At Hollyfield Preschool Nursery, we are keen to embrace diversity, celebrate differences and promote respect for all. Our curriculum includes themed days to celebrate different cultures and religious celebration days such as Eid, Diwali, Easter and Christmas to reflect the context of the nursery and our local community. In addition to this, we celebrate World Book Day, World Science week and Bee Awareness Week to name but a few.
Through our teaching, learning and behavioural expectations, we give children the knowledge and understanding of how discriminative and prejudiced behaviour is dealt with, including the prevention of bullying. At Hollyfield Preschool Nursery, we celebrate LGBTQI+ Week and Black history month.
We aim to provide our children with the cultural capital they need to succeed in life. This capital is introduced through visits e.g. to local libraries, Ash End Farm, visit to a Chinese supermarket and much more when we are able to accommodate this. Special events such as, visits from people who help us, singing and dancing sessions and visits to the theatre and the forest to further enhance our curriculum. We offer 2 year old funding to support children being able to access a nursery environment at a younger age than may have been possible.
Monitoring, evaluation and formative assessment is used to ensure that our children are making good progress. Any identified gaps are addressed to ensure that children make rapid progress to catch up with their peers. Through our monitoring, we check that children know more, remember more and are applying their skills and knowledge to a range of different contexts, including other areas of the curriculum. We are quick to support our children who show signs of SEN and their families through referrals.
We believe our curriculum will inspire children to find out more about the world around them. Our curriculum aims to prepare children for their primary education and learning for their future. We are always seeking to innovate, maintain high standards and provide the best in nursery practice.
Curriculum drivers
At Hollyfield Preschool Nursery, we aim to ensure that our children receive a nursery curriculum that is designed to broaden their horizons and extend the boundaries of their lives. We aim to equip children with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. We have worked to ensure the curriculum we offer is enriched and personalised to the unique children within our setting and that it prioritises the things we want our children to experience during their time with us. We pride ourselves on knowing our children’s starting points and on what we want we want them to know and be able to do when they leave Hollyfield Preschool Nursery.
Our Curriculum Intent (plan)
General Principles – our curriculum will give children the opportunity to:
- a safe and secure environment to be able to explore independently
- experience the challenge and enjoyment of learning
- develop new skills through variety of interesting contexts
- develop and demonstrate their creativity
- begin to see clear links between different aspects of learning
- explore the breadth and depth on EYFS Statutory framework.
Well-being – our curriculum will give children the opportunity to:
- learn in a peaceful and supportive environment
- develop self-esteem and confidence in their abilities.
- follow their own interests and be themselves
- learn how to respect themselves and others
- build respectful relationships
- be exceptionally well-prepared for their next phase of learning.
Children’s Voice – our curriculum will give children the opportunity to:
- to say what they like and what they would like to see in their learning.
- make choices about things that are important to them
- express their opinions on arrange of different topics.
- to take responsibility for their own learning, to be involved, as far as possible, in reviewing the way they learn, what helps them learn and what makes it difficult for them to learn.
Pedagogy – Our curriculum will be taught through pedagogy that:
- stimulates, engages, excites, promotes and sustains children’s interests
- enables and fosters children’s natural curiosity
- promotes problem solving, creativity and communication
- enables children to reflect on and evaluate their learning.
- provides children with the opportunity to consolidate their new learning; to use and apply it to make connections to previous learning to help them develop a broad and deep understanding of their world.
Entitlement and Enrichment – we will enrich our curriculum by:
- offering opportunities daily for children to learn outdoors
- welcoming parents and carers to take part in children’s learning and experiences
- using quality resources in and out of the classroom
- developing partnerships with our external providers to extend children’s opportunities for learning
Our Curriculum Implementation (Do)
We follow the Early Years Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. This framework specifies the requirement for learning and development in the Early Years and provides prime and specific areas of learning we must cover in our curriculum.
Prime areas:
- Personal Social and Emotional Development
- Communication and Language Development
- Physical Development
Specific areas:
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive arts and design
A vital aspect in the development of essential knowledge and skills is the use of continuous provision. This means that children are using and developing taught skills throughout the year on a daily/weekly basis. Continuous provision practice and principles begin in EYFS and support children to develop key life skills such as independence, innovation, creativity, enquiry, analysis and problem solving.
During the nursery day, children will have an opportunity to work independently, work collaboratively with their friends and with members of staff. We provide enhanced opportunities to engage learners and link to previous knowledge. We regularly talk to the children about what they would like to learn about and any questions they may have, planning activities and real-life learning experiences accordingly.
We believe that ‘happy children learn’ and our outdoor area is used all year round and in most weather conditions, providing provision that supports the Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) to ensure learning takes place.
We aim to develop the characteristics of effective learning through our teaching:
- finding out and exploring
- using what they know in their play
- being willing to have a go
- being involved and concentrating
- keeping on trying
- enjoying achieving what they set out to do
- having their own ideas
- making links
- choosing ways to do things
Our Curriculum Impact (Review) (Bold words represent our nursery values ‘SPARKLE’)
We SPARKLE because we provide a learning environment where children feel safe and secure. We value every opportunity to work in partnership to build positive relationships with our families, schools and other agencies to ensure EVERY CHILD SUCCEEDS.
We SPARKLE because we have a staff team that works well together, sharing and using individual expertise who are committed, eager and enthusiastic to developing their own professional development.
We SPARKLE because children are keen, knowledgeable and independent learners who are inspired to be curious, enthusiastic and ambitious, knowing they all have the right to actively achieve to the best of their ability.
We SPARKLE because children make exceptional progress and are given opportunities to achieve to their full potential, building on their resilience becoming proud learners. This enables children to adapt to new routines, when children leave nursery, not only are they school ready, but they are well-rounded individuals with positive attitudes towards learning.
We SPARKLE because children develop positive relationships with both children and practitioners to feel valued. Children demonstrate a respect for others, the need for equality and celebrate diversity. Children have the moral courage to stand against all forms of discrimination on the grounds of ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, disability or ability.
We SPARKLE because we work together as professionals to develop these values and principles which guides our work for every child to SPARKLE and succeed in life.