Education

We have an Education Co-ordinator who is up to date on all relevant curriculum guidance. She checks staff’s planning for their key persons on a weekly basis and should any concerns arise she offers support and guidance. She attends all available training courses to ensure we provide our children with the most up to date and effective learning methods.

The frame work we follow is set out by the Government and starts from when our ‘little starts’ are born. It starts with the Birth to Three Matters Framework which is split into four sections:

A Strong Child
A Skilful Communicator
A Competent Learner
A Healthy Child

By following this framework, we are able to provide care and education with guidance and support from the Government. For the children, the Birth to Three Matters Framework:

Values and celebrates babies and children
Recognises their individuality
Recognises their efforts and achievements
Recognises that all children have from birth, a need to develop; learning through interaction with people and exploration of the world around them. For some children, this development may be at risk because of difficulties with communication and interaction, cognition and learning, behavioural, emotional and social development or sensory and physical development
Recognises the holistic nature of development and learning
Acknowledges, values and supports the adults that work with babies and young children
Provides opportunities for reflection on practise
Informs and develops practise whilst acknowledging that working with babies and children is a complex, challenging and demanding task and that often, there are no easy answers

The way we implement the learning at Little Foxes is to plan on a weekly basis, for the children.

Following the Birth to Three Matters Framework, children then go on to Foundation Stage Development. This entails working towards goals in each of the six areas:

Personal Social and Emotional Development
Communication, Language and Literacy
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy Development
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Physical Development
Creative Development

The goals the children are working towards are set to be achieved at the end of reception, when children turn three they begin to work on and master the stepping stones towards achieving these goals.

Alongside the foundation stage planning, key workers also monitor each individual child’s development to ensure our ‘little stars’ are reaching their maximum potential. This is done through observations feeding through to assessments which are carried out each term.

We provide play areas of continuous development as well as planning a wide variety of activities that enable our children to achieve and explore in a world of stimulation and excitement. Weekly plans are displayed in your child’s room, so parents can see what lies ahead and can participate through our home link system.

Home link is a way of encouraging parents/guardians to become involved in what children are learning at the nursery. It may be via a simple activity, game or exercise that staff plan for parents/guardians to do at home to further encourage and contribute to their child’s wellbeing and education. We have found that this helps to build partnerships between key persons and parents/guardians. Parental contribution in every area of nursery life is always welcomed.

Each term we also send out a small leaflet which informs parents/guardians of our learning topics that lie ahead and what will be going on in each of the six areas, as well as what the children will be encouraged to do whilst at nursery.