Our Curriculum

Tiny Dreams nursery follows the British national curriculum Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)  that sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5 years old.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years’ providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

The EYFS requirements include:

  • The Learning and Development Requirements which shape the activities and experiences that childcare providers offer children.
  • The Assessment Requirements which detail how childcare providers monitor and plan for children’s progress.
  • The Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements which ensure children are kept safe and have their welfare promoted.

c1Learning and Development Requirements

The Learning and Development Requirements include three prime areas (which are particularly crucial for children’s learning and development):

  • Communication and language
  • Physical development
  • Personal, social and emotional development

Four specific areas of learning:

  • Mathematics
  • Literacy
  • Understanding the world
  • Expressive arts and design

The areas are connected, with learning and development in each area contributing towards that of the others.

c2Learning & Development Programs involves activities and experiences for children as follows:

  • Communication and language development 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.
  • Physical development involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their coordination, control, and movement. Children must also learn to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.
  • Personal, social and 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 behavior in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities.
  • 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 and dance.

Our Structure

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Framework (the EYFS)

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The Nursery planned Program:

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The Nursery Ideas: Development Matters Guidelines for EYFS

Children are born ready, able and eager to learn. They actively reach out to interact with other people, and in the world around them.
Development is not an automatic process, however. It depends on each unique child having opportunities to interact in positive relationships and enabling environments.
The four themes of the EYFS underpin all the guidance. c6

The NURSERY will use this guidance to support each child’s learning and development by closely matching what to provide to a child’s current needs.

On-going developmental assessment is at the heart of effective early years practice.
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Nursery approach:

  • Observe children as they act and interact in their play, everyday activities and planned activities, and learn from parents about what the child does at home (observation).
  • Consider the examples of development in the columns headed ‘Unique Child: observing what children can do’ to help identify where the child may be in their own developmental pathway (assessment).
  • Consider ways to support the child to strengthen and deepen their current learning and development, reflecting on guidance in columns headed ‘Positive Relationships’ and ‘Enabling Environments’ (planning). These columns contain some examples of what we might do to support learning. The Nursery will develop many other approaches in response to the children with whom they work.
  • Where appropriate, use the development statements to identify possible areas in which to challenge and extend the child’s current learning and development (planning). This way of teaching is particularly appropriate to support learning in early year’s settings.

Summative assessment

The Nursery team will review children’s progress and share a summary with parents at two points:

  • in the prime areas between the ages of 24 and 36 months
  • at the end of the EYFS in the EYFS Profile.

c8Development Matters is important tools in the Nursery as a guide to making best-fit judgments about whether a child is showing typical development for their age or may be at risk of delay or is ahead for their age. Summative assessment supports information sharing with parents, colleagues and other settings.

The Characteristics of Effective Learning and the prime and specific Areas of Learning and Development are all interconnected.

  • The ways in which the child engages with other people and their environment – playing and exploring, active learning, and creating and thinking critically – underpin learning and development across all areas and support the child to remain an effective and motivated learner.
  • The prime areas begin to develop quickly in response to relationships and experiences, and run through and support learning in all other areas. The prime areas continue to be fundamental throughout the EYFS.
  • The specific areas include essential skills and knowledge. They grow out of the prime areas, and provide important contexts for learning.

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