Our children experience the seven areas of learning through a balance of whole class/group teaching and play based learning. This is through the children’s interests, topics, themes, continuous provision activities, and phonics. Learning is carefully planned by the staff to support communication and language development; personal, social and emotional development; and physical development as well as literacy, mathematics, understanding of the world, and expressive arts and design.
Parental involvement is key to ensuring children to reach their full potential, and we are committed to enabling parents to support their children in their learning.
We support children to: develop skills in the characteristics of effective learning as they play; learn and explore; be active learners; and develop the skills to be critical thinkers. We believe that these characteristics equip children to be lifelong learners and develop the resilience needed as they navigate the world ahead of them.
Our nursery curriculum is designed to take account of: children’s prior learning experiences and starting points; areas of interest which evolve throughout the year; and a topic-based approach which supports children to gain new experiences and acquire new language.
Our experienced Early Years staff aim to create an environment which matches need and ability, whilst offering suitable opportinities to engage and challenge. All staff engage in meaningful continuous professional development which enables us to match the needs of staff with the needs of our children. We are then able to perform gap analysis in order to inform our planning and create quality provision.
We recognise that communication and language is vital in children’s development and their future prospects. We therefore provide a language rich environment with meaningful conversations where singing and stories are part of our everyday practice. In addition, we offer daily letters and sounds sessions.
Bank End primary school is passionate about the outdoors. As well as accessing our outdoor space, our nursery children enjoy enhanced outdoor experiences with weekly visits to our woods for ‘Muddy Mondays’. This happens all year so children can experience different temperatures and seasons. Additionally, we offer gardening, baking, and other new experiences.