Our Nursery Curriculum
At Summerbank, we are very passionate that children at our school get the best possible start to their educational journey.
We are very proud of our Early Years and we have a fantastic team who will ensure that your child has access the best provision, in a caring and nurturing environment.
Currently our Nursery admits children in the year prior to attending Reception. During 2023/2024 we are also running a limited trial of taking in children into our Nursery when they turn 3. This is open only to children who have siblings in our school and places are strictly limited. Following the trial this year we will consider whether to expand this offer in 24/25..
The early years foundation stage framework is split into seven areas of learning. Three of these are known as the ‘prime areas’ and the other four areas are the ‘specific’ areas. The seven areas are then split into further strands as follows (shown in brackets alongside the areas of learning):
Prime areas:
- Communication and language development (listening, attention and understanding; speaking) This sets the foundations for literacy and is crucial to children being able to move onto literacy in the national curriculum.
- Personal, social and emotional development(self-regulation; managing self; building relationships). This area links with PSHE in the national curriculum. It is a very important part of EYFS and runs through most of what we do. This is how we foster social skills such as sharing, turn-taking, empathy for others, the ability to make and sustain relationships, confidence and independence, awareness of feelings, co-operation etc.
- Physical development (gross motor skills; fine motor skills). This area includes the development of gross motor skills needed for sports and physical health, and equally importantly the development of fine motor skills which are essential for children learning to hold a pencil, make marks with control and write.
Specific areas:
- Literacy (comprehension; word reading; writing)
- Mathematics (Number; numerical patterns)
- Understanding of the world (past and present; people, culture and communities; the natural world). This area links with history, geography, science and RE in the National Curriculum.
- Expressive arts and design(creating with materials; being imaginative). This area links with art, music and design technology in the National Curriculum.
Each strand within the seven areas is associated with an early learning goal (ELG). These are what we use to assess children against at the end of the Reception year. To support children in achieving this we have developed a progression that leads our children towards the ELG from their starting point, these are our ‘Summerbank Foundations’, mapping learning as:
- Pre Foundation (Pre-Nursery)
- Foundation One (Nursery)
- Foundation Two (Reception) which feeds into the achievement of the Early Learning Goal
The statements in our Summerbank Foundations are then used to plan out ‘Expected Learning for each half term’. To ensure that children’s learning is embedded, practitioners review at the end of a half term and move any statements requiring further development into the next half term’s planning.
Topic Unit Plans contextualise the Expected Learning by identifying specific opportunities linked to books. These are completed before the beginning of each half term, then added to through the term to reflect formative assessment.