Learning and Development

When children join us at Nerrols Nursery, we feel it is imperative that they access environments and learning experiences which are relevant and meaningful to them.  Staff are highly skilled in creating enabling environments which provoke learning and language, stimulate interests and meet the needs of all pupils. The involvement and engagement of parents and careers is key and so a reciprocal online learning journey (Famly) is used to share learning and suggests further opportunities and experiences.  In addition, staff meet with parents and carers regularly in order to maintain an ongoing dialogue about their child’s development and how fundamental working in partnership is for ensuring the best possible outcomes for the children.

There is a continued drive to develop communication and language skills as a secure foundation for other aspects of the curriculum. The balance between child-led and teacher-directed learning is carefully considered to enable more academic aspects of the curriculum to be delivered, such as early literacy and Maths skills.

Across the Early Years the environment both indoors and out is a vital part of the curriculum, hence the free-flow style of provision we offer.  Carefully planned, yet open-ended resources are accessible to the children as part of ongoing provision as well as enhancements and provocations to promote learning.

We love learning in the Early Years, in nursery we work from the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.  The children develop through playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically.

There are seven areas of learning and development that must shape the way we teach children at Nerrols.  All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected. Three areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. These three areas, the prime areas, are:

· communication and language;

· physical development; and

· personal, social and emotional development.

Teachers and practitioners also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. The specific areas are:

· literacy;

· mathematics;

· understanding the world; and

· expressive arts and design.

The Prime areas are fundamental throughout the EYFS and the specific areas include the skills and knowledge which provide important contexts for learning and they develop more fully towards the end of the early years. The children are immersed in lots of practical experiences through which they are encouraged to explore and experiment.

Early Years Foundation Stage Profile

DfE Development Matters

Nerrols Early Years Curriculum