“No job is more important than working with children in the Early Years”
Development Matters
This statement is at the forefront of every decision of every member of staff in our Early Years. We are the foundation to the children’s educational future and we strive to ensure that every child achieves a good, if not exceeding level of development by the end of their time in Reception.
Our curriculum, Development Matters 2021 (which you can find on the www.gov.uk website) encompasses seven areas of development; Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Physical Development, Literacy, Maths, Understanding of the World and Expressive Arts and Design. The first three areas are the Prime areas and the final four are Specific areas of development. Furthermore, children are guided in developing strong characteristics of effective learning which are threaded in every area of learning and in their future at our school.
The three characteristics are; Playing and exploring, Active learning and Creating and thinking critically.
Playful explorers
This is where children investigate and experience the world around them and have a go at doing it themselves. We know that the brain likes novelty and we provide the children with new activities and challenges to stimulate their curios investigative nature.
Active learners
Children are encouraged to concentrate at the task in hand, avoid distractions, persevere when things don’t work the first, second, third time round and most importantly enjoy their achievements. We praise the effort and not only the end result. We model making mistakes and that it is ok not to know something ‘because we will learn’.
Creative, critical thinkers
Children are encouraged to develop their ideas, making links between what they already know and the task at hand and develop their own independent strategies. Our school uses a dialogic approach to learning where the children are encouraged to share their thoughts, ideas, opinions, misconceptions and achievements with others. This in turn allows them to think critically which will then be transferred into their developing strategies.
