Magpie
preschool

 

The aim of our curriculum is to make all children feel included, equal, confident, happy, comfortable, resilient, respected, and valued. We encourage independence and strive to build strong foundations for our children to equip them with the skills and knowledge they need to explore understand and navigate the wider world around them with kindness, empathy, care, and the ability to identify their own and others feelings, helping them to resolve conflicts peacefully.

 

We believe that children Learn best through (child led) play, with experienced engaged staff that know when to extend and adapt activities and to scaffold learning as and when required. Staff also plan activities around topics that have sparked the children’s interest.

 

We provide a well thought out, free flowing and adaptable learning environment  that incorporates the seven areas of learning, this is at the forefront of every child’s learning experiences, we use the curiosity approach and hygge concept to create thought provoking, interesting and comfortable surroundings for the children to explore, we believe that a rich awe filled setting with a continuous provision based on the children’s interests and different cultures and beliefs is the basis for active learning opportunities and development.

 

We pride ourselves on offering a comfortable, friendly, and welcoming home from home feel at the setting, we have a large free flowing garden and our own forest area where the children can investigate and be at one with nature, we have a forest schoolteacher who regularly visits and hosts sessions with the children

 

The seven areas of learning from the Early Years curriculum

 Prime areas

• Personal, social, and emotional development

• Communication and language development

• Physical development

Specific areas

• Literacy

• Mathematics

• Understanding the world

• Expressive Arts and design.

 

The characteristics of effective learning are

• Playing and exploring

• Active Learning

• Creating and thinking critically

 

 

 

We want the children to move on from the setting with the tools to be confident to

 

·      Use their social skills to play alongside / with other children.

PSED / CL / UW

·      Demonstrate friendly behaviour!

·      PSED

·      Follow simple instructions.

           CL

·      Manage their own hygiene routines.

           PD

·      Eat a varied range of healthy food and understand the importance of exercise.

PD

·      Have a go and keep on trying.

PSED / PD / L / M

·      Talk about and communicate their feelings and resolve conflict without aggression.

PSED / CL

·      Have a sense of identity and understand we are all unique

PSED / CL / UW

·      Share their ideas and opinions and listen to others.

CL / PSED

·      Use mathematical language and concepts in play and everyday language.

            M

·      take turns.

PSED / CL / M

·      Understand the need to be safe.

PSED / PD / UW

·      Listen to favourite stories, join in with rhyming and singing.

L / M / CL / PSED / EAD

·      Talk confidently about family customs and special times.

UW / CL

·      Explore the environment and have an understanding of living things.

UW / PD

·      Select resources independently.

PSED / EAD

·      Recognise their name in print.

 

 

 

 

How do we support the children to be confident learners?

 

·      We provide opportunities for children to get to know each other and work together such as ring games, group discussions, problem solving activities, staff join in with role play activities that encourage the children to communicate with each other.

·      We Provide a range of activities that involve turn-taking and sharing in small groups.

·      We use puppets and props to role play situations.

·      We give children small jobs to do, explaining clearly how to carry them out.

·      We celebrate the children’s efforts and achievements in toileting by using rewards and praise.

·      We discuss the importance for hand washing and oral hygiene.

·      We, explain and Use visuals to teach children how to wash and dry their hands.

·      We provide healthy snacks and encourage the children to try new foods and to drink plenty of water.

·      We ensure that the children have ample physical exercise by providing free play and adult structured physical opportunities such as obstacle courses, dancing, walks to local attractions and racing and chasing games.

·      We encourage the children to have their own idea’s, try new activities, and take risks, scaffold the children’s learning to help them achieve their goal but do not take over the situation.

·      We use flash cards, books, and posters to help the children to recognise different emotions, we talk about what makes us experience these emotions and how best we can deal with them. We encourage children to use picture cards or their words to explain how they are feeling.

·      We have focused group times where the children benefit from working in a small group with a staff member, these are usually prompted by the current interests of the children who take part.

·      We have photos and posters of the children, staff, and their families on display as well as pictures of people from all different walks of life.

·      We display maps and flags of the country’s that our E, A, L children come from, and we use Google translate to listen to words and phrases in different languages.

·      We play games that involve listening for a signal, such as ‘Simon Says’, the floor is lava and the freeze song and we use ‘ready, steady...go!’

·      We recognise cultural capital and provide experiences to bridge the gaps by giving all children meaningful, enriching, and inclusive opportunities.

·      We use additional funding to support children’s needs as identified and ensure that we are delivering equity rich practice.

·      We encourage children to share their opinions and ideas during play by asking them open ended questions and giving them time to answer.

·      We encourage the children to have good manners by saying please and thank you.

·      We display numbers in the environment using magnets, posters, calculators, telephones, clocks, and an interactive number line.

·      We have assorted size, shape, and weight items in play areas, and we use these to develop mathematical language and understanding.

·      We use number names and language in play ie, counting our steps, playing ‘what’s the-time mr wolf.

·      We label shapes in our environment.

·      We use sand timers to aid children in waiting for their turn.

·      We praise positive behaviour explaining that it makes people happy and discuss how negative behaviours make people feel sad.

·      We encourage the children to help keep their setting tidy by giving everyone jobs at tidy up time.

·      We encourage the children to risk assess their play, to be safe, I.E put crash mats under climbing equipment, sit correctly on chairs, do not climb on fences and furniture.

·      We use ‘no climbing’ visual signs inside and in the garden.

·      We make lists of rules with the input of the children.

·      We use props to engage children in stories,

·      We use rhyme flash cards to encourage the children to understand rhyming words.

·      We have an interactive song/ rhyme area where children can take turns to select their favourite songs to sing.

·      We recognise and celebrate festivals and family customs that are of importance to our cohort, we gather information from parents in our ‘all about me’ forms which the children’s parents complete prior to their child starting with us.

·      Parents are welcomed into the setting at drop offs and pick ups every day, we also have open mornings/ afternoons where parents are invited to visit and play.

·      We research and display pictures to show the children how people from diverse backgrounds and cultures live and celebrate.

·      We encourage the children to talk about events that have been special to them such as trips, holidays or visits to/from family and we listen and respond.

·      We encourage children to respect their own space by raising their hands and saying “STOP” if they feel uncomfortable.

·      We encourage independence by teaching all children how to put on their own shoes/ boots and coats.

·      We share our own personal special events with the children.

·      We have our own fruit and veg plots where the children are actively involved in planting and caring for the crops, we talk about how we need to give them plenty of water to help them grow, the children care for them and eventually pick and eat them.

·      We have a bug area in our garden where the children are allowed to dig for worms and search for creepy crawlies under the stones and tyres.

·      We enjoy feeding the birds, squirrels and baby rabbits that frequent our garden and forest area.

·      We teach the children to handle living things with care and kindness.

·      We have pet stick insects that the children regularly handle and help care for.

·      We use photographs to capture our experience’s.

·      We label our whole environment so children can easily access what they want to play with and understand where items go back to at tidy up time.

·      We use low level shelving so children can choose their own resources independently.

·      The children have labelled coat pegs and self-registration cards to help them to learn what their name looks like in print.

 

Monitoring and assessment

·      Our ongoing assessments of children are mostly formative, ie, observing extending and adapting activities in the moment. so that we can quickly make a difference to children’s learning. We find this to be beneficial in encouraging active learning.

 

·      Baseline assessments are carried out within a few weeks of a child starting at magpies, this is completed in partnership with parents and is useful to help gauge the child’s starting points and identify any strength’s weaknesses or learning barriers.

 

·      We use the milestone assessment sheets as our summative assessment tool, these are completed in partnership with parents, if we find that their child is not developing age-appropriate skills as expected, we decide what interventions to put into place and how to best support the individual child’s learning and development.

 

·      We continuously monitor the use of funding for specific groups of children to ensure-that it is beneficial in helping to close learning gaps.

 

Assessment helps with

• the early identification of children and families who may need temporary extra help, and children who may have special educational needs.

• checking that individual children, and groups of children, are making progress and taking prompt action where this is not the case

• reporting formally and involving parents in the statutory 2-year-old progress check

• celebrating children’s achievements with parents and sharing focus for learning

• Having discussions with other professionals who may be involved with a child and family. For example, a health visitor or social care worker

• Sharing information and building relationships with schools' reception in the spring and summer so that children can continue their learning journey through the EYFS as seamlessly as possible.