Our Intent

At Little Cubs we strive to grow our little people into the best that they can be. We do this by having an ambitious and well sequenced curriculum that prepares our children for the next stages of their education.

We provide a rich, broad balanced and differentiated curriculum that is line with their age, ability, interest, attitude and need.

We help to increase our children’s skills, knowledge and understanding as they grow and develop. This helps strengthen their connections with the world around them.

We plan a creative curriculum to ensure learning is continuous and our children make good progress with language and vocabulary being the centre of all we do.

We engage children interests by offering a range of equal opportunities to challenge imagination, value uniqueness, encourage and motivate to learn and celebrate a wide range of diversity.

We provide lots of first-hand experiences. It is a wonderful world we live in, and we facilitate awe and wonder to allow children to see this.

We provide a curriculum which enables them to discover and develop their talent, skills and create a lifelong love of learning.

We recognise the four Overarching Principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and how they fit at Little Cubs.

Celebrating:

• A UNIQUE CHILD

• POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS

• ENABLING ENVIRONMENTS

• LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Implementation

Our curriculum has been designed by our management team after listening to and acting on advice from the whole nursery staff. It is broad, challenging, and ambitious. It is formed around The Early Years Foundation Stage which sets universal standards for the learning, development, and care of children.

In the younger years the focus is on the Prime areas:

• COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE

• PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

• PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.

It starts with the child’s story ALL ABOUT ME. Our children are at the heart of all we do.

We understand that children come to nursery with varying abilities and experiences and recognise that parents know their children best.

We have transitional visits and meetings with parents before the children start.

We have a keyworker designated to each child. Our teaching is flexible, and we adapt to each individual child.

We have reflected on what has been a challenging year for all and taken positives that have worked well for our children. For example, we will continue to create smaller groups for activities as these fostered firmer friendships and it gave many children confidence and an increase in self-esteem.

The children’s experiences stalled during the pandemic, and we will endeavour to create links with our communities to provide our children with wider new life experiences.

Our curriculum is enriched by offering first-hand experiences within our local community for the children to gain an understanding and make sense of the world around them.

Children enjoy dance, yoga, family church service, visits to railway stations, seaside trips and soft play. We are fortunate to be surrounded by a nature rich outdoor space for walks to stimulate their senses and conversation.

Children can enjoy visits from our local Police, Fire Service, Nurses and Dentists.

Our staff team pride themselves on the quality of educational judgement and skilfully observe children using knowledge of Child Development Matters and Characteristics of effective learning.

Our learning environment both indoors and out is safe and stimulating where children can explore, develop, and investigate. Our babies and toddlers have their own designated learning areas and have flexibility for our three- and four-year-olds to learn together or in their own areas.

The core element of our curriculum is language development, good speaking and listening skills. These are the foundation of all other areas of learning.

Staff model good communication by commenting, asking open ended questions, introducing new words and extending vocabulary.

Quality texts from stories are used as starting points for learning themes.

How We Teach Reading

We are immersed in a language and print rich environment.

• Our Children self-register with picture and word.

• Practitioners read to our every day to develop a lifelong love of literacy.

• Our Children are taught reading vocabulary i.e. Author and Illustrator

• Continuous provision areas promote speaking and listening skills.

• Small areas of quieter spaces are freely accessible for children to browse books/text independently or share with friends.

How We Teach Writing

Physical development is essential for learning to write. For example, the use of playdough helps strengthen the muscles that children will need to write. Gross motor skills are needed for the early development of mark making and fine motor skills are needed for pencil grip and control.

• Writing opportunities are provided in all areas indoor and out.

• Children use their name card to practise writing their name.

How We Teach Maths

Our children can partake in continuous provision activities include Sand, Water, Construction and Role Play.

• Mathematical vocabulary is taught in context to support children’s understanding.

• Mathematical learning activities are provided indoors and out.

• Routines are imbedded so that children understand pattern and time.

Impact

Our children’s achievements are monitored and measured on Tapestry and shared with parents. Effective practitioner communication allows for timely early intervention to ensure all children make progress.

Teams have regular meetings to discuss and log childs progress and plan next steps.

Appraisal systems are in place to ensure that our practitioners are supported and accountable of our high-quality curriculum.

We are committed to continuous practitioner training to ensure our quality of educational judgement.