Young children will have had a wide range of different experiences and will have a wide range of skills and interests when they join school. They need a well planned and resourced curriculum to provide opportunities for them all to succeed.
Effective practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage is built on four guiding themes. They provide a context for the requirements and describe how practitioners should support the development, learning and care of young children. The themes are each broken down into four commitments describing how the principles can be put into practice.
A Unique Child recognises that every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured. The commitments are focused around development; inclusion; safety; and health and well-being.
Positive Relationships describes how children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person. The commitments are focused around respect; partnership with parents; supporting learning; and the role of the key person.
Enabling Environments explains that the environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning. The commitments are focused around observation, assessment and planning; support for every child; the learning environment; and the wider context – transitions, continuity, and multi-agency working.
Learning and Development recognises that children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates, and that all areas of learning and development are equally important and inter-connected.
At Mount Charles, we are committed to meeting the needs of each individual child. This includes ensuring that each child experiences the full curriculum, is assessed individually and that provision is made for his/her particular development and educational needs. We meet these needs by covering the curriculum through the children’s interests and our Cornerstones topics, which include - Do you want to be Friends? 'Why do squirrels hide their nuts?' and 'What happens when I fall asleep?' We also read Traditional Stories such as The Gingerbread Man, The Enormous Turnip, Three Billy Goat’s Gruff and The Little Red Hen as well as looking at different Festivals and Celebrations over the year – Harvest, Christmas, Chinese New Year, Birthdays and Weddings.