The Early Years Foundation Stage 3 years to 5 years
EARLY LEARNING GOALS (Six areas of learning):
PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL
Promotion of these skills is considered of great importance throughout the nursery. Successful personal, social and emotional development is critical for young children in all aspects of their lives and gives them the best chance for success in all other areas of learning.
Children's confidence is promoted through a familiar routine and lots of praise, which is often rewarded with a 'special star'. We also have a behaviour frog within the room, who when the children have all worked together to show care and concern for each other and generally worked well as a team moves up the lily pads. When he reaches the log, the children have a special treat of their choice.
Children are involved in small group and one-to-one work, Personal development is promoted by the encouragement of children to become independent and take care of themselves and our monitor system, where children are given the responsibility for helping others.
We aim to promote these skills in our pre-school by giving children opportunities to form positive relationships, that supports mutual respect, understanding and that celebrates and acknowledges differences. We believe that gaining knowledge and understanding of their own culture and community helps children develop a sense of belonging and a strong positive self-image.
Role-play is used to provide an effective environment where children can explore their own culture and appreciate the similarities and differences in those of others. Being with the same adults and children within a setting gives the children time and opportunity to develop relationships that promote social competence.
By sharing emotions during activities and experiences, the children develop sensitivity to the needs of others and thus realise the importance of friendships. It is also very important that the children learn to have a positive disposition that grows from experience that they can enjoy and control. This motivates children to learn and carry on learning.
WELL-BEING AND INVOLVEMENT
Within the Pre School at Nursery bays staff are undertaking training on the work of Professor Ferre Laevers of the Experimental Education project, University of Leuven, Belgium and his approach to children's well-being and involvement. We will be gradually implementing this approach, which mirrors our Nursery bays philosophy and compliments our planning system for the Foundation Stage curriculum.
What is well being?
High levels of well-being can be described as feeling at ease with yourself, being content and secure. When children feel this way they are more open to making other relationships and discovering their environment.
Children's well-being can be lower when settling in or when a new sibling is born. These are 'blips' and with understanding adults, children come through
them.
What is involvement?
High levels of involvement can be described as being so involved in what they are doing that they are oblivious to distractions. When this is happening you can be sure that deep levels of learning are taking place. To encourage high levels we arrange areas and equipment in attractive ways, and put out activities that the children ask for. We will also be adding real and natural objects for the children to experience and play with.
Screening
Three times a year we will screen the children on their levels of well-being and involvement, to discover how we can best meet the needs of every individual child and ensure that the environment we provide fosters high levels. This involves us as key workers discussing each child and planning interventions for those with lower scores. For most children this means knowing and understanding what is happening in their lives or finding out what interests them.
Our local school Hollywell is also implementing this approach This will allow their staff to continue best meeting the children's individual needs and encourage high levels of well-being and involvement within them.
There is a solid belief that happy, emotionally secure children who have opportunities to undertake interesting activities that engage them will learn and develop well.
COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE & LITERACY
Communication, language and literacy depends on learning experiences and becoming competent in a number of key skills, together with having the confidence, opportunity, encouragement, support and disposition to use them.
We practice the alphabet sounds together with name and word recognition where children progress to their early reading skills. We support the development of speaking and listening through books, story time, and recall and by use of the listening centre. Children are encouraged to use books independently. Fun activity sheets support our letter of the week where children bring in objects to add to our letter table. Independent mark making or pretend writing is supported with the aid of our writing table, register line and name cards where all efforts are valued and displayed. Writing materials/tools are provided in a variety of play situations that match their interest and stimulate dialogue and thinking.
At nursery days we encourage the children to communicate. We realise that the children will become confident speakers if talk is valued; for some children this will involve learning to communicate through singing. Confidence and competence go hand in hand. The children are supported and will move from simple statements to asking questions, commenting on differences and making comparisons. The children learn about the different purposes of writing by our labels and signs. They are taught that reading in English is from left to right and top to bottom.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Physical development in the foundation stage is about improving skills of co-ordination, control, manipulation and movement. Physical development has two other very important aspects it helps children gain confidence in what they can do and enables them to feel the positive benefits of being healthy and active.
Our outdoor area offers much freedom to run, jump, climb and use hoops, bean bags, balls, balancing beam, stilts and a parachute. We include music, movement and dance into the programme. The children get the opportunity to experience 'Write Dance' a great way to use large physical movements in time with the music. We practice the movements first and then use them to make marks on the paper.
The children have opportunities to glue, cut, thread, mould and roll with clay, playdough and different cooking activities. Hand and eye co-ordination is further promoted through a use of various toys and technology equipment.
Effective physical development helps children develop a positive sense of well being. Children will develop physical skills if they have sufficient time to persist and learn from their mistakes. Confidence and self-esteem grow when children are successful.
Children will improve their ability to take care of themselves e.g. dressing and going to the bathroom, if they are encouraged to be responsible for meeting their own needs.
PROBLEM SOLVING, REASONING AND NUMERACY
This area of learning includes counting, sorting, matching, and seeking patterns, making connections, recognising relationships and working with numbers, shapes, space and measures. Mathematical understanding is developed through stories, songs, games and imaginative play, so that children enjoy using and experimenting with numbers including numbers larger than 10.
With the aid of the maths shelves, which display a variety of resources, the children have plenty of practical experiences to support more formal work. Almost every activity supports maths development through problem solving, singing the days of the week & months of the year, sort and matching socks, identifying and the use of numbers during table top games. The children take part in counting rhymes, stories and number rhymes.
We have a register line on the wall featuring numbers 1-24 for the children to use as a counting aid and we do number problem activities using number cards.
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD
In this area of learning children are developing the crucial knowledge and understanding that helps them make sense of the world. This forms the foundation for later learning in science, design and technology, history, geography and information and communication technology. Children will learn to investigate, be curious, be enthusiastic, experiment, explore, solve problems, ask questions, use reference skills and adopt appropriate language. Children need to know how to use tools and equipment correctly and safely. These skills will be carefully demonstrated. Children will receive positive encouragement to try out new ideas; sometimes their ideas may not work, but if we interpret such attempts as failure instead of building on them, the children may be discouraged from experimenting and taking risks.
Awareness of the wider world is developed through regular walks, visits and visitors. We have a selection of programmable toys, and our computer supports technology.
During news time children are encouraged to share information about their homes and families. There are opportunities to observe change through planting seeds and observe growth of living things. A selection of resources to join and build for a variety of purposes and practice joining and cutting skills. The children learn a sense of time and place by taking home 'Tedwood' the bear at weekends. The children, along with their parents can fill in a scrapbook to show what they did when 'Tedwood' came to stay. Tedwood is retiring this summer, and is being replaced by Millie the Mouse. This is because he is worn out from all his travels! Hw has been to Dubia, Florida, Spain, Greece to mention a few! A very well traveled bear, who is retiring to the book area along with his scrap books.
CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
Creativity is fundamental to successful learning. Being creative enables children to make connections between one area of learning and another and so extend their understanding. This area of learning includes art, music, dance, role-play and imaginative play.
Children will learn to respond, explore, express, communicate their ideas and use their imagination when they have sufficient time to explore and research their ideas, imitate what they see and experiment with ideas and bring their own ideas to the process. The creative process is not always instant, so children need support in taking the time necessary to work their ideas and finish their work. Children need to feel safe enough to take risks, make mistakes and be adventurous in their creative pursuits. If children are to have the confidence to try innovative ideas, they must be given time to work at their own pace. Creative development requires children to express with all of their senses.
Our messy area provides a variety of creative experiences such as paint, playdough, collage and modelling. The children handle a variety of textures and materials to try out different techniques. All children's efforts are valued and they become very proud of their work.
We explore sound by using musical instruments in both free and directed activities.
Our role play area supports imaginative play which frequently transforms into a beach café, hairdressers, dentists, opticians, a post office and other themes.
Planning and Assessment
To help us plan and assess your child we use the 'Stepping Stones', which can be found in the guidance folder or operational plan.
'Stepping Stones' show the knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes that children need to learn during the foundation stage in order to achieve the early learning goals. They are not age-related, although it is likely that three year old children will be better described by earlier stepping stones, shown in yellow band, progressing through those in the blue band, with later stepping stones in the green band normally describing older children in the foundation stage. The early learning goals form the stepping stones.