Pre-school Curriculum
At Oasis Lordshill Preschool we aim to create a learning environment and build relationships which support, enhance and invite a child’s curiosity, confidence and individual competency to flourish regardless of backgrounds, circumstances or needs. We aim to work collaboratively with parents and carers to encourage independent, enthusiastic learners who thrive and reach their full potential. It is our intent that children who attend begin their lifelong learning journey by developing physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally whilst also embedding a positive attitude to school and a love of learning.
To ensure children make outstanding progress in Oasis Lordshill Preschool, it is our intent to take into consideration their starting points and needs of our children as they begin their learning journey. Every child has access to a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum which prepares them for now and for the future in terms of opportunities and experiences. Following personal interests and individual needs, allows us to plan and provide opportunities throughout our EYFS curriculum to support learning and development and achieve their next steps.
Our EYFS curriculum aims to enable our children to be:
Competent and creative learners; who are curious about the world around them.
Secure and confident; who enjoy coming to school and learning new skills and knowledge building on their existing learning.
Skillful communicators; who connect with others through language and play, ensuring that they play in a vocabulary rich environment.
Implementing our curriculum
At Oasis pre-school we plan activities using the Early Years Foundation Stage guidance which cover children aged 0-5 years and continues through into the school reception year. This is made up of four overriding principles which our early year’s education is based upon:
- Unique Child – Every child is 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 environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and carers.
- Learning and Development – Children develop and learn in different ways. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early year’s provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.
More information can also be found in our Parent Guide to Early Years.
Through our commitment to an exceptional climate for learning and great pedagogy we make focused learning, children’s interests, growth in both self-esteem and social skills the importance of our curriculum. We will provide a curriculum based on planned, purposeful play and the development of physical dexterity, language skills and social awareness, giving children opportunity to make rapid progress before moving into Reception. The curriculum will provide opportunities for these children to learn the skills to read and write, develop skills in maths, find out about the world around them and develop an understanding of art and design.
We encourage all areas of learning and we plan activities for both indoor and outdoor environment. Activities include (but are not limited too) painting, mark making, music and movement, science, role play, cookery, arts and crafts, sand and water play, construction, games, maths, computer and sensory play. Our large outside play space is used daily as much as possible with large physical equipment, sand and water, dens, construction, books and mark making to help develop reading and writing skills as well as growing flowers and vegetables helping to make our curriculum deliberately ambitious and at the heart of our preschools education provision.
They engage in planned, focussed activities as well as self-initiated and free flow activities. The learning experiences are linked to the seven areas of learning and development within the EYFS. These areas are split into three prime areas and four specific areas. The three prime areas are those which the children should develop first and are considered most essential for the healthy development and future learning of our children. These include: Personal, social and emotional development, Communication and language and Physical development. As children then grow and make progress in the prime areas, this will then help them with: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the world and Expressive arts.
7 areas of EYFS learning and development
- Personal, social and emotional development
- Communication and language
- Physical development
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive arts and design
Personal, social and emotional development
Communication and language
Physical development
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design
The characteristics of effective leaning and the prime and the specific areas of learning and development area all interconnected. The ways in which a child engages with other people and their environment – playing & exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically, underpin learning and development across all areas and support the child to remain an effective and motivated learner. The three characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:
Playing and exploring – engagement – children investigate and experience things and ‘have a go’.
Active learning – motivation – children concentrate and keep trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy achievements.
Creating and thinking critically – thinking – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas develop strategies for doing things.
Impact
The experiences will be revisited and demonstrated through being deeply engaged in play. Our children will grow to be confident, competent lifelong learners and good citizens.
We use learning journals across the EYFS and learning records to evidence to the children and their families the successes of the children throughout their time in Early Years.
As a team, we carry out regular internal moderation sessions and also ensure that staff attend external meetings and training to ensure that we feel confident with our judgements and that these judgements are consistent with a range of other settings. Assessment starts with careful observations which are then used to inform planning. Learning and teaching is thus effective when children feel a sense of belonging, curiosity, competence and showing resilience.
By monitoring assessment procedures regularly, we can effectively demonstrate what learning is taking place and how each child is progressing in all seven areas of the EYFS curriculum.