Early Years Curriculum

At The Manor your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through seven areas of learning and development. Children should mostly develop the three prime areas first. These are:

• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.

As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in four specific areas. These are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design

These seven areas are used to plan your child’s learning and activities. Your child will have differentiated activities planned in accordance with their age and stage of development and will be challenged and supported accordingly.

Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside.

At The Manor we pride ourselves in developing children who are confident in their ability to communicate with each other and express themselves effectively. During the day we will encourage your child to learn new words and broaden their vocabulary through quality interactions and conversations.  Children will also have plenty of  opportunity to read books and take part in planned activities to strengthen this area of their development. They will also learn to listen to others and ask questions through activities and circle times. We value all languages that are spoken in school and in Reception our Little Languages programme not only focuses on French but all languages spoken in your child’s class. We have an experienced Speech Therapist to help children who may need extra support in this area of their development.

This is one of the prime areas of development. Your child will be supported in learning to communicate and build positive relationships with children and staff. This will help them feel safe and secure within the setting, support your child’s self-confidence and develop their self-esteem preparing them for their educational journey ahead. We achieve this through small group work, circle times, role play with puppets and stories. Children are encouraged to be independent and manage their self care.  Healthy routines are promoted, including the importance of oral health.  Children are supported in developing empathy for others and regulating their emotions.

In the Early Years your child is developing and honing their physical skills in order to strengthen their body to work efficiently as they grow. They will be encouraged to climb, run, jump and skip to develop large muscles. We have specialist PE lessons, dedicated outdoor play areas and regular visits to Forest School. To develop your child’s hand and finger movements we use tweezers, clay, play dough and small tools to support the development of their finger control. As they develop we encourage them to cut, hold a pencil and to use cutlery.

In the Early Years we use a combination of the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme and Oxford Reading Tree ‘Floppy Phonics Scheme’ By the time your child reaches the end of the Early Years they will be able to read and understand simple stories, begin to spell appropriate words and write sentences. This is achieved by differentiated, engaging activities based on the children’s interests from Pre-Nursery to Reception supporting children to progress at their own stage of development.

We provide children with practical equipment to learn the fundamental principles of mathematics to make sure they have a solid understanding of these concepts by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage. During their Foundation Stage journey they will learn to count, recognise numbers, add, take away, measure, weigh, learn to tell the time, and use money.

In the Early Years we base our curriculum and activities around the children’s interests. We learn about our family backgrounds, different cultures and traditions. The children learn to value and appreciate everyone’s individuality and are taught that no one is exactly the same.

During our trips to Forest School we learn about different seasons and our environment. We think about how we can care for and maintain our school and gardens as well as how to look after our wildlife.

We observe simple scientific concepts such as floating and sinking, melting, materials and forces.

As we live in a very technological time we support the children in learning the skills they will need as they progress into Year 1. We use cameras, ipads, programmable toys and computers. We support children in learning how technology can aid their learning and how it can be used as a tool to acquire information.

We encourage children to explore their creative side through Dance, Drama, Art, Design and Role Play. Children attend specialist lessons, music, PE, Library to support this as well as experiences a wide variety of vibrant activities in the classrooms.