Aunty Sue’s Day Care strives to provide the highest level of care, learning and development. We have worked hard to design and develop an effective early year’s curriculum to best meet the needs of all our children. This starts by working in close partnership with the parents to build on their strengths and creating a welcoming stimulating environment. We always nurture and support all children’s progression with an inclusive and holistic approach to child development. Our curriculum consists of everything we want the children to experience, learn and be able to do. Our intention is for our curriculum to be ambitious and inclusive, educating all children in knowledge, skills and understanding. We provide a safe, caring environment which enables our children to be inquisitive, curious, and independent learners.

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We feel that children learn by observing the people around them and develop their attitudes from their social environment. We understand that a child's early experiences form the foundation upon which their future attitudes are formed, and that early year’s education is crucial in the fight for a more equal society in modern Britain.

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Our Fundamental British Values play an important role here too. These important, universal, core values are not only vital for preparing our children for life in modern Britain but are also integral to equality, diversity, and inclusion.

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We are proud of the trusting relationships our parents have with us we value prior learning and work together with parents to ensure every child progresses. Through this partnership we endeavour to enhance the skills they need for future success, enabling them to fulfil their potential. We promote these partnerships through open communication, parents’ information (via our Family app) to share experiences from home and in the setting. These then contribute towards their learning journey. During the settling in process, we share information with parents such as “All About Me” this is so we can work together and form secure attachments with our families. These contributions are sought, valued, and highly respected.

 

Intent

We are passionate about creating opportunities for the children to communicate more easily through developing language and communication skills from birth. Communicating is how we get to know about each other and developing strong communication and language skills from a young age is an essential foundation. The development of these skills is paramount to promote self-esteem, independence, and confidence and in turn helps friendships flourish which are incredibly important for children. The staff within the nursery environment communicate with all the children effectively, we scaffold and model language through stories, dialogue and modelling affective communication.

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We form strong relationships with our children, ensuring we have a stable workforce and continuity of care. At Aunty Sue’s Day Care we consider it important for all adults working with children to understand what attachment is and know how to help parents and carers become attuned to their child’s needs. We allow our children time to build a safe, settled and secure bond with staff, especially with our under 2’s. Space to cuddle, be calm and comforted are at the core of our ethos.

It is our intention that the children experience the areas of learning (EYFS Curriculum) which are centred around the three prime areas:

• Communication and Language

• Physical development

• Personal, Social and Emotional development.

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We then support children’s experiences within the four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. These are:

• Literacy

• Mathematics

• Understanding the world

• Expressive arts and design

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Implementation

The way we achieve a broad and balanced curriculum is through in the moment planning. Planning in the moment has transformed both our practice and us here at Aunty Sue’s Day Care. It has taken us to another level of purposeful interactions, we feel privileged to play with the children in our setting and this leads to high levels of engagement and learning has improved massively. Children are demonstrating far higher levels of interest and involvement, persevering, and showing a ‘can do’ attitude whilst creativity, critical thinking, and motivation for all is evident in the constant thrum of activity. For the practitioners, planning, preparation, and assessment is now a celebration of children’s learning, inputting the children’s ‘wow!’ moments, contributed by all the staff, is a delight and leads naturally to knowing what’s next. The change has given us the freedom to teach in accordance with children’s needs and in a way that is nourishing for them and us.

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We have an extensive outdoor learning environment which provides space for the children to be active, develop co-ordination, control and movement, our outdoor environment provides a unique chance for sustained shared thinking and extended periods of play. Being in the outdoor environment is both positive from a health perspective but also for connecting children with the environment.

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We are situated in a prime position near to town Centre and St John’s Church which enables us to participate in intergenerational care with the community that is located adjacent to us, this provides the children with new learning opportunities such as being more confident in their interactions with adults and being confident when communicating with others. Children who have lived through different experiences can begin to grow stronger when they experience high quality early education and care.

 

Each room from our youngest children to our pre-school children, uses the curriculum guidance to ensure a flow of development. We can therefore support smooth transitions as children progress through the setting. All staff understand child development and value working collaboratively with each other, this ensures consistent expectations allowing each child to progress no matter where their starting point is. All practitioners have a consistent approach to behaviour management, we work hard to create clear boundaries and have high expectation. However, we still value each child as an individual, and help children to live and learn alongside other catering for individual needs.

 

The management team have many years’ experience working with the EYFS, and this knowledge is used to ensure each staff member understands their children’s needs and can respond appropriately. We currently have an effective programme of continued professional development. It closely considers the context and performance of the setting and feeds into our setting development plan. We support and encourage reflective practise throughout the nursery and actively work alongside staff encouraging and creating an effective team. We have regular supervisions, peer observations, staff meetings and rigorous staff training. Effective professional development improves the quality of interactions between children and practitioners.

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We use our planning, assessments, observations, and discussions to inform next steps and intents for each room.

We ensure that every child at the setting is included. Every child is unique and will develop at their own pace, so it’s not about treating all children in the same way but treating each child fairly and paying attention to their individual interests and needs. We have a range of additional intervention and support for children who may not be reaching their potential or are showing a greater depth of understanding and need further challenges. Where children are not experiencing success, they may have barriers to their learning. These barriers might be short term, or they may indicate a longer special educational need and/or disability. In these instances, more assessment will be needed to try and get to know the child better and focus on their needs. We work collaboratively with the Nottinghamshire Specialist Teaching team when extra support is needed, using the Early Years SEND Toolkit to access early interventions and support.

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We ensure the needs of individual children are met through grouping our children flexibly throughout the nursery, our rooms are not solely designated by age, more centred around each child’s individual needs and stage of development, hence our ethos home from home, as in our experience we find older children are successful role models to younger children also nurturing confidence.

 

Impact

We truly believe that the hard work we do in early years education is vital in creating the foundations for future success and understand the value of working together, in the best interests of the child. The skills and competencies the children learn in the early years setting will help them tackle the new challenges they may face in the next phase of their education and our ultimate aim is to help to create confident, resilient, and capable learners who are secure, happy and eager to continue their learning journey.

 

In planning for children, we consider the different ways in which children learn. The three characteristics of effective learning are

• Playing and exploring

• Active Learning

• Creating and thinking critically