Curriculum

What does your child learn at school each day? Find information about our curriculum design here. If you want to learn more about our curriculum, please speak to a member of staff.

At Sir James Knott Nursery School, our unique curriculum celebrates the endless potential of young children, with the goal of nurturing self-motivated, life-long learners. At the core of our approach is the belief that children are innately talented and motivated investigators, capable of sophisticated inquiry across all seven areas of learning and the characteristics of effective teaching and learning.

Our aim is to cultivate the skills that are at the foundation of a life of happiness and success: cooperative and individual problem-solving, analytical thinking, emotional intelligence and empathy, cultural competence – as well as early literacy and math skills and real-world preparation for our young children.

Our emergent curriculum is play-based, but far more than "play." It is a series of expertly guided investigations that grow from the children's own interests, which immerse them in the process and joys of real discovery. Weekly project-based planning allows flexibility that is essential for basing teaching and learning around children’s interests and enquires at their own pace and stage of development.

Projects may last a few days, weeks or even a few months. At Sir James Knott Nursery School children have time to explore their interests, to pursue questions, create theories and extend their knowledge and understanding. Project work allows children to play around with ideas in a concrete way that matches their developmental and intellectual abilities. Children come together in groups to work on projects, building collaborative problem-solving skills as they share ideas and knowledge.

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think”

Margaret Mead

In order to ensure that all children achieve their potential we enhance the curriculum by providing children with the opportunity to:

· Feel secure and loved whilst learning in a home-from-home environment.

· Use open-ended resources to encourage imagination, creativity and investigation.

· Play and learn alongside supportive and nurturing staff who are dedicated to the development of our young children.

· Take part in a range of cultural experiences and visits into school.

· Attend ‘Forest School’ and ‘Beach School’ across the year showing an interest and awareness of our immediate and wider local environment.

· Complete Home Learning Challenges set via Tapestry to encourage parents and families to participate in fun ways to help their children develop skills and accomplish things together. 

· Access the calming and cosy Nursery Library regularly to encourage a love for books and provide a quiet, dedicated space to look at books alone or together.

· Take Nursery books home from our Lending Library regularly, to encourage families to love reading and haring books together. 

· Access a large and well-resourced Mud Kitchen area that allows for creativity, communication and acts as a base for cooking up a storm!

When children enter our Nursery School, our dedicated and highly-qualified staff will assess children using our baseline expectations.

After this, children will regularly be observed and assessed using a range of formative and summative assessment styles. 

At the end of each term, staff will use an assessment tracker that summarises if children are ‘on track’ or ‘not on track’. This will inform planning and any interventions that must begin to take place. 

Children receive one to one or small group interventions to address any barriers to learning that may prevent them from being on track and reaching their full potential. Our staff are dedicated to diminishing the gap between all pupils.