​At Lyndhurst Nursery our curriculum is worked alongside the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) 2021 Statutory Framework.

This includes the 4 overarching principles of:-

Unique Child  - Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

Positive Relationships  -  Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

Enabling Environments – Children learn and develop well in enabling environment with teaching and support from adults who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning overtime. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parent /carers.

Learning and development  -  Children develop and learn at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

Characteristics of effective learning:-

Playing and exploring (engagement) Finding out and exploring – Playing with what they know – Being willing to have a go.

Active Learning – (Motivation) Being involved and concentrating – Keep trying – Enjoying achieving what they set out to do.

Creative and Critical Thinking – (Thinking) Having their own ideas – Making Links – Working with others.

The 7 areas of Learning and Development:-

There are 7 areas of learning and Development that shape our early years curriculum. All areas of learning are inter-connected and also inter-connected with the Characteristics of effective learning and the 4  principles.

Prime Areas – Communication and Language – Physical Development – Personal, Social and Emotional Development

These Prime areas are particularly important for our younger children, building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving. Along with these there are 4 Specific areas, through which the Prime areas are strengthened and applied.

Specific Areas – Literacy – Mathematics – Understanding the World – Expressive Arts and Design.

At Lyndhurst Nursery our INTENT and aims are to:-

• Offer a high-quality care and early education setting, by providing all children with a safe, secure, welcoming, warm, bright, clean and happy nurturing environment for children to play, learn and grow at their own pace. 
• Help and encourage every child to each their full potential, where their safety, welfare and happiness is paramount.
• Provide a safe, clean, stimulating, age and stage appropriate open-ended resources and activities, throughout the indoor and outdoor environment.
• Actively promote British Values which encourages and praises positive, caring and polite behaviour by everyone. As we believe children flourish best when they know how they are expected to behave. 
• Provide first hand experiences to enable children to learn through their play, across a broad balanced differentiated curriculum that gives opportunity for all children to succeed at their own level.
• Promote independent and active learning by encouraging children to make their own decisions and begin to solve their own problems.
• Provide activities and key experiences, which are both adult led and child, initiated.
• Provide challenging experiences and set high expectations for learning.
• Encourage the development of concepts by providing opportunities for children to make links in their learning in all 7 areas of learning.
• Foster a willingness to have a go, make mistakes and try things out without fear of failure.
• Develop social skills and provide opportunities for children to co-operate with others and learn from each other in a variety of situations.
• Identify and respond to each child’s individual unique needs.
• Celebrate cultural and ethnic diversity and ensure equal access to all areas of learning for all children.
• Allow opportunities for our younger children to hear language through talk and songs throughout the day.
• Acknowledge parents/carers as children’s first and most enduring educators. From the earliest stages when a child first enters Nursery we aim to foster effective working relationships with all parents/carers.:

 
IMPLEMENTATIONS of our Intent at Lyndhurst Nursery

At Lyndhurst Nursery we implement our intents by:-

• Children learning through play, therefore, this is experienced both indoors and outdoors.
• Through their play children are encouraged to explore the environments and express ideas, emotions and feelings and socialize with their peers in order to develop at their own pace in all the 7 areas of learning.
• Through play children practice skills that prepare them for their next stage of development, working towards the Early Learning Goals in Reception. Cultural capital is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare for their future success. We give every child the experiences necessary to ensure they have the best start to their early education.
• Providing experiences for children to grow by playing and exploring which enables them to develop their curiosity, to represent experiences and allows them to risk take in a supervised and safe environment.
• Given children experiences that encourage them to be Active Learners by being involved in all experiences offered to them, developing their concentration, persistence and sense of achievement.
• By being involved this allows the child to grow into a creative and critical thinker, allowing them to have their own ideas, make links and connections in their experiences, whilst working with others and review what they are doing.
• Encouraging all children to be independent in all areas including self-care, giving them guidance, encouragement and support as needed. .
• Adults displaying positive attitudes towards children promoting high self- esteem.
• Staff responding to every child’s individual needs; whilst children have some common needs, each child is unique with needs that may be vital to their interests, development, motivation, confidence etc. Practitioners plan for each child’s individual care and learning requirements, including the additional or different provision required to meet particular individual needs.
• Staff building on children’s previous experiences; effective teaching and learning acknowledges what children already know and understand. Children are assessed on their base line after about 6 weeks of starting the setting and this is then built upon.
• Staff supporting and developing children’s thinking and learning; the learning environment and the teaching opportunities within it stimulate and challenge children’s thinking. A wide range of teaching strategies are used based on children’s learning needs.
• Staff providing a lot of opportunities to develop language by the child interacting, communicating and expressing ideas with peers and adults. A lot of singing and rhyming opportunities are carried out throughout the day by staff, especially with the younger children.
• Staff intervening when appropriate and engaging in play with children.

To do this the adult needs to: –

• Observe and discover what interests individual children -  Note how children perceive and solve problems -  Take cues from children. -  Work with them - Support, encourage and extend children’s ideas and experiences. - Identify play in all areas of learning
• Children having opportunities to initiate activities that will promote learning and enable them to learn from each other.
• Making resources available for all children regardless of gender, ethnic, SEND or social background.
• Good quality equipment is selected so that it is appealing and robust. Resources are carefully selected so that they are appropriate to the developmental needs of the children, each area of learning and also to support and enhance the focus of interest. Resources are organised and stored to enable children’s free choice.
• Children having the opportunity to explore using all their senses. Young children are active learners and need to move to learn as well as learn to move. Children build concepts and ideas from their experiences and a wide range of opportunities are provided to stimulate their learning.
• Children having time to explore ideas and interests in depth. The process of learning is vital for all young children. Practitioners enable children to return to and extend their focus of interest and repeat experiences as much as is needed.
• Children having the opportunity to learn in different ways and at different rates. Practitioners recognise that children learn the same thing in different ways and that progression in learning can happen at different times and rates. Children indicate their involvement in different ways e.g. facial expression, verbally or through body language, and practitioners use their knowledge of the child to support this process. 
• Children participating in creative and imaginative play activities that promote the development and use of language. 
• Staff listening and responding to children to encourage them to learn about conversation starting with paying attention to the signals small children give.
• Staff playing alongside children, supporting children’s play and introducing vocabulary when relevant and appropriate.
• Staff responding appropriately to the needs of children with English as an additional language (EAL) and those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
• Staff Support children’s learning during planned play activities and by extending and supporting children’s spontaneous play.

 
The IMPACT of the implementations of the Curriculum are monitored by:-

• Staff having good Child Development knowledge and training provided as needed in these areas to build up and improve upon their skills. Using their knowledge and training, staff are able to gain a good understanding of each of their child’s base line starting points, unique holistic needs, development and next steps of learning.
• Each child’s Key Person is responsible for the compilation of that child’s observations, Assessment and planning. Observations takes the form of a long narrative observation once per half term and linked into as many learning areas as possible. Wow factor anecdotal observations and photos/videos are uploaded as they happen and photos are uploaded onto their individual Learning Journal.  The Nursery uses an online Learning Journal system, allowing staff and parents to access the information from any computer via a personal, password-protected login.  Staff access allows input of new observations and photos or amendment of existing observations and photos.  Parent access allows input of new observations and photos or the addition of comments on existing observations and photos. Observations inputted into the system are monitored by a senior member of staff.
• Staff Observe/assess the current stage of development though the use of EExat in order to plan the next step/steps.  Assessing and recording children’s progress and sharing knowledge gained with other staff members at staff meetings, parents/carers and outside professionals where appropriate.
• Staff use a daily reflective sheet to reflect on the days activities and to forward plan the next day, based on children’s interests and next steps of learning.
• Management and staff regularly review the curriculum to ensure it is still meeting the needs of everyone in the setting, ensuring that what we have intended to do is implemented and the curriculum is having a positive impact on all of our children.