Curriculum and Pedagogy
At Mini-Springers Nursery the curriculum is designed to recognise children’s prior learning and to provide first hand learning opportunities. We use the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) Birth to Five and Development matters, Wellcomm assessments along with observations and parent consultations to design an evolving curriculum that suits our children and reflects their differing needs. We will continue to review and reflect to ensure our curriculum meets the needs of all children at Mini-Springers Nursery.
We have high expectations and aspirations for our children and are committed to ensuring that children at Mini-Springers Nursery will make excellent progress and be ready for the adventure of school once they leave us.
We believe that quality early years care is about developing strong, curious, confident children. It is about extending their joy, fascination and wonder at the world all around them, about developing concentration, commitment and deep involvement.
Our curriculum strives to treat everyone with equality, celebrating difference and acknowledging opportunities to remove barriers children may encounter in accessing early education, and supporting families in each of their unique situations.
We are committed to working together to ensure everyone feels welcome, safe, respected, included and valued.
Our curriculum is based on following the key principles:
- Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident, and self-assured.
- Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
- Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
- Importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. (See “the characteristics of effective teaching and learning” at paragraph 1.18). The framework covers the education and care of all children, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
(DFE, Early years foundation stage statutory framework , 2024)
The Springfield Project’s Ethos and Values
Our values define how we deliver our services. In seeking to show God’s love in the community and living life to the full, we expect all who represent the Springfield Project to share our values:
Welcoming and inclusive: We seek to provide a safe space for our community where all are welcome. We embrace diversity, celebrating the way in which people of different faiths or no faith can work together to bring about positive change in the lives of individuals and the community. We treat all who come to the Project with respect and warmth and recognise each person as an individual.
Listening: We recognise and value the unique insights and experiences of members of our community. We seek to ensure that the views of all those who have an interest in the Project inform the continuous development of our services.
Serving: We seek to contribute to the transformation of the lives of individuals, families and the wider community. We show compassion in our work and strive to meet people at their point of need. We seek to get alongside people to share their stories, and offer support.
Professional: Our community deserves the best we can give them; therefore we recruit professionally qualified staff on the basis of their skills, knowledge and experience. We welcome and value the contribution of our trained volunteers who greatly enhance our services. We have policies and procedures in place to help us achieve our aims and objectives.
Growing: We look for the best in people and seek to empower them to use their strengths to take charge of their own lives and to support others. We are all on a journey of life-long learning. We learn through our daily life and work, as well as through discussion, reflection, practice and education. We accept mistakes and apologies, and encourage others by showing change and growth in ourselves
At Mini-Springers Nursery we ensure that the Project’s values are reflected in our setting, we seek to enable our children to flourish by working with their families and the wider community. We are proud to be a part of the children’s center and strive for partnership working to enable early interventions for families, enabling our most disadvantaged children to blossom and grow.
Our Goals
Communication and Language:
We intend to create confident communicators who can share their thoughts, feelings and opinions with others. We wish to expand children’s vocabulary and enrich it though hands-on experiences. We want our children to communicate with confidence in English and home languages, both verbally and non-verbally, so that children can express their wants, needs and ideas.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development:
We want our children to form positive and healthy relationships with others. To be able to play co-operatively and take on board other’s ideas. We want our children to be able to ask for help and support when needed. To be able to share how they feel, develop self- regulation skills and begin to understand how their actions can affect the feelings of others.
Physical Development:
We want our children to be supported to develop their sensory processing skills to enable them to respond appropriately to the physical challenges of the environment. To be able to move confidently and safely in a range of ways. To develop their gross and fine motor skills, enabling them to excel in other areas such as self care and literacy. We want children to have an understanding of healthy living, oral health and managing risk.
Literacy:
We want our children to develop a love of books and reading. We want our children to have access to and enjoy a daily story and to learn nursery rhymes. We want children to develop their conversation skills and be able to question when they are unsure. We will give children a variety of media for them to explore and mark-make with. We want children to recognise their names and show pride in their creative creations.
Staff read to each child each week to ensure every child has had one-to-one time and enjoyed a book whilst at nursery.
Mathematics:
We want our children to be confident to explore numbers, shape and space in the world around them. We want children to enjoy maths, rhymes and confidently understand that numbers have a purpose.
Expressive Art and Design:
We want our children to express themselves artistically and develop a passion for the arts. We want children to sing, dance, engage in imaginative play, create and construct with curiosity and awe. We want children to question and develop their thinking skills and techniques to express their ideas and feelings.
Understanding the World:
We want children to explore the world around them and our local community. We want our children to build a connection to culture, community, diversity and sustainability. We want children to talk about similarities and differences, develop empathy and respect and have a positive relationship with others and the world around them.
SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities):
We aim to identify any barriers that children may have in accessing the curriculum as early as possible. We can then put in the correct support for them. Every child in our setting will be given equal opportunities to progress. We will work alongside parents and specialists and include their valuable insights and offer parents a supportive community so that all children flourish and are given an inclusive, ambitious curriculum.
EAL (English as an Additional Language):
Many of our families do not speak English as their first language, some do not speak English at all. Speaking more than one language has lots of advantages for children. Children will learn English from having a strong foundation in their home language. We will encourage families and practitioners to use home language for linguistic as well as cultural reasons, whilst continuing to develop the English language at nursery. We will support and promote all languages presented in our setting and strive to educate ourselves on languages we do not speak.
Disadvantaged Backgrounds:
We will not place limitations of children from deprived backgrounds and instead look for ways to close the gap and expose children to new, hands-on experiences. We get to know our children and their families so that we can understand children’s starting points and ensure our curriculum provides a bank of knowledge and skills for all children.
Outdoor learning and Nature:
Our community does not yet place a high value on outdoor learning and nature and we strive to educate our families on the importance of direct interaction with the physical environment. We will explore outdoors by gardening, exploring the seasons, going for walks, litter picking, exploring our community and learning about wildlife. We will encourage families to join us as much as possible to help educate them on the great outdoors.
Implementation
Planning:
We have 18 core books for both rooms, 6 per term. These books are based on events, seasons and expected developmental stages of children. Staff plan activities linking to all seven areas of learning based on the book and repeatedly read the book to the children so that they feel confident in reciting the story. Adults lead the planned activities but allow children to evolve them in their own ways based on their knowledge and understanding, introducing new language along the way.
Our long term planning allows staff to forward plan upcoming events such as Black History Month, Eid and Christmas. We celebrate a range of cultural events and ensure we always provide experiences relevant to the current cohort of children and staff. Staff are encouraged to take the lead on cultural events from their own backgrounds, as they are the experts and can provide a more authentic experience.
Adult Child Interactions:
Adults are responsive, guiding and nurturing to children. Children are allowed to take more initiative and are more likely to be actively involved and persistent in their work.
Adults encourage children to problem solve and allow children to take on a trial and error mindset without rushing to give children all the answers straight away.
Staff provide sustained shared thinking, where two or more parties working together to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate activities and extend a narrative. Both parties must contribute to the thinking and it must develop and extend.
As practitioners, staff are ‘scaffolding’ children’s learning. We give children just enough help to achieve something they could not do alone. We are constantly mindful of children’s emerging development, what they are learning to do, but can’t quite do yet, then provide learning opportunities through play where adults model the skills needed.
Assessment:
We want assessments to be effective and meaningful. We collect Wellcomm data termly and completed Transition documents at the end of the academic year. We want this process to represent children’s significant milestones, gaining insight into the children and created with purpose. We do not test children or seek unnecessary knowledge. Children are recognised as individuals, not data.
We do not spend unnecessary amounts of time writing observations or gathering evidence of children’s learning. We believe that if we are busy capturing the moment, we cannot be part of the moment. We do not want to continually model using Ipads and tablets. We aim instead to model curiosity, sustained shared thinking, interest and meaningful interactions.
This means we have fewer observations on Tapestry as writing up numerous observations and gathering evidence takes time away from the children. Instead, we have structures in place that enable us to regularly discuss each child as a team and with their family.
Parent Partnership:
Partnership begins on induction where parents spend time with their child’s key person gathering information about the child. Wellcomms are completed with parents to give staff a baseline of children’s knowledge and understanding.
We use Tapestry to communicate with parents and share learning achievements at nursery and at home. We hold termly workshops to support all parents in accessing and using Tapestry and monitor parental involvement in the app so we can ensure it is beneficial.
Parents are invited into the setting half termly for parties, workshops and events. These may be based on cultural events, such as an Eid party. Or on a current need of the cohort, such as a toilet training workshop. We gather feedback to ensure these events are purposeful and enjoyable.
We hold a formal termly parents meeting to keep parents informed on their child’s development and work together to plan next steps. We also have an open-door policy and encourage parents to come to meet with us at any point they feel they need to so that they feel valued and supported.
Cultural Capital:
The Ofsted inspection guidance for early years settings defines cultural capital as ‘the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success’, and further states: ‘It is the role of the setting to help children experience the awe and wonder of the world in which they live, through the seven areas of learning.’
By introducing cultural capital, it is hoped that children from all backgrounds receive the best possible start in life, irrespective of their home life or challenges. They should be given the support and opportunities to thrive and achieve with their early education and beyond!
At Mini-Springers Nursery, children have a range of different opportunities including:
- Creating a role-play activity based on a new experience.
- Exploring new materials in a science experiment.
- Looking at seasonal changes or the weather.
- Exploring the arts, using resident artists to develop creativity with our children
- Exploring new musical instruments, music, songs, and rhymes.
- Being active outdoors, playing new games, and using different types of equipment.
- Celebrating festivals and cultural events like Chinese New Year, birthdays, or sporting events.
- Organising a visit to a shop, park, farm, or museum.
- Arranging a visit to the setting from a local organisation, such as the police or a local charity.
- Encouraging children to share news and activities that they do with family and friends.
- Mark making and then going to the Post Office or post box to send it home.
- Reading a variety of stories, poems, and non-fiction books, and exploring new vocabulary.
- Exploring a range of natural and humanly-constructed materials to promote awe and wonder.
- Introducing, sharing, and exploring different greetings and languages.
- Providing activities where children are invited to take turns and share resources.
- Weekly walk – each week one key group will go for a walk to the Shires. Families are invited to join us and the children will litter pick, learn about the local community, use their senses to explore their surroundings and see the flowing river.
Routine:
Our routine is revised termly and is adaptable to meet the needs of the current cohort of children. The routine provides children with structure and consistency but can also be flexible, taking into account the number in attendance, any events being held, and the needs of the children during the session.
Our routine provides both adult-led and child-led play, outdoor time, registration time, free flow play, snack time, stories, singing and early interventions. Children are encouraged but not forced to follow the routine and staff understand that some children are not ready for sitting down at group time and are allowed to free flow from the carpet.
Our routine ensures staff are always following ratio requirements and that children are supervised safely and staff are deployed effectively both indoors and out.
SEND support:
All children with significant learning difficulties will be placed on a SEN plan written by our Inclusion Lead. These plans are reviewed termly with parents. Staff spend time daily working on targets from these plans to help children learn and develop in the setting.
We provide a range of SEN interventions, led by our SENCO. These include; bucket time (developing concentration skills) sensory circuit (allowing children who feel overwhelmed to have a sensory output) and SEND snack table (allowing children with SEND a chance to have a quieter, more relaxed snack time using communication boards to help children communicate).
We also employ an Inclusion worker who assists the SENCO in interventions, provides additional care and support for children with needs and supports the staff team in following SEN plans and targets.
Learning Environment:
The environment is always welcoming to children and provides enough materials for everyone. It allows children to find use and return resources independently. The environment encourages different types of play and allows the children to move easily through all areas of the nursery. It is flexible so that children can extend their play by bringing materials from one area to another and provides materials that reflect the diversity of children’s family lives.
Children learn through hands-on experiences with people, objects, events and ideas. We regularly have visitors to the setting to provide new experiences, this include; musicians, language teachers, theatre groups and EcoBirmingham who provide activities linked to the environment and promoting outdoors. These are planned termly, based on the needs and interests of the current group of children.
The environment is regularly reviewed and adapted by the team to ensure it is challenging children whilst sparking interest and awe. We aim to provide real items, natural items and loose parts and are stepping away from a plastic filled nursery. Real objects offer new experiences for children and inspire them in different ways. Plastic toys would act similarly if dropped on the floor and make a similar noise, whereas a China teacup, for example, would smash and create a very different sound. This helps promote communication as you can discuss what happened and teaches children to respect items.
We use our outdoor space every day. We provide a mix of physical play items, such as climbing frames and bikes, as well as areas for outdoor learning such as the mud kitchen. We change the outdoor area termly to keep it interesting and inviting for children. We make time to listen to nature, look for signs of the seasons and hunt for bugs!
We have begun a makeover project on the garden and are hoping to fundraise to both improve the flooring but also create an engaging environment where children can freely deepen their understanding of the outside and the world around them.
Impact
Children’s learning will be closely monitored in collaboration with parents to ensure that all children are supported to reach age appropriate milestones. Children with special educational needs and Disabilities will be closely monitored through individual plans, supported by the Inclusion Lead, SENCO and relevant professionals.
We regularly review our learning environments. Staff regularly discuss the learning that has taken place and what we can do to enrich further learning. Once a term staff have time without the children in the nursery to plan the environment and change the layout and objects on offer.
Using reflective practices and strategies, we try to see our nursery through the eyes of the children, understanding their experiences, their learning and what we can do to support them.
Staff have supervisions every 4- 6 weeks where we reflect on their key children’s learning and plan next steps. Staff showcase their knowledge of their key children and are given the opportunity to consider how to support the children further.
Staff meet every half a term to plan for the next book and reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the previous half a term. All staff are given a chance to share their views and we value constructive feedback and work together to find solutions that benefit the team and the children.
We are committed to staff training which continues to build on staff knowledge of child development and the quality delivery of the early years curriculum.
We value the voice of the child, parent and educator and seek to genuinely listen, to help us understand and continue to make progress.