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.
Our Nursery curriculum will be heavily led by the three prime areas (PSED, CL & PD). They have 8 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 11 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.
You can view the curriculum overviews for EYFS here, and you can download an example 'Theme Overview' for the Nursery theme 'All About Me' below. There is also additional information about the Early Years in the individual subject drop-downs.
The EYFS framework is structured very differently to the National Curriculum, as it is organised across seven areas of learning rather than subject areas. The three prime areas are woven into all themes, with many of the strands being covered through different opportunities through the provision. The document below, EYFS to NC links, is to help subject leaders to understand how the skills taught across EYFS feed into National Curriculum subjects.