BLUE GROUP CURRICULUM
Staff are dedicated to providing the best possible care and rich, stimulating learning experiences for your child, giving them the opportunity to unfold their full potential in a warm and welcoming environment where they feel safe, valued and respected.
We strongly believe that effective education in the early years has the power to transform the lives of children. Your child's needs as a learner are at the heart of our approach. We aim to instil a lasting love for learning in children that will accompany them throughout their lives and make them passionate learners.
We fully recognise the value of play and the important role it has in children’s learning and development in the early years, hence, the incorporation of regular free-play sessions in our daily routine, where staff join in to enhance children’s play and introduce new concepts.
We strongly believe that quality interactions with adults is key to the acquisition of language for young children. We endeavour to provide a language/literacy rich environment for your children and quality exposure to the English language, in order to help them understand and express their thoughts, feelings and desires effectively.
The open-ended programme we pursue is also geared towards helping children develop habits of observation, questioning, critical thinking, problem solving and encourages them to utilise their intellectual and creative abilities.
It aims to equip each child with the social, emotional, and academic skills required in school, ensuring a smooth, stress-free transition.
We largely adhere to the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) a statutory framework used in all early years facilities in England , which enables us to help your child develop and enhance their skills in the seven most crucial areas of learning and development including; Speech, Language and Communication - Physical Development - Personal, Social and Emotional Development – Numeracy - Literacy - Expressive Arts and Design - and Understanding of the World.
We aim to do this through a balance of structured, child initiated, adult led, and child led activities.
Our eclectic curriculum ensures the best outcomes for our young pupils. Concretely, this means that we pick the most effective and promising techniques from different styles and combine them to create a high-quality educational programme which lays a strong foundation for future academic success.
These different styles include…
Montessori
STEM based
Reggio Emilia
Waldorf
Bank Street
Group Objectives In Line with the 7 Areas of Learning and Development (EYFS)
Personal, Social, Emotional Development
Self confidence, self efficacy , self awareness
Independence, basic safety (risk assessment) security and a readiness to learn from new experiences
Building relationships
Meaningful interactions with peers and adults
Sharing, turn taking
Behaviour management, conflict resolution skills
Building emotional intelligence
Building resilience
Teamwork and co-operative play
Speech, Language, Communication
Listening and concentration skills (auditory processing)
Attention
Understanding, retelling stories, recalling information, and following instructions
Speaking and conversational skills (observing nuances of polite conversation)
Physical Development
Awareness of how to be healthy
Ability to use a range of equipment
Spatial awareness
Balancing skills
Practical skills (dressing , toileting, personal hygiene)
Gross and fine motor skills
Risk assessing
Literacy
Letter and sound recognition
Name identification
Writing own Name
Blending/segmenting words
Syllabification of words
Rhyme
Reading CVC blends
Pencil control / controlled mark making
Mathematics
Number ordering and Identification 1-20 (and beyond)
Counting by rote, counting on and backwards and 1-1 correspondence
Shape identification and recognition (2D and some 3D shapes) Continuing and Extending Patterns
Sorting, categorising and quantifying objects/groups of objects according to various attributes
Performing simple addition and subtraction
Fractions
Measurement
Opposites
Size
Graphing
Sequencing
Understanding of the World
Science (observation, explorative and investigative skills)
History (awareness of changes over time and knowledge of past times/ civilisations)
Geography (understanding of earth)
I.T. (understanding of digital media and technology)
Expressive Arts and Design
Exploring , colours, textures , shapes and other media
Colour wheel - mixing colours – primary/secondary
Famous artists and different art techniques
Music, music making, singing
Imagination and creativity
During the transitional months, July to September, our focus is on preparing children who are leaving for the school transition and settling newcomers into the group.
Our standard programme begins in October, once children have settled in and have been acclimatised to the group and the daily routine.
Our weekly programme from October is as follows…
Monday - Topic related activities
Tuesday – Mathematics /Numeracy Day -
Wednesday – Science Day
Thursday –Alphabet Day – utilising the Jolly Phonics programme
Friday Toy Day
The gym is at our disposal from Monday to Thrsday