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Welcome to Clapton Park. Come and find out what we do in our centre!
Our EYFS curriculum takes into consideration that all of our children are unique enabling us to support their needs and interests within their personal learning journeys. Our well-resourced and stimulating environments create safe spaces for our children to be inquisitive, expressive, to explore and problem solve.
This attitude to learning is promoted and encouraged by all staff in our nursery. We aim to ensure that all of our children have the opportunity to access all areas of learning through play in order to achieve their full potential.
‘Every child is gifted, they just unwrap their packages at different times’.
The EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) is a statutory framework which outlines a set of standards to support child development from birth to 5. It is divided into two main areas; Prime areas and Specific areas. The Prime areas consist of Communication and Language, Physical Development and Personal, Social and Emotional Development. The Specific areas consist of Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts.
At Clapton Park we use Development Matters as a guide to assess whether a child is on track or in need of additional support.
Please see the link below to the Development Matters Handbook:
The 7 Key Features of Effective Practice
Communication and Language
Listening, Attention and Understanding, Speaking
Communication and Language focuses on a child’s ability to pay attention, listen, understand and to speak. Children are able to acquire these skills through storytelling, daily interactions with adults and their peers as well as being encouraged to develop their own narratives during small world or role play opportunities. By providing a language rich environment, our children are encouraged to communicate effectively and respond appropriately when engaging in day to day conversation.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Self-Regulation, Managing Self, Building Relationships
Personal, social and emotional development is of significant importance to the cognitive and physical development of a child. Children need to be able to recognise, express and understand their emotions in order to live happy and healthy lives. In this area children are encouraged to explore their emotions and to have confidence in their own abilities in order to develop a positive sense of self. It also focuses on helping the children to understand the importance of understanding the need for self-care and healthy eating. Our children are encouraged to explore their emotions and are supported within self-regulation through the use of Box Full of Feelings, circle time, Play Therapy sessions, use of the High Scope and the Solihull approach.
Physical Development
Gross Motor Skills, Fine Motor Skills
Physical development provides children with the opportunity to develop their social skills and gross and fine motor skills. This ensures that our children are active and interactive throughout the day. At Clapton Park Children’s Centre we promote the Forest School approach. Our children take part in Forest School sessions twice a week. Activities are also provided in the rooms and in the garden to support children to reach their milestones. These activities may include climbing trees, sensory play, mark making, Boogie Mite sessions, handling natural everyday objects and Write Dance sessions.
Literacy
Comprehension. Word Reading. Writing
Literacy assesses a child’s ability to read and write in a meaningful context. Our children are encouraged to talk about books, to look at print in the environment and to use their imaginations to think about what could happen next in a story. It is important for children to understand the concept of a book before learning to read the words. It is just as important for them to understand what they have read and to have good comprehension.
Literacy is an area which is heavily influenced by language development and interactions with others. Our staff promote the development of language comprehension through daily story time, use of Now Press Play, phonics, consistently having regular interactions and quality conversations with children and singing during ‘What’s in the Box’ sessions.
Early mark making and writing is supported by allowing for our children to experiment with making different shapes, lines and patterns using different textures and tools. For instance, making marks with a pencil on a piece of paper, painting a picture using a medium sized brush, creating marks on the concrete using chalk or the end of a short stick in the mud.
Mathematics
Number. Numerical Patterns
Early Maths focuses on providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, describing shapes, recognising space and to understand the concept of measures. These skills are practised in order to build on confidence and competence. Early Maths opportunities are provided throughout the day including singing numeracy songs, counting how many children are in a group, discussing the shape of an item on the snack table and Maths Mix sessions. Children are encouraged to learn about and apply Maths to real life situations. We ensure that the correct vocabulary is used to support language development and that Maths is fluid to support cognitive development.
We pride ourselves in being one of the selected Early Years settings to take part in the Maths Champion II Trial run by NDNA (National Day Nurseries Association) in order to support our children's development in Maths.
Understanding the World
Past and Present. People, Culture and Communities. The Natural World
Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of the world and their community. Children’s personal experiences increase their knowledge and their understanding of the world around them for example, visits to a park, library or museum and meeting the people who help us such as police officers, nurses and firefighters.This area also enriches children with vocabulary that will later support reading comprehensions. Our diverse community in the centre embraces cultural celebrations and events. Our children are given opportunities to celebrate different cultures such as; taking part in a dragon dance for Chinese New Year, learning about historical black figures for Black History Month and cooking pancakes on the fire in Forest School for Pancake Day.
Expressive Arts and Design
Creating with Materials, Being Imaginative and Expressive
Expressive Arts and Design is centred around the development of a child’s artistic and cultural awareness in support of their imagination and creativity. Children are encouraged to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials to allow self-expression and the ability to communicate through the arts. Our children have access to different textures and materials through messy play, construction, musical instruments and have the option of natural or man made materials to express themselves.
Characteristics of Effective Learning
The EYFS curriculum also takes into account how children learn with emphasis on the Characteristics of Effective Learning. This consists of Playing and Exploring, Active Learning and Creating and Thinking Critically which allows us to plan effectively for the development of our children.
Playing and Exploring considers that a child may learn through first-hand experiences and seek out to engage with other children or play alone. Our children are always encouraged to choose their own activities and are given a sense of freedom to build on their own interests independently.
An Active Learner continues to try even when they encounter a challenge and enjoy what they set out to do. Our Forest School sessions in particular promote risk taking and gaining internal satisfaction.
Creating and Thinking Critically takes into account that our children have their own ideas and are able to develop their own way of doing things. When a conflict arises between children our staff strategically give the children an opportunity to resolve the issue and problem solve independently in line with the High Scope Approach.
What to Expect in the EYFS
For more information on how to contribute to your child's learning journey please feel to click on the link below: https://foundationyears.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/What-to-expect-in-the-EYFS-complete-FINAL-16.09-compressed.pdf
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