Curriculum

Birth To Three Curriculum

This recognises learning through play and interaction with people using a holistic approach to development. There are four aspects to the framework and each of these is also divided into four components:

Foundation Stage Curriculum

What is the foundation stage?
The foundation stage is for children aged 3-5 years and covers the years they spend from the beginning of nursery or pre-school to the end of the reception class in primary school.  It’s being introduced to cover these important years in your children’s lives.

What are the early learning goals?
They are set out what most children are expected to achieve by the end of the foundation stage.  They help practioners who work with children aged 3-5 to focus on what children need to learn.  They are not a curriculum with lots of different subjects but six broad areas of learning.

• Personal, Social and Emotional
• Communication, Language and Literacy
• Mathematical Development
• Knowledge and Understanding of the World
• Physical Development
• Creative Development

Will the goals put pressure on your child?
No.  Most of the time children feel they are just playing and having fun.  Sometimes they’ll choose what they want to do.   Sometimes they’ll take part in an activity that helps them learn how to concentrate or develop a skill such as cutting with scissors or gluing card.  This is why it is important to acknowledge your children’s work (drawings, paintings, stickings etc).

Will children be tested at the end of the foundation stage?
No and there’s no cause for concern if your child moves forward faster in some areas than others.  Children learn at their own individual pace.  Sometimes you will find that they take sideways steps and go on to develop a skill further before moving on to the next one.  This is nothing to worry about, go with the direction your child is heading.

What about when my child starts reception class?
When your child starts reception class, their teacher will carry out a baseline assessment, to find out about your child’s learning needs.  It’s not a formal test and is often completed by doing some simple regular classroom activities, such as looking at books with them.

What can you do to help your child?
You’re probably helping already without even knowing it.  Find out what they have done at nursery, find out what they like and don’t like doing.  Encourage them to ask questions, listen to others and to try new skills, offering support and encouragement and praise.  Even if your child fails at something it is a learning skill, encourage your child to accept the failure and to try again.
Reading your child stories and helping them to learn nursery rhymes is particularly helpful.  What you give your child now will be the foundations that set them on the way to growing into a full, productive and positive person.

The Aims for the Foundation Stage
The curriculum for the foundation stage should underpin all future learning by supporting, fostering, promoting and developing children’s:

• Personal, social and emotional well-being
• Positive attitudes and dispositions towards their learning
• Social skills
• Attention skills and persistence
• Language and communication
• Reading and writing
• Mathematics
• Knowledge and understanding of the world
• Physical development
• Creative development

Quality in early years practice should include:

• Building on children’s existing experiences and interests
• Planning based on observation and assessment
• Provision of a wide range of activities
• Adult input that helps to progress children’s learning and development
• Using adult’s own subject learning
• Working in partnership with parents