Stockbridge Pre-school
- Principles used to develop the Stockbridge Pre-school curriculum
- The curriculum provided by Stockbridge Pre-school
- Personal social and emotional development
- Communication, Language and Literacy
- Mathematical development
- Knowledge and understanding of the world
- Physical development
- Creative development
- Planning
Early childhood is valid in itself, and is part of life, not simply a preparation for
work, or the next stage of education.
The whole child is considered to be important — social, emotional, physical,
intellectual and moral developments are integrated.
- Learning is holistic, subjects such as mathematics and art can not he separated.
young children learn in an integrated way and not in neat, tidy compartments.
- Children learn best when they are given appropriate responsibility, allowed to make
errors, decisions and choices, and respected as autonomous learners.
- A good balance between adult led and child initiated activities.
- Use of Key persons to make sure children make satisfying progress.
- Self-discipline is emphasised; this is the only kind of discipline worth having.
- In the early years children learn best through first hand experience.
- What children CAN rather than cannot do is the starting point of the child’s
education.
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There is potential in all children which emerges under favourable conditions.
- Relationships with other people, adults and children, are of central importance in a
child’s life.
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Involving parents in a close and effective partnership.
- Effective methods of monitoring, observing and reviewing practice.
- Use of key persons to make sure children make satisfying progress.
Children start to learn about the world around them from the moment they are born.
The care and education offered by Stockbridge Pre-school helps children to continue to
do this by providing all of the children with interesting activities that are right for their
age and stage of development.
For children between the ages of 3 and 5 years, the pre-school provides a curriculum
for the foundation stage of education.
The curriculum is set out in a document,
published by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the Department for
Education and Skills, and called Curriculum, guidance for the foundation stage.
Stockbridge Pre-school follows this guidance.
The guidance divides children’s learning and development into six areas;
Personal, social and emotional development;
Communication, language and literacy development;
Mathematical development;
Knowledge and understanding of the world;
Physical development; and
For each area, the guidance sets out early learning goals. These goals state what is
expected that children will know and he able to do by the end of the reception year of
their education.
For each early learning goal, the guidance sets out stepping stones, which describe the
stages through which children are likely to pass as they move to achievement of the
goal. Stockbridge pre-school uses the early learning goals and their stepping stones to
help us to trace each child’s progress and to enable us to provide the right activities to
help all of the children move towards achievement of the early learning goals.
This area of children’s development covers:
Having a positive approach to learning and finding out about the world around
them;
Having confidence in themselves and their ability to do things, and valuing their
own achievements;
Being able to get on, work and make friendships with other people, both children
and adults;
Becoming aware of— and being able to keep to — the rules which we all need to
help us to look after ourselves, other people and our environment;
Being able to dress and undress themselves, and look after their personal hygiene
needs; and
Being able to expect to have their ways of doing things respected and to respect
other people’s ways of doing things.
This area of children’s development covers:
Being able to use conversation with one other person, in small groups and in large
groups to talk with and listen to others;
Adding to their vocabulary by learning the meaning of— and being able to use —
new words;
Being able to use words to describe their experiences;
Getting to know the sounds and letters which make up the words we use;
Listening to — and talking about — stories;
Knowing how to handle books and that they can be a source of stories and
information.
Knowing the purposes for which we use writing; and
Making their own attempts at writing.
This area of children’s development covers:
Building up ideas about how many, how far, and how big:
Building up ideas about patterns, the shape of objects and parts of objects. and the
amount of space taken up by objects;
Starting to understand that numbers help us to answer questions about how many,
how much, how far and how big;
Building up ideas about how to use counting to find out how many: and
Being introduced to finding the result of adding more or taking away from the
amount we already have.
This area of children’s learning covers:
Finding out about the natural world and how it works;
Finding out about the made world and how it works;
Learning how to choose — and use- the right tool for a task;
Learning about computers, how to use them and what they can help us to do;
Starting to put together ideas about past and present and the links between them;
Beginning to learn about their locality and its special features; and
Learning about their own and other cultures.
This area of children’s development covers;
Gaining control over the large movements which we can make with our arms, legs
and bodies, so that they can run, jump, hop, skip, roll climb, balance and lift;
Gaining control over the small movements we can make with our arms, wrists and
hands, so that they can pick up and use objects, tools and materials; and
Learning about the importance of— and how to look after — their bodies.
This area of children’s development covers:
Using paint, materials, music, dance, words, stories and role-play to express their
ideas and feelings: and
Becoming interested in the way that paint, materials, music, dance, words, stories
and role-play can be used to express ideas and feelings.
Play helps young children to learn and develop through doing and talking, which
research has shown to be the means by which young children think. Pre-school uses
the early learning goals and their stepping stones to plan and provide a range of play
activities which help children to make progress in each of the areas of learning and
development. In some of these activities children decide how they will use the activity
and, in others, an adult takes the lead in helping the children to take part in the
activity. In all activities information from the early learning goals and stepping stones
has been used to decide what equipment to provide and how to provide it.
Play helps young children to learn and develop through talking and doing, which
research has shown to be the means by which young children think. Pre-school uses
the early learning goals and their stepping stones to plan and provide a range of play
activities which help children to make progress in each of the areas of learning and
development. In some of these activities children decide how they will use the activity
and, in others, an adult takes the lead in helping the children to take part in the
activity. In all activities information from the early learning goals and stepping stones
had been used to decide what equipment to provide and how to use it.
The plans are on display on the notice board. The long-term plan outlines the topics
for the year along with any outings or special events that will take place. The medium
term plan shows how we aim to develop each area of learning within our topic.
Finally the short term plans show what activities will take place on each day, what
resources are needed and any extra aims we expect to obtain from that area of
learning.
The short-term plans are developed at a by-weekly planning meeting and are put up on
Monday morning for the following week. Please look at the plans it will give you an
idea of what is happening in the pre-school and why. You will also see at certain
activities a brief outline of the learning objective we wish to cover in the task. This
will give you a guide when you are helping at pre-school, or talking with your child
about what they have been “doing today”. Thereby giving you the opportunity to take
an active role in extending your child’s pre-school education. If you have any ideas
you would like to add to the curriculum the staff would welcome your suggestions.
Also any areas of knowledge or expertise that you could share with us are gratefully
received.
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