Curriculum Statement
Intent
At Parsons Green Nursery our focus is on creating a unique learning environment, in which each child can flourish and reach their full potential, we place value on the benefits of a nursery education in its own right, not just in preparation for school and aim to ensure each child develops a love of learning during their time with us. We take a modern, creative approach to Early Years education while still upholding traditional British values of good manners, kindness and respect for others. Our philosophy takes inspiration from the best aspects of The Curiosity Approach, Waldorf, Montessori and Reggio Emilia pedagogies and focuses on emotional security, encouraging developing autonomy, self confidence and interpersonal relationships as a basis for all other learning.
We believe that constructive interactions between adults and children form the cornerstone of learning in the early years, our approach mirrors this and as a nursery we focus heavily on training staff to identify teachable moments.
Parson’s Green Nursery challenges the deterministic view that some children are born more or less able and instead focuses on nurturing and developing the individual talents inherent in each child. We believe it is this approach that fosters self-belief in every child allowing them to develop into self-confident and competent young people. We reject the traditional notion of success, that getting something right is more important than attempting something new, and so encourage and reward children’s willingness to try new things, to question their knowledge and abilities and more importantly to feel pride in their attempts and develop an ability to learn from their failures. This approach allows children to understand and recognize their true potential, develop an analytical mind and build the confidence needed in order to be able to make their own decisions and judgements.
As a totally independent family owned and run nursery school with only two sites we pride ourselves on our personal child focused approach to early years education, specifically meeting the needs of Children and Families in Parsons Green.
Implementation
We provide children with a broad and exciting nursery curriculum that encourages curiosity and experimentation by exposing children to a wide range of experiences. We focus on seizing learning opportunities that arise as a result of children’s needs and interests during constructive free play sessions. We have a strong focus on messy and sensory play and emphasise the importance of process over product to all families and staff, this allows children to develop skills and confidence in their own abilities while exploring continuous provision without placing undue pressure on ‘end product’
We encourage the development of strong trusting relationships with children’s key workers so make sure they feel secure within the nursery environment. Key workers are supported in developing a strong knowledge of child development and an understanding of their key children’s individual stage of development and next steps for learning and skilfully use this knowledge to identify teachable moments while children explore enabling environments. The nursery forms strong relationships with parents, working collaboratively with them to create children’s base line assessment and to assess and log child development and progress on our app (famly). Parents are kept fully informed of their child’s progress and interests while at nursery through the famly app, on handovers and at regular parents evenings.
We follow the EYFS Curriculum and monitor children’s progress in all seven areas of learning and development using the birth to five matters guidance. Before leaving for school many of our children have achieved the ELG and we continue to ensure these children make good progress in Literacy and maths. We use reception guidance from the White Rose Maths Program and a variety of different phonics programs including, Jolly Phonics. Collins Big Cats, Oxford reading tree and Rocket Phonics.
Resources: We focus on providing children with wide range of natural resources, we minimise use of plastic resources and focus on providing open ended learning opportunities for children.
A Broad range of Rich Experiences for Children: We encourage regular outings in the local area and arrange many visits from members or our local and extended community these include.
- Visit from the Fire Brigade,
- Visit from Local Dentist, doctor, Hygienist.
- Visit from the Guide Dogs Charity
- A Chick hatching program in the Spring.
- A visit from a conservationist and his animals.
- Visits from children’s authors.
- Regular Visits from Cat and Hutch interactive Story Tellers.
We have a team of Extra Curricular Teachers that bring their specialist knowledge to the nursery these include.
- A Ballet teacher.
- Football Coaches
- A French Teacher (who carried out an immersive program with the children).
- A Specialist Music Teacher who brings and plays a variety of instruments.
Children are able to participate in these short specialist sessions if they wish to do so.
Impact
Children at all levels are stimulated and keen to learn, they leave nursery, school ready and with a hunger for learning and confidence in themselves and their abilities. They see the wonder and awe in the world around them and develop their own interests and ways of learning while at nursery, we encourage children to develop the characteristics of effective learning and support all child to ask questions, explore the the world around them and develop critical thinking skills which set them in good stead for challenges that lie ahead at school/
Children form meaningful and lasting relationships with other children and their teachers while at nursery this supports their ability to self-regulate and communicate their needs and ideas both to adults and peers.
Our curriculum fosters a respect for other people from all walks of life, animals and the environment. We have strong relationships with all local schools and some further afield, we aim to support parents in the school application process helping them to choose a school that will be the best fit for each individual child.
Last Updated April 2022