Our Curriculum
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At Little Caterpillars our aim is to provide a nurturing, caring and stimulating environment that meets the needs of each individual child.
We strive to give every child the very best start in building a true love for learning through play and exploration, both indoors and outdoors. The children are at the heart of everything we do and we take every step to ensure that they flourish in a safe, happy and secure environment.
Our curriculum is set on the principles that children learn best when they are happy and comfortable in their learning environment. Our child-centred approach ensures that all children’s interests and next steps are at the forefront of every learning opportunity and provision decision that we make. We constantly use our interactions and ongoing assessments to review our practice and ensure that our learning environment is meeting the needs of the children that attend Little Caterpillars.
We are determined to ensure that our children are ready for the next stage of learning when they move to Reception and for later in their life. In Little Caterpillars we follow the Statutory Early Years Framework. The EYFS for children is from birth to five years of age. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.”
The EYFS aims to provide:
- Quality and consistency in all early years’ settings so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind.
- A secure foundation through planning for learning and development of each individual child, assessing and reviewing regularly.
- Partnerships between practitioners and with parents/and or carers.
- Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practise ensure that every child is included and supported.”
(Early Year Framework Department of Education September 2023)
Principles:
There are four guiding principles that shape practice in Early Years settings:
- every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured,
- children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
- children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
- importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
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Curriculum:
At Little Caterpillars we follow the curriculum as outlined in the 2023 statutory framework of the EYFS and EYFS Development Matters.
Our curriculum encompasses seven areas of learning and development. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected. Three areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships, and thriving.
These are called the prime areas:
- communication and language
- physical development
- personal, social, and emotional development.
Four areas help children to strengthen and apply the prime areas. These are called the specific areas:
- literacy
- mathematics
- understanding the world
- expressive arts and design
In Little Caterpillars we particularly focus on developing the Prime areas as without developing knowledge and skills in these areas children will find it difficult to develop in other areas of learning. We particularly focus on developing children’s communication and language at Little Caterpillars through high quality interactions and lots of opportunities to join in with songs, rhymes and the sharing of stories.
Our Timetable
To find out more about what we will be doing each half term please click on the picture below.
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Autumn 1 |
Autumn 2 |
Spring 1 |
Spring 2 |
Summer 1 |
Summer 2 |
