The Meadows Nursery School and it’s core educational practices and teaching models have evolved over many years of practice. Many of our core practices reflect both the inspiring Reggio Emilia and Montessori philosophies and as such we believe:
- a child’s environment and their experiences should not inhibit development, but nurture, shape and promote positive development, offering a favourable learning environment.
- every child is unique and should develop at their own pace towards common targets, where they learn and develop innately.
- children are supported in their journey, where we strive to support them in becoming capable, resilient, confident and self-assured.
- we support children to be motivated, independent learners.
- our child to have 4 teachers: their ‘teachers, parents, environment’ and ‘themselves;’ and that they develop best when these work together in a favourable environment.
- children have a voice in their learning.
- the need to offer creative experiences, where they have many opportunities to explore, use creative skills and develop their ‘thinking mind.’
- the respect for each other and our environment.
- the need for positive relationships to support our ability to work together, so we are gentle, kind and caring.
- a rich and varied learning experience to strengthen and develop brain development.
- our 5-a-day approach, using Mathematics and Language at the heart of its principle, enhances our children’s learning.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS):
The Early Years teaching and learning in the UK is planned around the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage). This is the mandatory statutory framework in the UK providing standards for the learning, development and care of children up to five years old. The Meadows approach uses this as a guidance to ensure that the children are given the best possible start to life, through a structured, consistent and quality curriculum.
The overarching themes of the EYFS that the Meadows embeds as part of their teaching are:
• Every child is central to learning and is unique, making children resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
• The curriculum embeds the importance of positive relationships between the children and the nursery teachers, supporting them to be strong and independent.
• The need for parental involvement and the importance of how parents are co-teachers and the community is part of the nursery provision.
• The importance of planning for creative environments where children learn and develop successfully, where nursery teachers respond to children’s individual needs.
• The importance of reflective nursery teachers, who understand that children are individuals and that they learn in different ways.
• To provide playful, challenging, creative opportunities across all 7 areas of the EYFS, which are unique to the children and their learning and developmental needs.
• The children should learn through both child-initiated and adult-led activities to support them in their development across the 3 prime areas of learning and the 4 specific areas of learning.
What is the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)?
It has been designed with the 7 areas of learning as its basis, with the concept of the 3 prime areas acting as the building blocks for early learning, giving the child, the essential skills and fundamental concepts needed for the 4 specific areas, which act as the high ordered learning.
What are the ‘Prime Areas?’
Communication and language – the nursery teacher works to develop and embed language through a rich learning environment, where visuals stimulate the child’s desire to learn more. They positively model the listening and speaking skills needed. The use of ‘key’ approaches and a progressive programme of study fosters an eagerness for the children to develop their phonological understanding and ability to converse.
Physical development – the Meadows approach understands the importance of the outside environment and looks at this being fundamental where children can be active to develop not only their physical skills, but their desire to explore, discover and think critically about problems in a ‘safe risk’ environment.
At the Meadows we are lucky to have the addition of a forest school, where the children have a fantastic opportunity to embed outdoor learning.
Personal, social and emotional development – the Meadows develops the importance of a child understanding they are important and have a voice, where they can express their needs, desires or opinions. The curriculum looks to develop a child’s positive sense of themselves, where it supports the building of positive relationships. The care of the environment, socially acceptable behaviour and the development of a strong individual child are fostered as part of the curriculum.
What are the ‘Specific Areas?’
Literacy – a Literacy and Language program looks to encourage children to link sounds and letters and to begin to write using a tripod grip. The use of: Vygotsky finger gym and play dough gym, write dance and Letters and Sounds form a basis for literacy development and the development of the child’s hand, ready to write. The use of age appropriate ‘core’ books that foster different concepts ignite the interest of Meadows children.
Mathematics – the curriculum provides opportunities to develop mathematical language and improve counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures in creative play and everyday life.
Understanding the world – the curriculum guides children to make sense of their physical world and their community, providing opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment. This covers the areas: history, science, geography and nature, through real and teacher-made experiences and as part of a multi-sensory approach. Technology is an ever-growing part of our world, however the practical skills offered from each piece: camera, torch, remote control, are considered more important and not prolonged time in front of a computer, where real-experiences are minimised. We foster ICT, but through creative methods of teaching and with the use of technological toys that ignite children’s thinking.
Expressive arts and design – we look to enable children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, discovering texture, colour, manipulation, shape, combining, form and use. Music, role-play, puppets, dancing and instruments form part of this area, which provide opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas, feelings and imagination. What we refer to as ‘expressions.’
Characteristics of Effective Learning:
The Meadows curriculum uses the Characteristics of Effective Learnings three areas, which are entwining through all learning experiences. These are key in ensuring the children are ‘ready to learn’ meeting the challenges of learning. With these embeded we believe they are strong, prepared and engaged learners, who can extend their own learning through their own enquires in their learning.
What are the three areas?
Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;
The curriculum looks to provide an environment full of resources that encourage children to develop their curiosity. Open-learning experiences, creative set-ups and provocations will enthuse children to discover new things and this coupled with the nursery teacher’s ability to ‘tap into’ children’s learning will carefully extend and challenge children’s learning.
In our curriculum ‘provocations’ are carefully prepared areas that offer opportunities for children to enquire about new, interesting toys/resources, offering a new dimension to their knowledge.
Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements. At the heart of the curriculum is the child and preparing them to be an enthusiastic learner, ready for school experiences. With this in mind, ‘the child who confidently discovers, seeks and tries new experiences, persevering at activities/challenges in order to find a solution or meet an interest’ is an active learner. Nursery teachers work to provide experiences that encourage these qualities and as such use ‘open-leaning’ experiences. Our nursery teachers are carefully trained to understand how the set-up, invitation to learn and opportunities to extend and challenge move the children to a higher level of learning.
Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
Our children are provided with rich opportunities to develop their own learning, through the opportunities to plan, do and review activities. Nursery teachers are trained to understand the importance of questions and how these are used to promote greater depth of thinking and hence the use of children’s own ideas, thinking and strategies to solve problems.
The Characteristics of Effective Learning and the prime and specific areas of learning are all interconnected. They underpin everything that Meadows nursery teachers plan for and offer in the environment. The characteristics describe how a child learns and when a child possess them, we believe they are in the best place to learn.
Our Children:
“…each child is viewed as infinitely capable, creative and intelligent. The job of the teacher is to support these qualities and to challenge children in appropriate ways..”
Louise Boyd Cadwell
Every child is to be seen as: ‘capable, resilient, confident and self-assured,’ where they should be encouraged to confidently talk about ideas, express opinions and offer questions to allow the extension of their ‘thinking’ and ‘curiosity’ for learning. This is seen through the independent choices they make and how they play cooperatively alongside others.
The Meadows child’s voice should be carefully listened to and their ideas used to provide open-learning experiences that motivate the child to extend their learning through scaffolding their knowledge.
We shouldn’t see children as empty vessels that we need to educate, but through nurturing the child and providing experiences, the curriculum looks to enhance the qualities they already possess.
Provided is a link to a booklet that explains the EYFS:
If you would like a printed copy please do ask and we will be more than happy to provide one for you.
Meadows Nursery School 