Curriculum
Within the nursery we follow the guidance of the ‘Pre-Birth to Three – Positive Outcomes for Scotland’s Children and Families’ to guide us in ensuring the best practice for children under 3 years old.
Within this guidance there are four Key principles for best starts and positive outcomes:
➢ Considering children’s views
➢ Children’s choice
➢ Sense of belonging – name, bag, own peg etc
➢ Policies and procedures to ensure the best for all children
➢ Care standards and Pre-birth to Three guidance to ensure high quality care and practice
➢ Treating all children and families equally and with respect
➢ Child protection guidance
- High quality relationship
- Holistic approach
- Key worker system
- Secure and familiar environment
- Promoting positive relationships
- Effective transitions
- Welcoming, consistent and loving care from staff
- Secure relationship with adults
- Changes to staff are planned and transitions are smooth and effective
- Children are supported through times of change
- Daily Diary
- Learning profile
- Knowing the child well and responding to their needs
- Observations of children at play
- Effective relationships with parents and families – sharing information
- Smooth transitions to nursery
- Wonderful me
- Staff express a genuine interest in children and families
- Valuing diversity in language, ethnic background, faith and family circumstances
- Being sensitive to and understanding differences
- Ensuring fairness, equality and opportunity
- Understanding the UN convention on the Rights of the Child
The curriculum is implemented within the baby room and 2 to 3 rooms; however, these principles are imbedded across the centre
Curriculum Design
Curriculum for Excellence
Experiences and outcomes set out expectations for learning and development in:
➢ Literacy and English
➢ Numeracy and Maths
➢ Health and Well Being
➢ Expressive Arts
➢ Religious and Moral Education
➢ Sciences
➢ Social Studies
➢ Technologies
The three core curricular areas are Literacy and English, Numeracy and Maths and Health and Well Being. Children have opportunities to learn about these areas across the curriculum from baking activities to outdoor play.
How We Promote Learning
Throughout the nursery we create a rich learning environment where children can learn about Literacy and English many of these experiences will be happening at home too, such as:
- Finding their snack card
- Environment print – signs, street names, labels, shop signs, bus stop etc
- Pretend writing helps a child understand that writing is a way of communicating
- Print around the nursery – food packets in the house etc
- Books, books everywhere – in all areas of the nursery
- Fiction and factual books
- Comics, magazines
- Writing materials in all areas of the nursery
- Staff scribing stories for the children
- Songs and rhymes
- Circle time
- Listening and talking
- Transcripts of children’s talk
- Using speech bubbles and comments on photos displayed
- Physical activity and sport within and out with the centre
- Circle games and experiences to promote positive behaviour
- Golden rules displayed around the nursery
- Developing good relationships with others
- Having the choice of a healthy snack every day
- Cooking and learning about healthy foods
- Learning how to be healthy and the importance of good oral health – smile nursery programme
- Visiting parks and forests around the local area
- Having the opportunity to take risks and learn how to be safe
- Being part of the nursery and feeling a sense of belonging
- Number songs and rhymes
- Block play – sorting, counting and grouping
- Counting – how many plates do we need, chairs etc
- Numbers in the environment – door numbers, bus numbers etc
- Using props for the children to count in songs and games eg 5 little ducks
- Cooking and baking – weighing, measuring, counting etc
- Outings – times, maps, planning – we need to get the bus at 10.00 o’clock etc
- Role play – the shoe shop – sizes, number for shoe size, measuring feet etc
- Nursery routines – tidy up time etc
The list is endless
The experiences and outcomes in each curricular area building in relevant attributes and capabilities which support the development of the four capacities.
To enable children to become:-
Successful Learners, Confident Individuals, Responsible Citizens and Effective Contributors.
Further information about these documents can be found at:
http//www.educationalscotland.gov.uk.parentzone.index.aspandSQA
How We Plan Children’s Learning
We help children to learn by finding out what they are interested in and planning learning experiences to support their learning and development. We do this through:-
➢ Listening and interacting with the children during their play
➢ By showing an interest and pleasure in their achievements
➢ Questioning the children and helping them to think for themselves
➢ Establishing partnerships with our parents/carers
Staffs observe children to find out what they are interested in. This information is used to decide learning topics such as transport, winter and road safety.
The staffs decide what we expect children to learn each term.
Participation Strategy
We feel it is important to complement the learning process that goes on within the home, therefore we look forward to parents/carers sharing their hidden talents such as sewing, music and joinery etc.
Our goal is to create a welcoming, friendly and inviting environment where children, their parents/carers and staff are happy.
We value parents/carers as the child’s first educator and we encourage you to play a full and active role in your child’s education whist at Apple Tree.
Through active participation, we want parents/carers to have:-
➢ The opportunity to have an input in decision making processes
➢ Opportunities to influence decisions that affect their children
➢ Opportunities to be involved in development and monitoring our service
➢ Opportunities to be actively involved in the development of the nursery to ensure we provide a high quality service.
➢ All parents/carers will be treated with respect in an environment which has an ethos of inclusion.