Our Curriculum
At Warwick Community Playschool, we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (EYFS). We have designed out own Assessment Plan to ensure that we give a strong foundation to our children's future learning.
The EYFS has been developed to support early learning to ensure that children have the best start to their education. All of our staff plan for children's learning and development based on the EYFS framework and their knowledge of each individual child.
There are seven areas of learning which are split into two categories; Prime Areas of Learning and Specific Areas of Learning. The Prime Areas of Learning are:
These prime areas are those most essential for healthy development and future learning.
The specific Areas of Learning are:
Children in the EYFS learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside.
The "What to Expect When" document has been developed for parents and carers to support children's learning. It is important to remember that children develop at their own rates, and in their own ways. The development statements and their order should not be taken as necessary steps for individual children. They should not be used as checklists. The age/stage bands overlap because these are not fixed age boundaries but suggest a typical range of development.
Each child will have a key person, who will complete a Learning Journey for each child. This will include pages from our online learning portal (Famly) as well as pieces of work, photos, and reports. We complete reports as well the Two Year Progress Check and the Transition Document for preschoolers taking the next step in their learning journey. Learning Journeys are kept in children's rooms and can be shared at any time. We have reduced the amount of paperwork within our learning journey's as we want to spend more time with the children to support teaching and learning.
We have focus children and ask families to come in or provide information before and the week after their child's focus week to share in learning. We are currently reviewing our planning, observation and assessment system.
Each room team meets once a week to look in depth at children's learning and development. We talk about learning that has been observed during the previous week and how we can support each child to reach their full potential based on their interests. We take the lead from our children, so our planning documents are a guide for potential learning and are adapted on a sessional basis. We never know what kind of learning journey we will go on each day, but our skilled staff are prepared to support each child to reach for the stars! The children are based in rooms based on their age (Butterflies children under 2.5 years, Ladybirds aged 2-3 and Sunflowers aged 3-5) but we do mix to enrich our learning.
Our curriculum is based on hands on learning which can become very messy! Please make sure children have spare clothes. We provide wet weather clothing and wellingtons for outdoor play.
Our practice is driven by the 'Learning, Playing and Interacting' document:
"Babies and young children, however, are experiencing and learning in the here and now, not storing up their questions until tomorrow or next week. It is in that moment of curiosity, puzzlement, effort or interest – the ‘teachable moment’ – that the skilful adult makes a difference. By using this cycle on a moment-by-moment basis, the adult will be always alert to individual children (observation), always thinking about what it tells us about the child’s thinking (assessment), and always ready to respond by using appropriate strategies at the right moment to support children’s well-being and learning (planning for the next moment)." (p23, DCFS, 2009)
Contact the playschool on 01933 279266 or office@warwickplayschool.co.uk
Links to our playschool pages
Copyright 2016. Warwick Community Playschool. All rights reserved.