A Curriculum for Kay Rowe
All staff use the Early Years Foundation Stage EYFS (characteristics of effective learning, prime areas of learning and development and specific areas of learning and development) to plan appropriate learning and development experiences based on the children’s interests. We use our observation of the children and their interactions with our environment and the people around them to support them to become confident, motivated learners.
Our curriculum is underpinned by Froebel’s principles. 3 of our staff are trained Froebelian practitioners.
“Curriculum should be based on the lived experience of the child” Dylan Williams
“Curriculum should be servant of the child and not the master”
Our Values
Respect – We want everyone in our school community to feel respected, and respect each other.
Passion for education – We are all learners, we want to show the children how we value learning by thinking through problems with them, asking each other for help, and sharing good ideas.
Equality – We want all children and adults at Kay Rowe to have equal access to good quality learning and opportunities whatever their starting points. We want to reflect as a team on any barriers to children making progress which children may be experiencing.
Our Intent
We want to make the curriculum all about Kay Rowe and outline what we feel children should be learning whilst they are here. We started by thinking about how important it is to get to know our children at Kay Rowe really well and reflecting on what a child at Kay Rowe needs to learn.
- Underpinning our curriculum is our commitment to learning outside the classroom, to taking all children to Forest School and offering exciting opportunities to learn in our garden.
- We will plan to help every child to develop their language, we know this is vital.
- We believe that children learn best from following their own interests, and from having first-hand, hands-on experiences and the time to revisit and repeat aspects of their play, with the support of responsive adults.
- We know children need carefully planned support from adults to teach them skills which will help them become more independent and make the best use of the resources in their environment.
- We will make sure the environment is safe and secure as well as stimulating and challenging. We will aim to create an ambitious curriculum which builds on children’s knowledge.
- Our practitioners are reflective, we will discuss how babies and young children do not develop in a fixed way. Their development is like a spider’s web with many strands.
Implementation
Our role is to teach children what we feel they need to know and to scaffold and extend their interests and learning. In order to do that we need to know our children really well. We will spend time really getting to know the children before we plan activities for them.
We know from research (EEF and others)that the quality of adult interaction is one of the things which makes the biggest impact on children’s language development and progress so our curriculum will be grounded in quality
adult interaction.
We will carefully sequence learning so children can build their learning over time.
We will teach activities which will create memories for children which will stay with them and be something they can reflect on and link to learning later on in life.
We will share our curriculum with parents so they know what their children are learning.
Impact
Our practitioners will know the children well and know what experiences will scaffold their learning.
Children will be engaged, excited and challenged by the curriculum we offer.
Children will start to be able to talk about what they know and have experienced and how it connects with other experiences and knowledge.
Parents will feel involved in the curriculum and their child’s learning.
Children will make progress, our assessment tools (OPAL), case studies and parents feedback will help to show this.
