The Playmates Pre-school Curriculum

Our curriculum is tailored to meet the needs of each individual child, allowing them to progress through the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), foster a love of learning, and develop confidence and enthusiasm for the world around them. This begins with the four principles of the EYFS…

  • Every child is unique, and we encourage them to be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
  • We promote positive relationships, so children become strong and independent
  • Our pre-school ensures we offer a safe and secure environment, an environment that enables and supports learning
  • We acknowledge that children learn in different ways and at different rates.
  • We recognise that all areas of learning are important and are interconnected

We strive to ensure children develop an understanding of

  • Respect for others
  • Boundaries, and how these should be respected
  • A curiosity and an eagerness to learn
  • Sense of right and wrong
  • Confidence in social situations
  • Their feelings and those of others
  • An ability to persist when facing difficulties
  • A positive attitude

The Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum covers the 7 areas of learning and development.

Prime Areas

  • Communication and language – opportunities for children to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves and learning to speak and listen in a range of situations
  • Physical - Encouraging children to be active, develop co-ordination, controlled movement and good gross and fine motor skills
  • Personal Social & emotional – Helping to form positive relationships and respect for others, a sense of self and community. Develop social skills and manage their feelings and emotions. Learning about their bodies, managing personal needs and healthy eating.

Specific Areas

We acknowledge that the four specific areas are dependent on good knowledge and progress in the three prime areas, and as such, our primary focus will be on the prime areas.

  • Literacy – To develop a love of books and written materials to ignite their interest in the written word. Developing pre-reading and pre-writing skills.
  • Mathematics – An understanding of using numbers, shapes, space and measures.
  • Understanding the world – Involves supporting children in making sense of the world around them and their community by providing opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment
  • Expressive arts and design – Enables children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as encouraging the sharing of thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play and design and technology

Our curriculum is supported by the Characteristics of Effective Learning which are…

  • Playing and Exploring – Supporting children’s engagement and investigation and to experience things through being willing to ‘have a go’, and through taking healthy risks.
  • Active Learning – Supporting children’s motivation to learn by helping develop their concentration, ability and will to keep trying when challenges occur and the celebration of completing a task.
  • Creating and Thinking Critically – Supporting children’s thinking skills through developing ideas, making links between differing ideas and create strategies for completing a task.

Aims & Principles of our Curriculum

Intent – Our curriculum aims to prepare children in understanding the world around them and prepare them for the next stage of their education. We ensure children gain a rich knowledge across a range of topics that they are able to build on and develop. Ensuring each child is challenged to their full potential. We ensure children embrace diversity and understand clearly our British Values through a sense of Community. We ensure a varied and diverse range of activities that provide essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success.

Implementation – We determine our play activities based on what your child has already learnt to do as well as their current interests, whilst ensuring that we cover the whole early year’s curriculum. Our keyperson approach means that each child’s progress as well as their interests are observed and used to progress their learning. This enables them to provide enjoyable activities and ensure that each individual child is always moving forwards in their learning. Activities feel like fun and are done in a way each individual child will find stimulating. Our staff support and teach children in their play, encouraging them to build their confidence, self- esteem and push new boundaries, whilst allowing them to develop, deepen and consolidate their learning.

Impact – We strive to ensure that our curriculum makes a positive impact to the outcomes of every child at our pre-school. Monitoring of the impact of our curriculum comes from our children talking and demonstrating what they have learnt alongside and through observations of their learning from their keyperson and other staff members. Pupils who are eligible for Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) funding, and those with additional needs, are monitored carefully to ensure that we continue to close any gaps and ensure progress. Evaluating the impact of our curriculum ensures children are ready for the next stage of their education. Our environment and support all of the areas of learning ensuring that we acknowledge children’s rights to learn, be safe and healthy, enjoy achieving and make positive contribution’s.

Playmates Pre-school exists to provide a safe, developmentally appropriate environment for pre-school children. Our focus is to provide a stimulating early care and education experience which promotes each child’s social/emotional, physical and cognitive development. Our goal is to support children’s desire to be life-long learners.