The curriculum of our pre-school children consists of six areas of learning required by Ofsted, the government inspecting body. These areas are -
- Personal and Social Development
- Language and Literacy
- Mathematics
- Knowledge and Understanding of the World
- Creative Development
- Physical Development
We give priority to personal and social, language and literacy and mathematical development as required by Ofsted.
We aim to –
- Encourage taking turns and sharing
- Encourage children to relate and be sensitive to other cultures and beliefs
- Encourage confidence and self respect
- Encourage concentration and perseverance
- Encourage children to take initiative
- Encourage personal independence e.g. washing hands, putting on a coat
- Encourage children to behave appropriately and to know the difference between right and wrong
- Encourage children to respond to their emotions
This programme is divided into listening, talking, writing, phonics and reading. We aim to encourage children to -
- Listen to stories, songs, music, rhymes and poems
- Listen to instructions
- Listen to adults and other children
- Answer questions after listening to a story
- Talk to other children and adults
- Talk about their thoughts and their experiences
- Make up stories
- Enjoy imaginative play
- Act out stories read to them
- Work with language cards
We encourage the children to express themselves by developing early writing. We also encourage children with letter formations and writing patterns as well as using our hand gym.
Phonics -
We teach the children the sounds the letters make through the phonics programme.
To encourage reading we concentrate on a variety of pre-reading activities, which include -
- Lotto games
- Matching pictures and words
- Sequencing
- Flash cards
- Recognizing names and familiar words
- Sharing story books
- Our reading schemes are spiral starters and 123 and away
To help develop mathematical skills we provide practical activities, which lead to the understanding of -
- One to one correspondence
- Sequencing and matching
- Sorting
- Pattern making
- Estimating
- Comparing and ordering
- Counting
- Recognizing and understanding of numbers
- Writing numbers
- Money, measurement, space, shape and time
To achieve development in this area we provide activities and disscussion time to cover-
- The children’s families
- Their environment
- Past and present events in children’s lives
- Studying living things
- Studying natural and man made objects
- Studying patterns and change, similarities and differences
- Observation
- Understanding why things happen and how they work
- Construction using a variety of materials
- Understanding of technology using the computer
In order to develop children’s gross movements and their fine manipulative skills, we provide a range of activities –
- Movement to music
- Balancing and climbing
- Running, jumping, hopping and skipping
- Throwing, catching, kicking and bouncing using balls and bean bags
- Riding bicycles
- Construction using soft malleable materials and toys
- Cutting, sticking and threading
- Buttons, laces and zips
In order to develop children’s creativity we give them many opportunities to -
- Listen to sounds and a variety of musical instruments
- Make and explore music using musical instruments and percussion
- Explore music through dance and movement
- Use their imagination in role play, dressing up and imaginative play
- Investigate colour, textures, shapes and fabrics
- Explore printing, drawing and modelling
