The Early Years

The Early Years consists of our Nursery and the Reception classes. The Nursery class caters for children who are three years old on or before the 31st August in any given year and the Reception children are four years old on or before the 31st August. These classes have their own curriculum called the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum which was specifically designed to cater for the needs of these young children. Educational research shows that these early years are vitally important in respect to a child's social, intellectual, physical, and emotional development and indicates that the amount of learning that occurs during this period of time is proportionally greater than at any other time in their lives.

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum is divided into 6 components:

• personal, social and emotional development
• communication, language and literacy
• problem solving, reasoning and numeracy
• knowledge and understanding of the world
• physical development
• creative development

Structured play is seen to be an important learning mechanism for young children and our students will have opportunities to participate in role play activities, puppet theatres, use small world toys and construction apparatus.

They will be developing gross motor skills through using the tricycles, swimming, P.E. and using the climbing equipment in the playground. Fine motor skills will be developed through painting, drawing, writing and the use of manipulatives such as beads and craft materials.

Creative experiences will be provided through art activities, musical activities and dance.

One very important aspect of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is the development of young children’s personal, social and emotional skills. The children will encounter daily experiences that will help them to learn how to socialize in a positive way with other children and adults. They will find out about the boundaries of good and bad behaviour and will be encouraged in a positive reward system to make the right choices. Even activities like snack and lunch time are very good ways to see that children understand the right way to eat in a social setting.

We recognise that all children are different and will develop at different rates and this is reflected in our activities and expectations for the children.

The School Day

There are two short breaks and playtimes each day as well as a longer lunch and playtime. A weekly timetable will be sent home so that parents can see when specialist activities like P.E., swimming, library, ICT and music take place.

Being Positive

We want all children entering our school in the Early Years classes to have very positive first experiences of school. Our aim is that all students who have completed the Early Years programme with us will grow and thrive within our safe and secure environment and that they will be fully prepared for their future challenges in Year 1. We hope that their valuable educational experiences will provide the solid foundation that the rest of their learning can be built upon.