Curriculum

The curriculum at The Orchard Day Nursery is centred around birth to 3 matters and the Pre-School foundation stage.

Our Pre-School Journey

Welcome to pre-school.

Within this section you will find oodles of information to ensure you have all the details on the next footsteps your child will take through their Pre-school journey.

The Foundation Stage

The foundation stage is the curriculum offered for all children from the age of three until the end of their first year at school. It is important that this is a shared curriculum between nursery and home as your involvement and ideas will be requested regularly.

Within our Pre-school we aim to offer the highest quality of care and education through planned activities, offering experiences and free choices for the children to develop their learning whilst strolling through the footsteps (stepping stones) of our statutory framework, (QCA manual).

Learning Areas

There are six learning areas, which all individually have footsteps set out to guide the practitioner to start a secure foundation for continuous learning. Below is a brief description of each area

Personal, Social and emotional development.

Children will be helped to develop a positive attitude and sense of well being. This includes making relationships with others, learning to be self confident, taking an interest in things, knowing what their own needs are, telling the difference between right from wrong and being independent.

Communication, language and literacy

This includes opportunities to speak, listen and communicate in different situations and for different purposes. There will be opportunities to talk with other children and adults, to share and enjoy a range of books, rhymes, music, poetry and stories. Children will be encouraged to develop writing and reading skills through lots of practical experiences.

Physical development

This area of learning will help to develop children’s skills of co-ordination, control, manipulation and movement. Children will gain confidence in what they can do, to feel the positive benefits of being healthy and active.

Creative Development

Creativity is fundamental to successful learning. This area of learning includes art, music, dance, role-play and imaginative play. Children will be encouraged to respond in their individual ways and express their own ideas, feelings and relationships through a wide range of experiences.

Mathematical development.

Children will develop an understanding of maths through stories, songs, games and imaginative play. They will become comfortable with numbers and ideas such as ‘heavier than’ or bigger and use language to compare weight, size and shape. They will discover ways of solving practical problems, making connections recognising relationships and patterns.

Knowledge and Understanding of the world.

Children will be encouraged to explore and find out about the world around them and ask questions about it. Children will build with different materials and learn about everyday technology and their lives, their family’s lives and other cultures and beliefs. They will have opportunities to explore indoors and outdoors, observe, make decisions, predict, investigate and find out how things change.

Orchard Day Nursery Pre-School

Our daily routine

8.00am-9.00am – Breakfast
9.00am- 9.15am Circle and calendar time.
Brief explanation of morning’s activities. 9.15 -11.30am- Pre-school fun
11.15am –11.30am Snack
11.45am – Outdoor activities
12.30pm-1.30pm Lunchtime
1.30pm – 1.45pm Brief explanation of afternoon activities.
1.45pm - 4.00pm Pre-school fun
4.00pm- tea time
5.00pm- 6.00pm Outside or story, singing, games and puzzles time.

Our Planning

All learning experiences are offered through play and lots of fun activities, suitable for each individual child’s stage of development.

Creative
(Each of the six learning areas has a sheet like this to be completed by the practitioners)

Creative Personal Knowledge Mathematics Physical Communication
Social & Language
Emotional Understanding &
Of the world Literacy

In each area a footstep (stepping Stone) is selected from the QCA Foundation stage to ensure all aspects of the curriculum is covered within our activities.

Imaginative
& role play

Our Office
Gallery

Early writing.

Each week is evaluated to ensure the activities continue to, or be redeveloped into a good source for developing each child’s learning.

Photographic evidence is taken and placed in the file along with activity examples to build up a portfolio of ideas.

Our Pre-School room

The room is set out into different areas.

Book corner
Imaginative corner
Our office (graphics/art area for free choice)
Activity table
Choice Chest
Draw chest
Computer bench
Music Trolley
Jigsaw and puzzle
Sand, water and malleable table

The children are encouraged to become secure and confident within their environment. The room layout enables the children to choose their own activities to play with whenever they wish.

Alongside the above we set up planned activities, one of which has the practitioner’s main focus for that session. This specific activity is set up to develop a specific learning intention and all the children will be encouraged to join in, but only if they wish.

The curriculum is planned to ensure outdoor activities are used in our planning as much as possible. This does mean that whatever the weather, we will use the garden during every session not just for a hop, skip or jump but for colouring, problem solving, treasure hunts, stories, construction and much, much more.

PLEASE SUPPLY SUITABLE CLOTHES AND FOOTWEAR FOR THE WEATHER.

Our Pre-School Children

Each child within Pre-school is given a peg, draw, book bag and an achievement file. All of the above is labelled with the child’s name and a picture to encourage the child to recognise their own equipment. Each child is also supplied with a writing pen and pencil also labelled with their name.

When taking part in activities whether planned or spontaneous the children are encouraged to develop strong independence skills, whilst at the same time caring for others. The children develop confidence in selecting their own equipment and materials for the task at hand and of course once finished putting it all away for next time.

The pre-school routine is displayed just outside the pre-School door; each day has two specific sessions for the pre-school curriculum. The times are as follows 9.00am – 11.30am and 1.30- 4.00pm. It is essential that your child arrive at the beginning of the session rather than in the middle as this develops a secure routine for each little one. It can also become a little disruptive if the children arrive half way through the session.

Each day starts with a visit to the pegs for the children to put on their indoor shoes and collect their book bags, then off to the book corner for calendar and circle time. This time also includes a chat about the theme and the fun we will embark on through the day. The children will also spend time sharing experiences and items brought in from home.

Throughout you child’s busy and fun time within pre-school the practitioners are carrying out various observations to record each child’s progress. All observations will be shown to yourselves, with a chance for you to comment if you wish. The observations are then used to help the practitioner select the appropriate footsteps for future planning.

Child Journals

Each child has their own journey journal, which is kept within the pre-school room and is there for you to look through at your request. The file will also be used to collect special pieces of your child’s work and photographs of their time with us.

We hope this information has made the pre-school journey a little clearer. I cannot stress how vital your input is, as you are your little ones first and main educator. Nobody knows them better than you so please use this information and the booklet provided to help complete some of the forms. Together we can ensure your child has a fun and educational time here with us.

Thank you

Orchard Day Nursery Team.