Shiphay Learning Academy
Our Curriculum
Strong roots. Growing knowledge. Endless possibility.
Our curriculum is ambitious, carefully sequenced and inclusive. It grows through relationships, play, conversation, movement, stories, exploration, creativity and first-hand experience.
Children's interests can be powerful starting points. Our adults add vocabulary, ideas, knowledge, experience and challenge so learning can deepen and grow.
Children bring the curiosity. We help their learning grow.
FOUNDATIONS
- Built on the EYFS.
- Informed by Development Matters.
- Planned through the United Curriculum.
- Responsive to the voices, ideas and experiences of our children.
- Brought to life through The Orchard Way.
HOW CHILDREN LEARN
- Playing and Exploring
- Active Learning
- Creating and Thinking Critically
THE PRIME AREAS
For our youngest children, these prime areas provide the foundations from which
wider learning grows.
Communication and Language
Every child has a voice - and every voice matters.
Language is woven through every day as adults talk with children, introduce new vocabulary and share stories, songs and rhymes.
Personal, Social & Emotional Development
Learning begins with belonging.
We help children understand themselves and others, build relationships and develop empathy, confidence and resilience.
Physical Development
Movement is a powerful part of early learning and development.
Movement is part of learning.
The specific areas are interconnected
Young children's learning is beautifully connected.
Children make connections across experiences rather than experiencing
learning in separate boxes.
Literacy
Words, stories and communication are worth loving.
Before children become readers, we want them to discover why words and stories are worth loving.
Stories are part of every day. We read aloud, return to familiar favourites and talk together about what we hear, helping children build vocabulary, understanding and a love of books.
Mathematics
Mathematics is everywhere at The Orchard Nursery.
We want children to notice patterns, make connections and see mathematics as something to explore, think about and enjoy.
Understanding the World
The world is full of wonder - and children want to understand it.
We begin with children's existing world and gradually help that world become bigger.
Expressive Arts and Design
Children have many ways to think, imagine and express an idea.
Children explore, combine and transform what they encounter, taking ideas in directions uniquely their own. Adults may anticipate possibilities, but they do not prescribe the outcome. Creativity grows through exploration, experimentation and freedom to make an idea your own.
Progression
Strong roots give new learning somewhere to grow.
Learning takes root, grows and branches into new possibilities.
The United Curriculum provides the carefully sequenced framework.
Our knowledge of each child helps new learning take root.
The Orchard Way helps it grow.
These approaches strengthen particular parts of our curriculum; they do not define it.
Assessment
To teach children well, we need to understand them well.
An ambitious curriculum for every child
An ambitious curriculum belongs to every child.
We see the potential in every child and nurture that potential through belonging, encouragement, challenge and opportunity.
