Alphabet House Day Nursery Long Eaton & Chilwell

The aim of Alphabet House Chilwell is to provide quality care and learning in an atmosphere of happiness, warmth and nurturing. 

The following represents an outline of our intentions:

• To provide a warm, happy and loving environment for the child
• To teach the child a wide variety of learning skills
• To make learning stimulating and fun through play
• To develop social skills
• To inspire self esteem and confidence.

At Alphabet house our aim has been to create an enabling environment where children can be the masters of their own learning. It is our intent that through our continuous provision, supportive relationships and sustained shared thinking children become independent, resilient, enthusiastic learners, who rise to a challenge. We offer a play-based approach allowing children the freedom to make choices and be the directors of their own play and ideas following their own interests. Children explore different areas throughout their day at their leisure, incorporating the 7 areas of learning. Skilful educators are on hand communicating language, modelling, facilitating, guiding, recalling, explaining and encouraging children throughout their day offering these teaching elements in the moment. Children are given the opportunity to build on previous skills, experiences and learn new ones. We work closely with our families to gain a deep understanding of what is important for the children, their interests, experiences, needs and how we can support. Building these key relationships is an integral part to further support the foundations of a child’s learning and development.

Our EYFS curriculum aims to enable all children despite age, background and ability to:-

• Feel connection, love and build supportive relationships.
• Be confident, competent, creative learners who are curious about the world in which we live in.
• Feel secure, independent, full of character, and enjoy coming to nursery and learning new skills.
• Become skilful communicators who enjoy social aspects of play and learning.

Implementation

 Alphabet house uses the Early years Statutory framework (EYFS) as our base curriculum the overarching principles are :-

• Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
• Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
• Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching support from adults, who respond to their individual interests, needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents/carers.
• Importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Our curriculum provides a play based and experimental learning environment incorporating the 7 areas of learning & the characteristics of effective learning. Our educators are on hand to tune in to children’s play, support them through quality interactions, and offer teaching in the moment.

Our education team provides experiences to enrich any child’s time in nursery and supports them with skills they will need in later life. Children will benefit from a supportive nurturing team who puts child wellbeing at the forefront of their practise, while allowing the children to grow and engage in independent learning opportunities. Ultimately our curriculum is centred around the children in our setting, their interests and their needs.

The areas of learning incorporated in our environments and playful teaching: -

• Personal, Social & emotional
• Communication & language
• Physical Development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design

 We offer rich firsthand experiences such as forest schools and our allotment which provides endless opportunities to master skills and knowledge for their future. Trips in the community and visitors from a variety of backgrounds and occupations will be a part of a child’s journey fostering a respect for communities, valuing people and challenging stereotypes.

The curriculum and our educators nurture children’s emotional security using skills to enable co-regulation and validating feelings and understanding behaviour.  Educators nurture development of a child’s character, supporting natural risk taking in a safe and secure environment. Educators support children to be active develop physically including giving clear messages about healthy lifestyles eating, drinking, exercise, growing own foods and being kind to others.

We encourage all children to:-

• learn actively- where they try their best & persevere even when faced with a challenge.

• Play and explore - children investigate, explore, make mistakes, take risks, and are willing to have a go.

• Create & think critically- children develop their own ideas both independently and with others. Their views are valued.

Impact

 Allowing the children, the freedom to direct their own play enables them to become deeply engaged and involved. This has a direct impact on a child’s brain development, their own mental health and wellbeing. Children can revisit tasks and consolidate their learning in play embedding and enabling children to master skills before moving on to something new. Supporting and nurturing children in their play allows them to grow to be confident, competent lifelong learners and good citizens who have a growing sense of themselves others and their capabilities.

We record children’s journeys using tapestry celebrating achievements and monitoring development at key points such as the 2yr review and recording any concerns for all children when these arise. This ensure children who need support within a specific area receive support to reach their potential. We record teachable moments which allows us to see what learning is taking place and the impact our interactions have had. Our interactions with children are key to their learning therefore this is our focus not reams of writing or recording.

The impact of our curriculum can be measured by the way our children display happiness, excitement, joy and their behaviour within nursery. We endeavour to ensure children all leave us ready for their next steps along the way.