The Early Years at Willowbrook is based strongly around the needs of our community, whilst following the principles of the EYFS. Our curriculum is designed around a language rich environment and aims to develop the foundations for excellent communication skills. It is also based around the development of physical skills and encourages regular movement. Our curriculum intent is to provide the children with both a range of familiar topics, linked to their experiences, as well as unfamiliar topics, to spark their interest and exploration of the wider world. In doing this we provide a curriculum and environment where the children feel safe and secure when developing their knowledge and skills, yet are challenged and are exposed to new learning. The characteristics of effective teaching and learning underpin our core values that drive our Curriculum. These are enhanced by our Willowbrook School values
The curriculum in Nursery and Reception at Willowbrook School is based upon a combination of themes that we believe all children should have exposure to during their time with us, combining rich knowledge with all seven areas of learning in the EYFS framework. We aim to develop curiosity, awe and wonder and provide opportunities and experiences for the children that stem from their interests and recent experiences.
Our Nursery curriculum will be heavily led by the three prime areas (PSED, CL & PD). They have core themes that will always be covered throughout the year, with awareness that the children attend on a variety of days of the week and also join at different times during the academic year. The Nursery curriculum is also designed to prepare the children for starting their journey into Reception.
The Reception curriculum will be based upon core themes, with the knowledge that not all of our children will have attended our nursery provision. The themes are mapped out across the year, although the length of each theme will be flexible and dependent on the cohort, as the planning will be led by the children and their interests. These themes include the basic entitlement that children will receive during their EYFS journey at Willowbrook School. Each theme is underpinned by a combination of purposeful play, a variety of quality texts and will always focus on objectives from the three prime areas. The Curriculum has also been developed to nurture the whole child, providing unique learning experiences that will enable them to flourish and develop as every child is entitled to.
The EYFS and KS1/2 curriculum has been designed to maximize retention in children’s long term memory, asking children to remember and recall information taught and building upon children’s understanding over time. Building in regular retrieval practice will strengthen memory, and this begins in Reception, drawing back on prior learning when starting new themes or in continuous provision. This also includes the revisiting of key vocabulary, that children will be exposed to in the early years, then revised later on in the child’s learning journey so that they fully understand the vocabulary and can use and apply it.