Intent
At Golborne & Maxilla we intend that our ambitious and inclusive curriculum is at the heart of everything we do; it is responsive to children’s interests and adapted to support inclusion. To ensure that children leave the setting equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will provide the building blocks for their future learning. To create supportive relationships, a challenging curriculum and a rich learning environment that promote children’s development and enable them to progressively build on what they know and can do. To provide specialist support for children with particular needs so that they have equal access to a challenging curriculum and regardless of their starting points are able to progress and achieve. To ensure a strong focus on children’s communication skills, promoting listening skills, the rapid acquisition and development of language, comprehension and mark making.
Our developing curriculum engages and motivates children’s thinking and learning opportunities and educates the children in the skills and knowledge to be independent learners. We recognise that children start nursery with a wealth of experiences and with this in mind our curriculum is designed to recognise this prior learning and build upon existing knowledge and skills influenced by home and community. Our curriculum is reflected in our curriculum goals.
To provide a secure and inclusive environment with strong links to families and the local community in which all children are valued, feel happy and are able to learn. To manage key transitions effectively so that children coming into the setting, children moving between provisions within the setting and children going on to school feel secure and can consolidate and extend their learning.
To achieve the best possible outcomes for children, we design our curriculum to focus on the development of children’s communication and language skills, personal and social development and emotional wellbeing. The characteristics of effective learning underpins all that we do. Our curriculum has a broad and balanced designed to give all children the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life, given their starting points. This is focused around the Early Years Foundation stage. The curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced towards preparation for primary school.
Impact
Our broad and balanced curriculum design ensures that the needs of individual children including SEN, EAL, disadvantaged and small groups can be met within the environment of high quality first teaching supported by targeted interventions where appropriate. We endeavor for pupils to be reception ready and prepared for their next phase at primary school.
Children are assessed by the whole staff team so that activities and experiences can be planned in response to their individual needs; they become highly motivated learners who are able to persevere even when faced with challenges. Assessments are carried out through many dimensions of Golborne and Maxilla’s pedagogical approach. Assessments through:
Home visits, prior to children’s starting
Baseline assessment
Assessing all children on entry, rigorous baselines and early identification ensures targeted support.
Ongoing observation
Opportunities for observation of target groups of children and individuals. The weekly focus of groups of children allows practitioners to reflect on the progress of all aspects of the individual child against their targets and the ‘characteristics of effective learning’. Children’s meetings now look at children ‘on track’ in line with revised EYFS.
Observations also include end of day evaluations and information gathered weekly through children’s meetings. Evaluations are undertaken at the end of each day to adapt/tweak the weekly planning to meet the needs of children.
Learning board observations enable staff to capture children’s evolving skills and knowledge and enable staff to revisit with children to ensure a deepening understanding and sequential learning opportunities. Staff have a thorough understanding of each child. How they learn, what they need to learn and what they enjoy through the weekly children’s meetings. They have high aspirations for their achievements and understanding; this underpins the rapid progress that is consistently seen, no matter what their starting point. To ensure breadth, depth, balance and adaptations required to the curriculum, our curriculum leaders monitor and analyse the learning progress boards.
Keyperson reviews
Each child will have a termly review with their allocated keyperson and parent. This is an opportunity to discuss children’s progress, priorities and emerging needs. The priorities set are then in focus for weekly planning on a rolling cycle. This enables all staff to review and support children.
Individual education plans
Where necessary children may have an individual learning plan which is written by the SENDco, collaboratively with the child’s key worker and with input from any external agencies which may be involved. We will also signpost families to other agencies such as speech and language therapy, who may be able to provide additional support. We work jointly to develop support plans that focus on specific outcomes for children and strategies to support a child’s learning.
Transition planning
Each child new to Golborne and Maxilla Nursery has a home visit to enable them to feel familiar with the staff on entry to nursery. Parents can also find out ways to support their child.
We hold two welcome days for children and their families and children can enjoy a stay and play session. Bespoke inductions are based on children’s individual needs, an induction parent sessions is held each term prior to entry. When transitioning to primary school, teachers from feeder schools are invited to visit the children in the nursery and transition books are prepared to support children over the holidays. Individual passports are developed outlining individual needs to support their transition. Information from parents and documents from previous settings are used as part of early baseline. Bespoke transition arrangements are made for those children with identified complex needs.
Implementation
Both under 3’s provision and 3-5 provision have access to outdoor play and children are able to access free flow activities both inside and outside. Children are welcomed at the start of a session to their small keygroup located in each curriculum learning space. Children participate in curriculum-based activities reflecting the 7 areas of development both in the morning and afternoon; at the start of each session, including maths and literacy. The nursery is a language rich environment with books accessible to children in every area. Stories are read to children as part of the daily provision. We support reading at home via our ‘Book Loan’. The children participate in a daily singing and nursery rhyme time, developing rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, number skills and enjoyment, amongst many other skills.
Parents are recognised as a key influencing factor to their child’s progress and attainment. We offer a wide range of opportunities for parents to engage within the school and support learning tasks at home.
Golborne and Maxilla is passionate in its desire to give all its children the best start in their education in a stimulating, supportive and challenging environment. Our children are enthusiastic and independent learners who respect and value each other, the community and the wider world in which we live. Everyone in our school community believes that learning is exciting and enjoyable; by developing and nurturing a child’s uniqueness and inquisitive nature we can give them the building blocks they need for a successful future in which to live out their dreams. Our belief that every child is special regardless of where they have come from and deserve nothing less than the best, drives everything that we do. All the opportunities and experiences we provide allow the children to grow and develop and to be proud of who they are and what they can do.
Young children learn through play and we aim to facilitate this in as many different stimulating and fun settings as we can. We provide a balance between ‘focus activities’ involving planned, structured play and child initiated play.
We aim to meet the needs of the widest possible range of children, supporting children with special educational needs, ensuring that our curriculum matches their individual needs and assisting every child to achieve their full potential. At the beginning of each theme, we give children and their families a home learning document so that we can find out more about their prior knowledge and experiences of the topic and what they would like to learn more about. A curriculum map is then produced. Home learning activities are ongoing throughout the year with children having access to our weekly ‘book loan’ and ‘maths games loan’ service. We also foster links between home and school learning with activities around communication and language, ‘song of the week’ and regular workshops for families linked to areas of learning.
The Mind Up curriculum underpins self-regulation, while PSED, ‘Praise You’ and circle time activities further support children in understanding the consequences of actions and the need for individual responsibility, as well as the values of respect and tolerance that underpin a caring, happy community.
Our curriculum emphasises self-esteem, self-awareness, emotional wellbeing and respect for oneself and others as the building blocks of all learning. We provide a range of experiences that allow children to explore the language of feelings and responsibility, reflecting on their differences and similarities. Group discussions underpin the understanding that we can ‘agree to differ’ whilst remaining respectful of each other. Children are taught how to make democratic decisions as a group and abide by them.
Our enriched curriculum includes activities and events such as outings, visitors to the school, shared creative projects with parents and other schools/community groups, dance and drama sessions, art therapy and Forest School. Monitoring ensures that children at risk of underachievement particularly benefit from these activities. Children get involved in a wide range of charitable and community projects as well as fund-raising for different causes. As a school affected by the Grenfell Tragedy we commemorate its anniversary each year.
Observations of groups of children and individuals allow practitioners to reflect on their levels of involvement, progress against learning goals and the extent to which they display the characteristics of effective learning. Observations using the Leuven scales help to closely monitor children’s emotional wellbeing and involvement in their learning. Children are encouraged and supported to recognise and celebrate their own learning and positive attitudes. Specialist resources and provision including a structured, positive, low arousal environment that supports learning and communication skills as well as 1:1 support, where appropriate; input from specialist professionals from outside the school are in place to ensure that the needs of all children can be met.
Early identification of children ‘at risk’ in their language development is monitored using an Induction Parent Document, through a Key Word Language Assessment and Wellcomm Screening Tool. These monitoring systems allow for targeted language support through weekly group activities and partnership working with our commissioned Speech & Language Therapist. Children with EAL are supported in their language development and are monitored termly. Parents are able to access communication and language activities via the school website here.
Parents are encouraged and supported to observe and extend children’s development at home through parent induction sessions, open evenings, book loans, coffee mornings, learning workshops, (including Wellcomm Workshops) community days/events and regular progress meetings. More recently through home/school learning and sharing board initiatives. Lifelong learning for parents, staff and children is promoted.