Nursery Curriculum Overview

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Autumn Term 

Communication & Language  

In Nursery we spend lots of time developing children’s communication and language skills. We do this through various listening activities, singing nursery rhymes and other familiar songs and through talking to one another throughout the day.   

We think it is really important to introduce children to new language and vocabulary. We encourage a language rich environment, developing our communication and language skills through play, carpet times and sharing stories together.   

Physical Development  

It is important that we give children the opportunities to develop their physical skills. We give the children lots of time to do this in Nursery. We go outside every day – no matter what the weather is doing! We practise climbing on the climbing frame, jumping off of crates and catching a ball, amongst other things.  

We also encourage the children to become independent in personal care. We encourage the children to put on their own coats and to zip them up. We also encourage them to use the bathroom independently and have lots of discussions around how we keep our bodies healthy.  

Personal, Social, Emotional Development   

We think it is essential that your child feels happy and safe in their environment and therefore able to learn. We pride ourselves in ensuring that every child feels welcome and comfortable in our classroom.   

In Nursery we talk about our emotions and discuss what can make us feel happy, sad, cross etc. We think it’s important to assure children that it is okay to have different emotions, and encourage them to express these emotions in appropriate ways.   

One of the main focusses in Nursery is to develop the children’s social skills. The children are encouraged to play with others and learn how to share and take turns with the toys. We play group games and turn-taking games that encourage this.  

Literacy  

At our school we want every child to have a love of reading, and that begins in Nursery. We have a focus story each week that we read every day to ensure the children become familiar with the story, the characters and the setting.     

We begin our Phonics journey in Nursery, starting with learning some vital pre-reading skills. We do this on the carpet and in provision as we sing, use our voices in different ways and begin to segment and blend sounds.   

We use Dough Disco and Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle to prepare our children for writing. These programmes help to develop children’s movement and muscles that are essential when using a pencil to write. When we are ready we practise writing the letters in our names.    

Maths  

In Nursery we learn and explore what it means to sort objects in different ways, how to count things and we talk about size and colour as we explore our environment and play games on the carpet. When learning to count we focus on the five principles of counting that helps us to develop a deep knowledge of numbers.     

Understanding the World  

We value our time spent outside watching the changes in our environment. Gardening, watching how the trees change and observing the animals in our outdoor area helps us to gain an understanding of the natural world in which we live in.   

We also spend time learning about people that are different to us and learn about different celebrations from around the world.   

Expressive Arts & Design  

In Nursery we seek to develop our expressive skills through exploration and imagination. We encourage children to role play different situations, giving them the freedom to explore their learning through using their imagination.   

We understand the significance of each child having a different view of the world around them. We therefore encourage them to express themselves through different media such as paint, using a variety of materials and using digital media.