The Early Years Curriculum

INTRO

What children learn at nursery.  In this video we will cover the EYFS Early Years curriculum and go over what children do at nursery and what they are expected to know by the time they finish pre-school.

But first, welcome to the channel.

INTRO VID

Welcome to the channel Open a nursery where I teach you to run grow and open your own childcare business.

In today’s video we are going to go over the Early years curriculum and what children are expected to learn whilst at nursery and by the time they start year one in reception.

The Early years curriculum is primarily structured around the EYFS statutory framework, which details what children should learn.

This framework and curriculum extends to when a child turns 5 years old, so will continue to be taught in reception.

It sets boundaries and guidelines about what children can achieve by the time they turn five, in various different areas of learning.

Though, I want to stress that different children will develop in different areas at all kinds of paces, so don’t use this or any guidance on the Early years curriculum as a marker to say that your child or children should be doing this by a certain age.

In this video I will just give the different areas of learning and what your child can expect to be taught whilst at nursery in that area.

Starting with their communication and language.

In communication and language, children are taught in three different areas.  At nursery they will be working on their speaking, their listening and attention and their understanding. 

With their speaking, by the end of reception children should be able to express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs. They should be using past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future. And start to develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas or events.

With their listening and attention Children will be encouraged to listen attentively in a range of situations. Listening to stories, accurately anticipating key events and responding to what they hear with relevant comments, questions or actions. We will be supporting them in giving their attention to what others say and seeing whether they respond appropriately, while engaged in another activity.

With their understanding Children will be taught to follow instructions involving several ideas or actions and to answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about their experiences and in response to stories or events.

That is primarily what children will learn with regards to communication, up until they reach 5 years old.

Another area they work on whilst at nursery is their personal social and emotional development.

Again, they will be working on three key areas, making relationships, their self-confidence and awareness and managing their own feelings and behaviours.

With making relationships, by the time they turn children five, we will be helping children to play cooperatively, taking turns with others. To take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activities and show sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings, and form positive relationships with adults and other children.

Whilst working on their self-confidence and self-awareness we will be trying to make sure Children are confident to try new activities, and say why they like some activities more than others. They should be able to show confidence when speaking in a familiar group, will talk about their ideas, and will choose the resources they need for their chosen activities. And should say when they do or don’t need help.

And finally in managing feelings and behaviour Children will talk about how they and others show feelings, talk about their own and others’ behaviour, and its consequences, and know that some behaviour is unacceptable. They will work as part of a group or class, and understand and follow the rules. whilst adjusting their behaviour to different situations, and take changes of routine in their stride.

The final key or prime area that children will be working on whilst at nursery or in other settings before they start school is their physical development which incorporates moving and handling and health and self-care.

With moving and handling children will show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements.  They will move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space, handling equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing.

With health and self-care children learn the importance of physical exercise and a healthy diet for good health, as they begin to talk about ways to keep healthy and safe.  They begin to manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently.

As well as the three prime areas, children also learn about four specific areas of learning too.  They learn about Mathematics, Literacy, Understanding of the World and Expressive Art and Design.

In Mathematics they learn about numbers and shape, space and measures. 

In shape, space and measures children are taught to use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems. They learn to recognise, create and describe patterns and explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.

With numbers children will be shown to count reliably with numbers from one to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number.  As well as using quantities and objects, they add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer.  And begin to solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.

In Literacy children learn about reading and writing.

They begin to read and understand simple sentences.  They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately.  They also read some common irregular words and demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read.

They also learn to use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds.  As well as writing some irregular common words.  They write simple sentences which can be read themselves and others. 

Though, a lot of the work around this will be done during their first year at school in reception.

Understanding the world.  Here children learn about people and communities, the world and technology.

With people and communities’ children are encouraged to talk about past and present in their own lives and in the lives of family members.  They begin to understand that other children don’t always enjoy the same things, and are sensitive to this and know about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions. 

When learning about the world children learn about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things, they talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another.  They make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes.

And finally when learning about technology they recognise that a range of technology is used in places such as homes and schools and can select and use technology for particular purposes.

The final specific area is expressive art and design which incorporates exploring and using media and materials and being imaginative.

In exploring and using media and materials whilst at nursery children will sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them.  They demonstrate that they can safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.

Whilst being imaginative children use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes.  They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role play and stories.

But that’s everything that children learn whilst at nursery.  I hope this has given you an insight into what happens at nursery if you’re a parent or you’ve never worked in nursery. 

If you want to support your child or children in their development then check out the documents available on the website openanursery.co.uk.

There you can get tracking documents to help you to determine where your child or children are at in these different areas of learning, as well as other documents which go into more detail in these areas of learning and the different age brackets.  Check out the links in the description and comments to see what documents are available.

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God bless.